Great discussions and valuable content at TT Gaskets’ Partner & Hockey Day

May 25, 2023

TT Gaskets’ Partner & Hockey Day brought our customers to Tampere to network and learn about our latest innovations. Held at our factory for the second time, the event received praise for its great atmosphere and interesting and useful content.

“TT Gaskets is a highly flexible operator despite being a large company. We have utilized their services and products in various ways and have always received help whenever we needed it,” praised Lasse Inget, a participating project planner from Borealis.

For example, in 2017, Borealis benefitted from our mobile gasket factory at their Porvoo location. In late 2023, the company plans to utilize the TTG Smart Container, a customizable storage container service, during a major shutdown.

“We have sent a model gasket from Porvoo to Tampere by car in urgent situations. TT Gaskets has manufactured a new gasket while the car was waiting, and we have immediately received the product we needed,” Inget explained.

Borealis is one of the world’s leading suppliers of advanced and sustainable polyolefin solutions and a pioneer in polyolefin recycling in Europe. The company has been collaborating with TT Gaskets for several years now.

The most modern Nordic gasket factory attracted visitors

Our Partner & Hockey Day was now organized for the second time. In the morning seminar session, our experts shared updates from TT Gaskets and discussed the latest news and advancements in the gasket industry. The event also provided participants with the opportunity to visit our factory and step inside the TTG Smart Container. The sunny day’s culmination was again a trip to watch an ice hockey World Championship game at Nokia Arena.

Lasse Inget mentioned that the atmosphere during the partner day was excellent. As he had not previously seen the TT Gaskets factory, he eagerly took the opportunity to visit.

“I was not familiar with TT Gaskets’ history in detail, so it was interesting to learn more about it. The company’s plans for the future were also new information to me,” he said.

Inget highlighted the factory’s own solar power plants and the considerable efforts TT Gaskets has made in terms of sustainability as memorable examples.

Impressive presentations by knowledgeable speakers

Ari Määttä from Etra, a specialized technical trade store, was equally satisfied with the day’s content and networking opportunities.

“The presentations were well-prepared and free from consultant jargon. They had substance, and I learned something new from them. My colleague and I found it very worthwhile to attend,” he commented.

Etra, like TT Gaskets, is a family-owned business. Etra is already 90 years old, and TT Gaskets will celebrate its 80th anniversary in the fall.

“We are a Key Flag certified company ourselves and always prefer to buy domestic whenever possible. TT Gaskets is a significant partner for us, and we have been working together for a long time,” Määttä said.

He added that close cooperation benefits both parties. With over 40 locations throughout Finland, Etra can offer TT Gaskets an extensive network of contacts. For Etra, TT Gaskets’ high-quality products, technical support, and expertise are important.

Actively shaping the future together

“The best part of the customer day was the opportunity to interact with several different customers simultaneously. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. For us, the day was a great opportunity for active listening,” said Aleksi Arpiainen, CEO of TT Gaskets.

“Our customers’ needs are constantly evolving, and it is important for us to have a continuous understanding of this development. This way, we know how we must progress to remain trustworthy as a partner. Ideas were exchanged actively during the day, and we had the pleasure of envisioning the future together,” Arpiainen concluded.

A great big thank you to everyone who participated in the Partner & Hockey Day event!

Markku Jormanainen joins our sales team – ”TT Gaskets’ product development is on a level of its own”

March 20, 2023

The TT Gaskets sales team received a welcome addition when industrial trade veteran Markku Jormanainen started in the role of Key Account Manager in February. Markku has been working with the sales of compressed air and welding products as well as gaskets for over 30 years.

“I have been working in industrial sales since 1993, and I consider TT Gaskets a kind of culmination for my career. This is an awesome company; I think our product development capabilities and green thinking are on a level of their own.”

Markku will be focusing on our wholesale operations and serving process industry customers in the Finnish market. The familial culture at TT Gaskets made an impression on him already on his first workday.

”There’s a relaxed atmosphere at TT Gaskets. Everybody has made me feel extremely welcome, and orientation has been exceptionally thorough. The close-knit team really feels like a family.”

