Behind the gaskets | Expert interview: Coffee keeps the positive Quality Manager going

January 17, 2022

The working days of Matti Järvinen, LEAN and Quality Manager at TT Gaskets, are always different. He strives to integrate routine work into processes to save time for innovation and development.

Matti is responsible for the development and maintenance of quality, environmental, safety and corporate responsibility processes. His tasks require a holistic understanding of how a company operates. Resilience, pressure and stress tolerance, and good interaction skills are also needed.

– My work includes quite a few surprising situations and challenging encounters that must be coped with creatively. We all work together as a team. The goal is always that the customer gets what they want and has peace of mind about us having it all under control, Matti says.

”My own interests guided my career development”

After studying mechanical engineering, Matti started working for production at TT Gaskets in 2010. The last six years he has spent as Quality Manager and Environmental and Occupational Safety Manager. Matti’s career path has developed according to what he has learned and his own interests.

– I’m at my best when managing, developing, innovating, and solving problems. I understand what creates value for the customer. LEAN reasoning is a characteristic of mine, and I master the tools of the LEAN philosophy pretty well. I also know my co-workers, machines, products, and our system very well.

Matti is motivated by interesting and varied tasks and the results of his work. The satisfaction of customers’ and TT Gaskets’ employees is important to him. Matti draws strength from a great work community, which he praises as a receptive, pro-development and change-friendly team.

– The dialogue is good, and people have a lot of ideas. We’re a work community that builds the same gasket together, Matti concludes.

The future is inspiring

As befits a person who does development work, Matti still learns new things every week. He thinks the company is never ready, but things can always be done smarter and better. Matti praises TT Gaskets’ strategy, values, and style of doing things.

– We have the courage to do things the right way. We care about employees and stakeholders. It’s great that we’ve been able to adapt to a changing world. We haven’t got stuck in old habits; we have boldly sought the optimal ways to do things.

Matti is eagerly awaiting the future, as something new and interesting is coming up almost every quarter next year. He sees a lot of great opportunities in the future of the industry.

– Our corporate responsibility is growing in line with our strategy. Smart gasket solutions are on their way. Our goal is for the gasket to be more than just a cheap piece in an engine or piping. That would clearly save environment and money. Gaskets will provide a rich source of data, Matti says enthusiastically.

Plenty to do in free time too

The daily life of a father with three small children is full of action with family, a wide circle of friends, and sports. Matti has an extremely positive attitude and therefore feels that a fast-paced life is in excellent balance. He puts the job out of his mind when he gets home.

– There’s always something to do or somewhere to go, 16 hours a day. I must admit that the coffee keeps this man going, and besides that there are only a few other routines in my life except for brushing my teeth, Matti says and laughs.

TT Gaskets challenges startups to develop its products

December 9, 2021

Demobooster Tampere is a concept where a company developing a new product presents a challenge and receives solution options from startups. TT Gaskets is challenging the region’s startups and technology companies to improve their service that supports the global gasket trade.

TTG Smart Tracking service enables customers to verify the authenticity of spare parts and track their location. The service has been tested and it works globally.

– We are now at a stage where information about our tracking service should be disseminated to our customers, and we also need to develop a suitable business model for it. We participate in Demobooster Tampere to get bold ideas for increasing the notoriety of the new service, says Smart Engineer Jaakko Niukkala.

Demobooster Tampere 2021

Startups and technology companies in the Tampere region now have a unique opportunity to showcase their expertise and put the solution they have tailored for TT Gaskets into practice.

Demobooster Tampere is organized by DIMECC and Business Tampere. It culminates in the DemoDay event to be held in January, where the innovation challengers will hear the solution pitches from startups. The challenger, in this case TT Gaskets, will continue to work with the most feasible idea.

Read more and take part in the challenge!

Behind the gaskets | Expert interview: A persistent and motivated problem solver

November 26, 2021

Teemu Piipponen, Production Manager at TT Gaskets, is at his best when problem solving and in unexpected situations that require a quick response. He especially enjoys motivating the team and developing their ways of working.

Teemu is very determined, and values being productive, so he tackles all kind of challenges energetically.

