Hygiene and product quality are something Valio will not compromise on. The company also strives to develop more environmentally friendly and safe ways to produce dairy products in close cooperation with its partners.
Today, Valio’s Seinäjoki factory purchases all of its detergents from Kiilto. This has enabled Kiilto to take significant responsibility for the factory’s hygiene, which is the be all and end all for Valio.
The companies also share the goal of optimising detergent consumption, reducing water consumption and minimising the environmental load.
“The expectations are high but Kiilto has taken a very impressive approach to this cooperation. We have drawn up precise plans and agreed on procedures and schedules which, when followed, will help us achieve our environmental targets,” says Kari Harsia, Environmental Officer of Valio’s Seinäjoki factory.
Safer transports through risk assessment
Detergents are increasingly transported to Seinäjoki in tanker lorries. There are good reasons to use tankers for the transports.
Loading detergents into tankers instead of canisters reduces packaging waste. It also facilitates transporting large volumes per transport. One tanker lorry can transport up to three different liquids to several different factories.
However, mixed loads involve certain risks.
“It is vital that substances are not unloaded into the wrong containers. Mixing chemicals can lead to unexpected reactions,” says Harsia.
For this reason, Valio wanted to conduct a risk assessment of Kiilto’s transports in October and November 2014. A team of three from the factory in Seinäjoki came to Kiilto’s factory in Turku to see the production and supervise the loading of a tanker lorry. The group followed the tanker lorry to Seinäjoki, where it was unloaded.
Following the assessment, label information was revised and added onto, for example, the mixture feeding pipes to minimise the risk of substance mix-ups.
“I am very satisfied with the assessment. The improvements will certainly also benefit other customers. We are happy to share our point of view about supplier processes because an outsider will see things differently. That is what makes the assessment worthwhile,” Harsia states. “Audits are important to us for credibility and reliability reasons. We are responsible to our own customers around the world.”