Hailing from the city of Joensuu, Markku divides his free time between different nature and sport hobbies.

”I’ve got so many hobbies that I don’t even have time for all of them. Spending time in nature is my greatest passion,” Markku sums up.

Close customer relationships are built on TT Gaskets’ expertise and reliability – increasingly also in Germany

March 9, 2023

We listen carefully to customer feedback, and this has been the driving force for TT Gaskets to introduce a more substantial presence in the German-speaking market. We have already generated great results with our customers in Central Europe and are excited to see what we can achieve through even closer collaboration.

The word gasket originates from seafaring and the French word garcette meaning the rope used to hold stowed sails in place. These days, the German word dichtung has become equally established. Why? Because Germany has been a key country in gasket development for decades and is the home of several known material manufacturers and solution providers.

In recent years, Germany has been the origin of many new machines and equipment that utilize a wealth of different energy sources and strive to maximize both efficiency and a sustainable life cycle. Still, something has still been missing in Germany. What could it be?

Well, a flexible expert partner for innovating new gasket solutions – a partner like TT Gaskets. Germany has long been a key export country for our gasket solutions and design services. Right now, Germany is one of our fastest growing markets, and our expertise and services are in increasing demand over there.

For our customers, our gasket solutions have helped reduce warranty costs, improve gasket availability, and increase their level of quality. Our new customers have been positively surprised by how quickly we have been able to produce results through collaboration in prototyping and product development. Development projects that previously took months have been reduced to mere weeks, and the first prototypes have been produced at the same time as production plans. Time is money and there is usually none to waste.

David provides customer service in the German-speaking market

We have received an increasing number of requests for a stronger presence in German-speaking Europe. Thus, we decided to make Germany one of our strategic focus areas when updating our strategy in the fall of 2022.

To respond to our customers’ wishes, we hired David Lindgren, a true professional in industrial procurement and strategic partnerships, to be our gasket contact in Munich. David has a long and varied experience in working with respected German industrial companies, and he will deepen our customer understanding even further – David is constantly introducing our customers’ opinions in both operative and strategic discussions.

Don’t hesitate to contact David with any of your sealing needs, he’ll help you make your gasket solutions truly future proof.

TT Gaskets delivers with up to 99 percent reliability

Premium gasket solutions are not worth much if they cannot be delivered with quality and timeliness. I’m glad to share with you that in the first two months of 2023 our delivery reliability for our key customers was 98 to 99 percent, and 94 percent for all our approximately 1,000 customers.

A great big thank you to our customers for your trust, our suppliers for excellent collaboration, and our staff for their inexhaustible will to improve and provide premium service for our customers!

For more gasket-related news and innovations, be sure to visit our website and LinkedIn profile. I wish you all a great spring and good luck with any coming projects!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Aleksi

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.

Behind the Gaskets | Expert Interview: Work planning is a real-life game of Tetris

February 9, 2023

A keen visual eye, interaction skills and detective work – these all come in handy in the work of our water cutting planners.

Team lead Hanna Lehtonen and work planner Jenny Virta oversee work planning at the TT Gaskets water cutting department.

Hanna’s career at TT Gaskets spans almost two decades. With a vocational qualification in business, Hanna has worked her entire tenure with the company in water cutting ­– and has no plans for switching departments. She has advanced from working in after treatment to operating water cutting machinery, work planning and finally to her current position as team leader.

”I’ve had such a great time that I haven’t really considered anything else,” Hanna says with a laugh.

Precision mechanic Jenny has a background in different factory positions. She has now been with TT Gaskets for four years, three of which in the water cutting team – she started out in rubber metal gasket production and silk screen printing. Before becoming a work planner, she also operated water cutting machinery to learn about the practices and limitations she must consider in her current work.

Looking at the bigger picture

The work planners’ days differ depending on their shift – no workday is the same.

“We work as a pair alternating between day and night shifts. The day shift includes reporting, emails, collaborating with production and sales, running errands and occasional detective work when we need to find out where our shipments are located,” Jenny lists.

The night shift is calmer compared to the day shift, giving time for the planners’ most important task: planning out the blanking programs for the cutting machinery. Both planners describe this work as a real-life game of Tetris.

