Never waste a good crisis. By learning from crises and investing boldly during them, we build future capabilities and the path to success. This is how we have been thinking and operating in our family company TT Gaskets for three generations.
In the midst of the corona pandemic, the faith of many and my own optimism have been tested many times. However, the extensive strategy work carried out in our company two years ago has acted as a compass and encouraged us to continue on the path of development and investment.
In fact, now has been a better time than usual for our own brilliant team to think about the future needs of our customers and, on the other hand, what kind of workplace we want to be in the future. We strive to ensure that we create a next generation gasket factory, innovate intelligent gasket solutions and act as a designer of the future of our industry.
In our extensive investment program, our resources include our skilled and highly motivated work team as well as our long-term construction, equipment supply and consulting partners. No-one is capable of far-reaching reforms alone, but with a good team, even the impossible becomes possible. Investments in our smart lab in particular will enable something that customers don’t yet know they need…!
The biggest challenges have been caused by corona restrictions, the timely arrival of new machines and equipment, their start-up and the training of the personnel in the new manufacturing processes. In retrospect, the delays were fortunately quite moderate.
One of the largest investments already made is a 3,000 m2 factory extension. The facilities ensure efficient manufacturing and a good framework for product development and quality assurance. They give us room for growth and improve job satisfaction and safety. We have been able to advance to the next phase of the lean program and reinforce it with day-to-day management. The development of operations is supported by the Academy of Modern Supervision, from which the first production supervisors will be graduated in June 2021.
We have increased our cutting capacity and further improved our ability to meet fast 24-hour needs by strengthening our FastTrack service. We have automated processes and expanded our product range with spiral gaskets. In addition, a solar power plant is currently being built on the roof of the TT Gaskets plant. Who would have thought that the world’s first gaskets manufactured by solar power would be made in Tampere, Finland?
As you innovate and develop, you learn new things about yourself, others and the company as a whole. At the same time, the company’s strategy is being put to practice and a culture that binds everyone together is being strengthened. Disagreements and challenging situations cannot, of course, be avoided, but they increase and bring perspective to reflection. As long as the common direction is clear, these will also be clarified and we will come out even stronger.
Innovating new is hard work. However, it cannot be forced, but time must be allowed for the perception of the dependencies and influences of separate things and the wholes. Discussions and sparring moments withing the company between your own team and the owners, with clients, and with various mentors and consultants are important to be able to build a snapshot of the present and a goal picture of the future.
Finding good and reliable partners around you can help you succeed in your investment. Careful preparation and planning are important to avoid the worst pitfalls. New processes for construction, machine and system purchases and their procurement, inspection and monitoring processes are very important in order to get what has been purchased.
We monitor the profitability of investments through various efficiency indicators of the project. In this way, we are able to analyze what has happened and the impact of development investments. In addition, we can consider in more detail how and in what way we can best influence the achievement of goals.
Our own courage to innovate and develop reflects the design projects of our customers in 40 countries, in which we are allowed to be involved. Thank you all for your good cooperation! I hope that our ongoing development program will be reflected in the expansion of our offering to our customers, increased flexibility and the ability to better serve as a design and innovation partner.
In the future, we will communicate more often about innovations related to gaskets and our own development projects. Stay tuned and follow us on LinkedIn and our website. We hope you also enjoy reading the new TT Gaskets’ newsletter!
Aleksi Arpiainen is the CEO of TT Gaskets in the third generation. According to him, the success of a family business is fueled by continuous development and innovation. In the blog, Aleksi sheds light on his thoughts on where the world of gaskets is going.