– Customers’ problems are almost always solvable in one way or another. When it comes to thought work, I’m at my best in the morning. That’s when I drink a big cup of coffee and focus on solving various challenges.

Issues that might need solving can be related to, for example, the operation of machines, the availability of components, the quality of products or employee matters. Teemu is responsible for ensuring that the resources needed for customer work are just right – both for employees and production.

A long career has taught a lot

Teemu began his career at TT Gaskets as a summer help in the year 2005. Back then, he worked in the post-processing of laser cutting. His actual career with gaskets began in 2009 and now the mechanical and production engineer has 12 full years of work behind him. Ambitious Teemu wanted responsibility – and he got it!

– I started as a design engineer, and gradually moved on to more demanding projects. Finally, I was honored to be named Production Manager in 2015. The stars have aligned many times and the result has been, so to speak, a win-win for both me and the company, Teemu says.

Teemu’s varied duties have taught him a lot about human resource management, the company’s financial management as well as the gasket industry in general.

– I’ve had to digest, among other things, the finer details of labor legislation, the management of machine investments and what the LEAN philosophy means in manufacturing.

Developing and working together are close to his heart

Based on feedback surveys, TT Gaskets has done all the right things to build a comfortable and safe working environment. Both productivity and competitiveness have been improved by actively reforming various processes. For example, the recent expansion has made the factory flow more efficient and productive. Applying LEAN methods has really worked – the results started to show right away.

– I like the family business model of TT Gaskets. The owners are present and therefore decisions can be made very quickly when needed. The employees are listened to, and the company invests heavily in new technology and digitalization every year.

Continuous renewal is important as the field will certainly change with the development of technology. There will always be a need for gaskets, but traditional flat gaskets may be replaced by various extrudable gasket masses. The demand for a wide range of service products, comprehensive maintenance and Kanban systems is also increasing their demand.

In addition to the company, self-development is important to Teemu. He also gets a lot of motivation from helping his colleagues to develop their skills. Cooperation makes the work especially meaningful.

– It’s truly motivating to have this 60-piece orchestra playing the same tune at the same time. We have a youthful, relaxed, and supportive work community with a great attitude. We are all focused on one goal – satisfied customers.

A variety of hobbies balances demanding work

Teemu doesn’t spent much time at home. He’s an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and enjoys a wide range of sports.

– I currently play padel and ice hockey all year round and I also go jogging and to the gym regularly. In the summer I play golf and go water jet skiing, and in the winter, I go snowboarding and cross-country skiing. I’m also a friend of good food and wine and I love to travel around the world.

Teemu enjoys busy days both in his free time and at work. While he works every day with different industries, he has one particular passion.

– I’ve always been fascinated by engines and machines. They’re always wonderful to work with. The bigger and more complex the machine, the more interesting!

We all have a right to good leadership

November 17, 2021

Modern leadership is no longer a one way-street, but rather a dialogue-led interaction. At TT Gaskets, growth is sought through cooperation and a clear and up-to-date picture of the current situation. Among other things, the tools provided by the LEAN model are helpful.

Leadership plays a significant role in whether and how an employee can influence his or her own work. This is a big challenge for the employer, which we at TT Gaskets strive to tackle in many ways. We think we need to give every employee a good and meaningful workday. With good leadership, we have succeeded in building interesting career paths, for example.

In our family company, the change and continuous development of leadership has gone through three generations. In the early decades of TT Gaskets, the roles of the leader and the subordinate were clear: the boss said what to do and the worker did it. During the second generation, the leadership style was strongly instructive, management by walking around. I represent the third generation and I want to guide our community to build the future through participatory leadership.

An inspiring operating environment for all employees

When it became my turn to be the CEO, I felt it was important to give wings to an experimental culture and enable the growth of both the company and its personnel to the next level. Our employees must be involved in thinking and developing in order to meet the requirements of the rapidly evolving external environment in the future. The pace of change is fast, and we don’t have the time to wait for things to be discussed at different levels of the organization. All of them should take part in the conversation right from the beginning. This is an important foundation both for growing the company and to better serve the current and future customers.

I want to make the corporate culture visible so that our history, where we are going, and why, coexist side by side. The tools I use to help our employees to succeed include Jim Collins’ Level Five Leadership and LEAN.