”Scrap-free blanking requires a keen visual eye to maximize material efficiency. There are a lot of pieces to cut, and they can vary in shape and size wildly. This requires the ability to look at the bigger picture, which of course only comes through experience,” Hanna says.

Hanna’s workdays also include team lead and foreperson duties.

“It’s a matter of pride for me to assume as much responsibility as I can and deliver on my promises. My team includes Jenny, the water cutting staff as well as the department’s warehouse workers, so there is a lot of daily interaction. We have established great mutual trust and I love hearing that my team members are enjoying their work,” Hanna says.

Flexibility in workdays and realizing your dreams

Jenny and Hanna are both extremely satisfied with their current positions.

“I currently have no aspirations for other positions. So far, the company has given me great opportunities for professional development. I feel that the possibilities are there if I should want to advance my career,” Jenny says.

“My career has progressed through the water cutting department. I never would have guessed that I’d be in my current position back when I started. I’m sure I could advance even further within the company, but right now I’m extremely happy with my job,” Hanna fills in.

A great atmosphere, excellent colleagues and mutual trust are highlighted by both work planners when asked about their employer.

”TT Gaskets is an encouraging and flexible family company that trusts their employees. Turnover tends to be very low, and the business is financially stable. As an employee, I feel that this creates a feeling of safety,” Hanna says.

The employer’s flexibility and willingness to accommodate for personal lives is also illustrated in the planners’ free time activities – both are avid world travelers. Hanna visits national parks and has recently completed her tour of all Unesco’s world heritage sites. Jenny is a keen hiker and has just returned from the Himalaya where she trekked to the Mount Everest base camp.

“Being able to take my summer holidays in the early winter displays great flexibility from my employer. I really appreciate that TT Gaskets helped me make this dream a reality,” Jenny says.

TT Gaskets invests in the German-speaking market – David Lindgren joins our sales team

January 25, 2023

We are happy to introduce David Lindgren, the latest addition to the TT Gaskets family! As Key Account Manager, David will be taking our products and services to the German-speaking market in Central Europe.

After living in Switzerland for the last five years, David is now located in Munich. He has a long and illustrated history of working in procurement within different industries such as commercial vehicles, the automotive industry, and reciprocating compressors. David’s great experience of TT Gaskets as a customer got him into talks with CEO Aleksi Arpiainen when it came time to look for a new professional challenge.

“TT Gaskets is a pioneer in the global gasket business. I’ve been really impressed with the out-of-the-box thinking and advanced solutions that the great TTG team is producing at our world-class facilities. What sets us apart from a lot of competitors is our ability to provide R&D services, tailored solutions, and sealing as a service. TT Gaskets’ sustainability and circular economy practices are also on a level of their own,” David highlights.

As well as working with our current customers, David will also be in charge of establishing new partnerships in German-speaking countries.

Motivated team with a shared mission

David started on January 1^st and has spent most of the month in Tampere getting to know his colleagues plus the ins and outs of the sealing industry. He sees a lot of market potential for TT Gaskets’ solutions and Finnish quality in Germany and its neighboring countries.

“The TT Gaskets team really feels like a family. We have a lot of highly motivated young experts who share a mission of making sure that our customers receive the best possible service. I’m having a great time learning about the wealth of gasket materials and manufacturing methods we have,” David says.

David has been a regular visitor in our country since 2006 and has a strong personal connection with Finland.

“I have a passion for the Alps in Central Europe, and I equally love Finnish nature and all its sports possibilities like skiing and mountain biking. I’m always taking Finnish delicacies and other stuff home for my German friends and relatives. You could well say that this is my second home!”

Don’t hesitate to contact David with any of your gasket and sealing needs in Central Europe!

David Lindgren
tel. +49 162 541 8370
david.lindgren@tt-gaskets.de

Sustainability – Doing things the right way requires commitment and investments

December 13, 2022

For the past year or so we have been working on the TT Gaskets sustainable development program that targets our overall sustainability. Its focus areas are the environmental, commercial, and social sustainability of our company.

