Anna Fredriksson
Komatsu Forest has appointed Anna Fredriksson as its plant manager in Umeå. Ms Fredriksson is also the first woman ever to become a plant manager within the global Komatsu Group. Source: Timberbiz
“It has been my driving force to work with what I think is fun, which is technology, without thinking so much about the expectations on me from the outside world,” she said.
“The fact that the management chose me for this assignment even though I was about to go on parental leave, further reinforced my perception of the company’s good values regarding equality.”
Ms Fredriksson has a mechanical engineering degree and joined Komatsu Forest in 2011 when she did her master thesis while working in production.
She then joined the quality department, where she has worked with quality investigations and product quality, and then became head of the quality department in 2017. At the same time, she took a place in the factory’s management team where she further strengthened her insights regarding the entire production process.
“With Anna’s commitment, competence in various business issues, collaborative skills and her broad experience of working with quality issues, which is our most important focus area, it was a natural step to the new role as plant manager,” Martin Ärlestig, former plant manager, now global production manager.
Ms Fredriksson took up the post at a very special time. Despite the current state of the Corona pandemic, the company has been able to keep up a relatively normal business after all.
In addition, the major challenge at the moment is to maintain and improve current production while looking ahead and preparing for the move to a new factory and the changes that will entail with a new, more modern production.
“With the new factory, we will take a huge step forward, that will allow us to develop the working environment, the quality and the work processes, which gives us a unique opportunity to improve the entire production,” Ms Fredriksson said.