LEAN provides an excellent framework for information management. Thanks to the daily management based on the LEAN model, we see a snapshot of the situation all the time, which provides the necessary basis for information management. Things are done and monitored – everything has a purpose, and the effects can be seen quickly.

LEAN brings responsibility and a chance to influence company decisions at everyone’s reach

Efficiency has always been at the heart of what we do. That thought in is my genes, inherited from the previous generations. We’re an engineering company, and we want to understand how things work. We don’t just want to create different capabilities, but rather aim to be competitive as well as serve our customers. In addition, as a family company we want to create a better future for the next generations through our responsibility program.

Our LEAN model is there for everyone: it enables us to give responsibility and authority to employees and integrates them fully into the development of the company. Once we’ve built the company’s goals together, everyone should think about them more closely, both individually and with their own team. Thinking about the goals for each job is beneficial, as well as how everyone can do their part in achieving those goals. Our customers, in turn, benefit from the fact that what we do is immediate and direct. Development work progresses rapidly and there is no waste in doing it. This leads to efficiency and profitability.

LEAN thinking lives and evolves every day and enables us to adapt to change. This is also appreciated by our customers. They don’t have to worry about today’s challenges, and we’ll be offering them solutions to the problems of the future.

Aleksi Arpiainen

More posts you might be interested in:
The Virta project brings LEAN thinking into production
Lean – Super-human performance with exoskeletons?

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.

The Virta project brings LEAN thinking into production

October 29, 2021

The five-year-long Virta project is a plan that will help TT Gaskets pursue not only profitable growth, but also internationalization. The roots of this large-scale project lie in the generational change of the family business and the new factory expansion.

– We realized that an internal project is quite necessary. We had a need to renew and modernize our ways of work, management, and responsibility. Based on that, we started to develop the Virta project entity and LEAN management, says Matti Järvinen, Quality and LEAN manager.

The Virta project consists of eight different project packages. Each entity has its own goals and persons in charge. The project that began in 2020, is expected to last until the end of 2025. The aim is to enable international growth and benefit the customers through more efficient processes.

New models for day-to-day management

TT Gaskets’ management team got new operating models from a training. The management participated in the Tampere Business Campus’ TBC Academy for more than a year. The basic goal was to apply LEAN thinking to management, starting with how supervisory work should be conducted in today’s world and what opportunities, tools and practices exist for job development.

– Our team leaders have been working here for a long time, so they know people, machines, and products. With the new practices, production teams meet daily or a few times a week. The meeting is for checking how the department is doing and reviewing indicators related to safety, quality, as well as development ideas, Järvinen says.

LEAN thinking streamlines all functions. Deviations and other possible findings are reviewed together, and good ideas or practices are implemented. All ideas come directly from the employees.

– The new management models improved inner communications significantly. When we go through every-day matters collectively and maintain constant follow-up, the staff also realizes their ideas don’t go to waste and that things move forward all the time. Their tacit knowledge will be heard.

A more efficient process brings customer benefits

In the Virta project, LEAN thinking has been extended not only to management but also to production operations. The new production hall increases the efficiency of processes as materials and work will only flow in one direction. The warehouses are at each end of the U-shaped hall, soft materials at one end and hard materials at the other.

– All materials flow in only one direction. The raw materials come from the courtyard to the warehouse, from where they are transferred to cutting and then post-processing department for finishing. After that, the finished high-quality products leave the factory through the packaging department and the back door, to the customer. This one-way flow also applies to workstations. One doesn’t need to look for things when the output always moves to the next input in the work process. This is a very transparent way of working, Järvinen describes.

– The entire chain can be controlled and monitored very visually with the help of our IT systems. We immediately see where the bottlenecks are starting to form, and which step of the process the work is at. Thanks to numerous checkpoints, defective products are caught in the production, and we learn from deviations together. The risk of for example not performing a certain step in the process is minimized. All this, of course, increases the efficiency of the processes, therefore improving our quality and reducing the delivery times.

Ready for international growth

The benefits of the Virta project are already visible in everyday life, and achieving goals also brings joy.

– One of our goals was to get the first patent this year, and we succeeded. Smart gaskets are just one example of how we are constantly looking for the right skills and technologies for the company. In this way, we keep up with developing in a changing world, internationalization and, for example, carbon-neutral operations.