We have interviewed our employees and stakeholders regarding the importance of sustainability and conducted research to assess our impact on the environment.

Through our findings, we have made a plan on how to improve our operations in the coming years. We are also working on a Code of Conduct for our suppliers to participate in this important mission. One of the key aspects of this program is our Carbon Neutral TTG 2027 goal which is already being implemented with good momentum. We have pieced together our greenhouse gas emission sources and calculated the overall CO₂ equivalent emissions of our manufacturing and administration.

Avoiding false greenwashing

Of our direct emissions, 100 % come from energy: the electricity and heat needed to run our production and keep our facilities warm. Our emissions could be easily (and falsely) “compensated” by spending a couple of thousand euros towards a tree planting organization. After a swift greenwashing cycle, we could claim our company “carbon-neutral”.

There’s nothing bad about planting trees, but taking the easy way out is just not how we are used to doing things.

We like to do things the right way from start to finish which means not spending our money on a dubious forestation program to alleviate our guilty conscience. Instead, we are making actual progress in our green energy investments and spending hundreds of thousands in the process.

Investments for the future

We have already invested in a solar power plant that covers 20–25 % of our annual electricity consumption, and plans are in place to expand the plant to cover the remaining roof area next year. This would increase our solar energy production to roughly a third of our consumption. The rest of the electricity will be sourced from a certified green energy supplier. We are also reducing our emissions by reducing electricity consumption through investments in LED lighting and taking energy efficiency into account in new machinery investments.

Our facilities are currently heated through traditional district heating from the local CHP plant. Naturally, this means high efficiency, but unfortunately the plant uses mostly natural gas for production which is not compliant with our sustainability targets. Therefore, our plan is to invest in geothermal energy and air-water heat pumps to compensate at least some of the need for district heating. And again, the rest of our heat is sustainably sourced from the soon-to-be finished local bio energy CHP plant.

These major energy investments together with all other smaller actions such as reducing unnecessary business trips, electrifying our vehicles and joining a circular economy program ensure that we are well on our way towards a truly Carbon Neutral TTG in 2027. Of course, the journey doesn’t end there, but instead has just started as we are designing Smarter Sealing for a Sustainable Future.

TT Gaskets awarded at Innio Supplier Awards 2022

November 30, 2022

We are happy to announce that TT Gaskets was a recipient at this year’s Innio Supplier Awards! The award ceremony was a part of their Innio Supplier Day on October 14^th 2022.

Innio is a leading provider of renewable gas, natural gas, and hydrogen-based solutions and services for power generation. This year’s theme for the Innio Supplier Day was “Together for a sustainable future”. Awards were given in six categories, and our winning category was Commercial Success.

Solution-oriented collaboration leads to smart product development

TT Gaskets’ and Innio’s collaboration began nearly 10 years ago, and we have been working very closely with their Waukesha gas engines during the last 12 months. Close-knit teamwork and collaboration led to a gasket solution that combines modern design, a high-end material, and an easy-to-install product making gasket installation and alignment significantly easier for Innio’s assembly engineers.

– TT Gaskets has helped Waukesha solve many issues and reduce their backlog of orders to serve their customers. In addition, they have been very supporting in solving safety and warranty concerns. For all these reasons, TT Gaskets has rapidly become a key supplier for Waukesha, and we have increased our business tremendously. That is what we call commercial success in these demanding times. Accept challenges, solve problems and with all that, increase value for both, Innio and the supplier, Innio comments on the award.

– This is a prime example of what can be achieved with open, flexible, and solution-oriented collaboration. We are proud to have been able to advance Innio’s product development with functional and smart gasket design, TT Gaskets’ Sales Manager Jason Thomas and Business Development Director Petri Lehtinen highlight.

We hope our excellent business relationship will continue long in the future. A big thank you to Innio from all the gasketeers in Finland!

TT Gaskets selected in Circular Design pilot – New training program produces sustainable solutions for the future

November 28, 2022

Finland is paving the way for circular design in companies with a unique training program. Circular Design – a path towards circular economy is the first national training program deep-diving into circular design principles and focusing on generating concrete product and service concepts to secure companies’ competitive advantage in the biggest market transition of our time.

