Åge Jenssveen Production manager Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik September 2013

I started in May 1976, almost forty years ago. I began with carding and spinning, and after that I have taken on more and more responsibility. When I was head of the spinning department Andreas Svarstad, who was manager at the time, wanted me to take more education. He suggested that I should study to become an engineer, so I did. I had leave for three years and I studied mechanical engineering, at first on production and then more specifically on textiles and clothing. Seventy per cent was covered by the mill and I had to contribute thirty per cent myself, to risk something. When I returned here I was head of a department for several years, and since 2007 I have been the production manager.

I am responsible for planning the structure for following up orders from customers, for staff in all departments and for all the machines, including the operation and maintenance of production equipment. In addition, I support the heads of the departments, helping them to find the best solutions for them to get the job done. And then I am responsible for ordering all the raw materials we use. That takes a lot of my time.

It's part of my job to be aware of development and to foresee the need for knowledge, to make sure we always have the skills we need. Many heads of departments have their experience from moving up in the system through time, after having started in production. But we also have some with key expertise. As an example, in the weaving department we have a trained weaving technician from Germany. He has built on his experience by working here and is today a textile mechanic. GU has to educate people. It is crucial.

It is a very vulnerable situation, because here in Norway there are no schools educating people for jobs in the textile industry. Then you have to look to Germany or England. This becomes obvious when we look for weaving technicians. It is impossible to find people, so we must take good care of those we have. Therefore it is important to transfer knowledge to the young people coming in. It is a continuous process, and new staff must learn from a master in the department. For this to happen you need to have a desire to learn. The people we train must really want it. Otherwise it won't work. We also set aside both time and funding to send candidates on courses and training, often organized by dye or machine suppliers. There is no one in Norway who takes an education in textile manufacturing without having something to come back to. The market in Norway is very small.

Today the machines we use are, to a large extent, automatic. Each machine is like a small computer, which makes troubleshooting difficult. But on the other hand we have a more efficient operation now. It is not so time consuming. Thirty years back we employed about two hundred people. Now we are down to seventy people, so the ability to keep up, technology-wise, allows us to survive. The owners of the factory have never taken out the profit gains. They have brought it back to the company as new investments. Imagine if we still used old looms or dyeing equipment, it would have been a heavy load to carry for the business to renew all this machinery at the same time. In this regard the management has been visionary, and has invested in new technology every year.

The uniqueness of GU is that we are what we call one hundred per cent vertically integrated, in that we have all the processes here on site. We're almost three factories in one. Many companies are specialized, but we do everything here and have complete control of the whole process. This creates flexibility. And it is certainly a strength, when designers are working with architects who want a special item, that we are able to make it here. Then we are not dependent on someone else. The management has become more and more aware of this situation in recent years. We see that it is a strength that we are soon to be the only mill in the world who has the whole production line in one building.