IKEA Industry — Orla. From business plan to production and B2B sales
Development and launch of the Value Added operation for processing ultra-thin HDF panels as part of IKEA’s large industrial investment in Orla, Poland.
Project scope
Mariusz Grzybowski was responsible for Value Added operations: cutting and processing HDF panels to size and producing components for furniture back panels. The Value Added unit formed part of the larger IKEA Industry investment in Orla.
From planning to operations
Responsibilities spanned business planning, production and process design, selection and procurement of machinery, staffing and training, production start-up and stabilisation, and B2B sales and customer-service organisation within the IKEA supply chain.
Technology and innovation
- Co-developing and commissioning a specialised ANTHON cutting line for high-throughput processing of ultra-thin HDF panels
- Adapting the process to material properties and quality requirements for furniture components
- Launching cut-to-size production and operations for furniture-back-panel components
- Building the Value Added function from the ground up, including technology, machinery, people and customer-facing processes
Investment scale
The wider IKEA Orla investment exceeded EUR 130 million and was recognised as Poland’s largest foreign investment in 2010. Mariusz Grzybowski’s direct area of responsibility was the approximately EUR 30 million Value Added operation — not the entire project budget.