50 Finnish companies were chosen to participate in the program, among them Stora Enso, UPM, Mirka, Kiilto – and TT Gaskets.

– This is truly group of pioneers. The program is a catalyst for a new way of thinking about business practices and targets, and I hope it will generate new ideas and operating models in key sectors. The pilot is a part of Finland’s national strategy program for circular economy, senior ministerial adviser Taina Nikula from the Finnish Environmental Protection Department says.

Ability to compete is rooted in sustainable choices

A key circular economy concept is finding solutions that truly improve the state of our environment instead of merely minimizing negative impacts. Circular economy entails that products and services are not designed for just one end user in mind. Instead, new solutions need to be designed to function in broader contexts and produce more value through multiple lifespans and users.

Circular economy has a key role in TT Gaskets’ responsibility work, and we are continuously searching for new ways to reduce waste and reuse the scrap raw material in our production. Developing our operations together with trustworthy suppliers plus continuously optimizing our cutting materials have been at the core of our company for decades. Lifecycle design and circular economy ideology are clearly a rising trend among our customers and other stakeholders as well.

– Being a part of the pilot is an excellent opportunity to develop our company together with circular economy pioneers, plus find best practices and knowledge that we can apply to our business. The participants are a varied group of fine companies, many of whom are also our customers. The training’s timing couldn’t be better regarding the goals set in our responsibility program, and we are already eagerly awaiting close-knit collaboration and discoveries in circular economy together, TT Gaskets’ Quality and Lean Manager Matti Järvinen highlights.

The pilot program is implemented by Design Forum Finland and Ethica Oy under the guidance of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment with partners VTT, SYKE, Sitra, Frankly Partners, Miltton and Alice Labs.

Sustainable and responsible business is the lifeblood of every company

November 22, 2022

We only have this one Earth, and its survival requires tireless work. We must be ready to boldly renew and rethink our actions. This kind of mindset is at the core of the new TT Gaskets business strategy that is taking shape right now.

This year saw us finalizing the first version of the TT Gaskets program for sustainable development in which we commit to becoming carbon-neutral by 2027 and advancing our growth by treating nature with respect.

Sustainable growth is a responsible business practice which we have listed in our ownership strategy. The ownership’s will is key in the sustainability and responsibility of a company. A clear message from the owner provides a framework and encourages to dream for a better tomorrow.

Our dreams revolve around high-quality smart gasket solutions that aim to minimize our customers’ carbon footprint in the coming years. We truly care about human rights and our different stakeholders. We are committed to responsible administration, good leadership, continuously developing our supplier relations and adhering to the SA8000 social responsibility standard. We aim to improve our operations and partnerships in a direction that creates even more added value for our customers’ business.

Responsibility work must resonate throughout the company

TT Gaskets will continue to make major investments in sustainable development. Our investments include solar panels, air source heat pumps and geothermal heating and cooling systems. This year we established a team for finding actions for saving energy. The team’s goal has been to see how savings could be generated even with small actions.

We have also actively discussed possible actions with several CEOs from the Pirkanmaa area, with TT Gaskets board chairman Matti Arpiainen acting as an instigator. We have now progressed to a point where we can refine both small and large energy saving ideas together with our entire staff. Ownership commitment is important, but it is equally relevant to hear from the entire company when working to conserve our shared planet.

We have also taken part in public discussion – for example, we were invited to Tampere mayor Anna-Kaisa Ikonen’s energy-themed stakeholder event in October. Sharing information and active discussion have given us valuable comments and a whole swath of new ideas. Thank you to everyone who has shared their thoughts!

October also saw us receiving the honor of being chosen as one of the 50 Finnish companies partaking in SITRA’s training program for developing circular economy practices. I hope we will gain food for thought that helps us develop new circular economy solutions together with our suppliers and customers.

