Jennie Kärnqvist, seaming and hooking department
Truckdriver Jennie’s many-axled journey to Svensson: “ When I come here I know I’m going to have a laugh”
With a CE driving license, there’s no weight-limit on the vehicles Jennie Kärnqvist can drive.
She likes driving and enjoyed her time on the road.
But what she loves about her role in the seaming and hooking department at Svensson is the variety, the 5S improvement work, and the fun.
"For me, my colleagues and the atmosphere is more important that what I do at work," she says. "You don't want to go to a workplace with bad colleagues."
Jennie says she was pretty happy as a lorry driver, even though she was on her own for most of the day.
But in her work at Svensson she feels seen and heard: “I feel that I have responsibility and I’m listened to.”
Jennie started at Ludvig Svensson in 2018 and her work covers seaming, confectioning and hooking.
When rolls of textile come in from quality control, it’s Jennie’s job to turn that into a product ready for delivery. It can mean cutting widths, or more often sowing lengths of material together. Then there is precisely mounting the hooks that will enable climate curtains to effortlessly slide open and closed many times a day for an eight-year product life in a greenhouse.
“I love the seaming work. It’s always so different,” she says. “You sow, measure, cut, draw, calculate.
“I like that it’s a challenge each time, because then I feel that I’ve done something good,” she adds.
Jennie works a slightly later shift than the rest of the team. She has recently become a mum and with a husband who works away, she has to make the daycare delivery on her own in the morning.
"I start at 0700, an hour after the others – there was no fuss about that at all – and that way I can fix the preschool in the morning and finish an hour after the others in the afternoon," she explains.
In her work, she likes that there are always new things popping up, and that includes the workplace effectiveness initiatives. Jennie is one of many people in Swedish industry who needs to know her Seiri, from her Seiton, her Seiso from her Seitketsu and why Shitsuke matters.
The Japanese terms are part of the department’s work with effectiveness, though between them they say simply 5S.
“The 5 Ss are Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize and Sustain,” she explains. “I always have the effectiveness work in the back of my mind.”
Jennie says a simple example of the team’s 5S work is that it should always be crystal clear where things are: “That’s a big improvement for any workplace, right there,” she says, pointing to labelled tools and storage places for materials and equipment.
Jennie’s been involved in many of their improvements, something that couldn’t work without colleagues who listen.
“When I see something that needs improving, I go straight to Anders [Jöbelid, the department manager],” she explains.
“He’s always interested. I’ve actually never been in such an open workplace,” she says.