New Light Metals organization in the melting pot
(July 2, 2001) "We would like to find an organizational structure that is best suited to handling the challenges that will face us in the future," says Jon-Harald Nilsen, executive vice president of the Light Metals business area of Norsk Hydro.
 Jon-Harald Nilsen |
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Hydro's Light Metals area has 17,000 employees and operating revenues totalling NOK 51 billion. The area has witnessed strong growth during the past few years through acquisitions and improved operations within the individual divisions - Hydro Aluminium Metal Products, Hydro Aluminium Extrusion, Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products and Hydro Automotive Structures, in addition to Hydro Magnesium.
Executive vice president Jon-Harald Nilsen announced at the beginning of June that a project would be set up to develop a new Light Metals organization, which will better utilize the total resources of the five divisions. This project will be led by Jan Fredrik Meling, who is responsible on a day-to-day basis for the Building Systems business area in Hydro Aluminium Extrusion. The project group will present change proposals during the course of September, with the aim of establishing the new Light Metals organization before the end of the year.
A significant restructuring of the aluminium industry has also taken place during the past few years. Customer groups have become larger and in many instances, more global. The competitive situation has also changed, competitors being fewer but larger.
"Our present size and the changed circumstances of our customers and competitors mean that we face different challenges compared with just a few years ago. Based of these facts, we must review the business models, processes and organizational structure we have today to see if they are adequate for handling the challenges we will be facing in the future. Moreover, we must review how we are to approach large market segments like the automotive industry, as well as geographical areas such as the USA," Nilsen says.
"We have, in many ways, a very complex organization that has had a fixed structure for several years now, where the divisions have more or less operated on an individual basis. Our long value chain - from bauxite to finished products for the automotive industry - provides us with a challenge, organizationally," he says.
 Jan Fredrik Meling |
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"Our new organization will reflect the competence we possess. I expect that we will find a solution where we will manage to utilize, to a much greater extent, the diverse competence and experience we have in the organization," says Jan Fredrik Meling. He also emphasizes the importance of good coordination across divisional and national borders and of being able to present a uniform front to the outside world. The decisive factor is how the new organization shall function from the customer's point of view, as he points out.
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