Family businesses unite to create sustainability

My 7-year-old son recently attended a scout event that was preceded by a questionnaire measuring lifestyle sustainability. The pre-assignment generated great conversation in our family, but the key insight came after the event. My son’s group was complimented because their lifestyle choices were the least harmful to our planet out of all participants. This still didn’t feel like a great result to my son because they were then told that if the entire world lived like them, we would still require two Earths instead of one. “But that’s not possible. We must do something about this, and quickly!” he said with determination.

We’ve reached the same conclusion with the family businesses of the world. We have a strong will to encourage and challenge each other towards more meaningful and sustainable business practices. Therefore, the Family Business Network-International (FBN-I) has established the Polaris committee. It has helped share information and produce different publications and tools for family businesses for them to operate more sustainably and strengthen their own purpose. These activities have highlighted that sustainable business is often both profitable and highly meaningful to those conducting it. The triple bottom line and its three tenets – people, planet, and profit – are nothing new, but the Polaris committee’s work has advanced the synthesis of these aspects.

I am a part of the FBN-I board, and this year we developed a tool for reporting sustainable development in family businesses in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It makes reporting and measuring sustainable development easier than ever before. I encourage all family businesses to visit the UNCTAD website, sign the pledge for sustainable development and start reporting their activities!

Strengthening collaborations with TT Gaskets

Our investments in sustainable development and responsibility have not gone unnoticed, as is evident from our customer audits. Several international business groups have given internal recommendations to strengthen or develop collaborations with TT Gaskets because our operations are in check with the principles of responsible and sustainable development.

Conducting sustainable and responsible business is the lifeblood of every company in today’s world – and rightly so. However, defining, measuring, and improving your own sustainable development is not always easy. The TT Gaskets recipe is to boldly start with addressing your current situation. When your system and status are documented, they can be improved. At the same time, it is important to pick a comparison group and a reporting tool. Everything cannot and shouldn’t be done at once. Speed is not of the essence, determination is.

I wish you all a great late-onset winter and insightful reads. Let’s share ideas for conserving our shared and only Earth – not forgetting our own wellbeing.

With responsible regards,

Aleksi Arpiainen

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.

We prepare for you – TT Gaskets stocks over 3000 raw material titles

November 7, 2022

High stock levels are the key for tackling availability issues.

Availability issues, component shortage, extended delivery times and increasing prices. These are some of the bad news that have become commonplace in virtually every industry in the past few years.

At TT Gaskets, we have managed to keep delivery times short by strategically increasing our raw material stock levels. By making anticipatory acquisitions we have been able to guarantee material availability for our customers and have succeeded in keeping our price increases to a minimum.

We began increasing our stock levels during the coronavirus pandemic when we first noticed that several of our raw materials were becoming harder to secure. The strategic purchases paid off, and we have continued similar operations during the war in Ukraine.

Security into the next year

Sometimes our customers need gaskets with a notice of only a couple of weeks. At the same time, raw material delivery times may currently be months or even up to a year due to availability issues.

Tackling these problems begins with comprehensive preparation and securing operations by anticipatory stock design. TT Gaskets takes care of our customers’ needs and operational reliability by maintaining a comprehensive raw material library and purchasing raw materials even beyond our needs.

The TT Gaskets warehouse currently features over 3000 raw material titles. With our current stock level, we can secure gasket deliveries for our customers long into the coming year. We are not tied to any specific manufacturers or providers – we can choose the best material for each need from a broad library of products.

We are continuously looking for alternative providers and materials in case a specific raw material becomes completely unavailable. Long-term partnerships generate savings and sustainable product development for our customers.

Improved forecasting with AI

The next step in our anticipatory activities is harnessing artificial intelligence to generate demand forecasts. We have just finished a pilot project in which we studied combining customer and warehouse data to generate different models on future raw material needs.

– The experiment showed that by combining our customers’ order data with information on raw material consumption and purchases we can optimize our stock levels. We are currently undertaking several system upgrades that will improve the quality of our data, and enable improved interaction between our production, sales and warehouse data, Smart Product Specialist Jaakko Niukkala illustrates.

AI-generated forecasts can improve our customer service and make purchasing easier as we can predict our customers’ coming needs well in advance and make anticipatory acquisitions.

Got an idea on how we could make our service even better? Don’t hesitate to contact us!