Job satisfaction is also an integral part of the Virta project and LEAN management models. The 6S themes “safety, usability and comfort” refined from TT Gaskets’ Virta project run as a common thread in the operation of the factory. 6S refers to a tool for developing and maintaining cleanliness and order: sort, store, shine, standardize, sustain and safety.

– When it’s easy and comfortable for people to work, it’s ultimately also reflected in efficiency and cost savings. Innovations such as smart gaskets, in turn, bring great savings to our customers, for example in proactive maintenance. Everyone wins, Järvinen says.

A patent has been granted to TT Gaskets’ smart gasket!

October 14, 2021

Gaskets have remained virtually unchanged for the past 150 years. We think that a gasket can be more than just a piece of material cut into shape. Based on this idea, we developed a smart gasket.

TT Gaskets has boldly set out to develop and modernize the manufacture of gaskets. With the help of new technology, we want to bring certainty for the installer to the selection, installation and use of gaskets – to create smarter sealing and a safer tomorrow. Therefore, together with our innovation partners, we are developing a smart gasket. In September 2021, the gasket was granted a patent valid in Finland. Europe-wide patent protection has also been applied.

Smart gasket eliminates human error

As a first step, we developed a remotely readable tag suitable for the installed gaskets. It allows the installer to immediately verify which gasket was installed on the joint. This is important because installing the wrong gasket may cost a company hundreds of thousands of euros if the start of an industrial process is delayed. In the worst-case scenario, the wrong gasket poses a threat to life and the environment.

Traditionally, information about the installed seal has been recorded only on paper. Now the information about the gasket is also saved in a digital form. This allows each flange connection to be identified individually.

The next step is soon complete too. We are developing a remotely readable, disposable surface pressure sensor for the gasket. The sensor can be used to ensure the success of the installation work immediately. The sensor informs whether the surface pressure of the gasket is suitable. This is information is particularly important, as a too low, high, or uneven pressure can cause leaks in the joint.

The aim is to continuously measure the surface pressure

The third stage proceeds in small but sure steps. The goal of the innovation project, called TTG Smart Gasket, is to connect the gaskets to an IoT network of an industrial plant. That is, to create IoG (Internet of Gaskets). Our goal is to enable continuous measurement of the surface pressure of a gasket application, so that the gasket could tell when it’s failing. This would make it possible to improve process productivity and save materials.

The granted patent is yet another indication that our development work is paying off. It’s good to continue from this, doing bold innovations together. Renewing ourselves is an advantage for both us and our customers. With the solutions we have developed, we’ll be able to offer completely new types of services in the future. This will make industrial processes safer and more environmentally friendly.

Read more! The developer of the smart gasket, Smart Engineer Jaakko Niukkala, sheds light on the technology in his Smart Blog: Smarter sealing for a safer tomorrow – Obtaining information of a gasket.

TT Gaskets at the Swedish Elmia Subcontractor trade-fair

October 13, 2021

Elmia Subcontractor event is the leading subcontractor fair in Northern Europe. The fair has up to 1,200 exhibitors from about 30 countries. Elmia will be held in Jönköping, Sweden from Tuesday to Friday, November 9–12, 2021.

This year, the Elmia trade-fair will introduce products and components as well as manufacturing methods, materials, tools and organizations and their services. TT Gasket’s Sweden’s sales managers Mattias Englund and Tommy Wennerberg are there to present our new development projects.

As at the Finnish Subcontracting Fair, our main theme is responsibility and related intelligent innovations and gasket solutions for future needs. For example, TTG Smart Gasket is a service for identifying, monitoring, and measuring gaskets, and TTG Smart Tracking prevents counterfeiting through spare parts tracking.

Come and say hello to Mattias and Tommy at the fair – see you in your stand A04:24!

What if gaskets could talk? – With an innovation culture, we create new customer value and an even more positive employer experience

September 13, 2021

If the gasket could speak, it could tell us that it’s installed correctly and ready to act as a critical factor in the key flange joints of different systems in the industry. It could state that it secures and ensures the continued operation of important processes.

The gasket could also tell if the joint is tight or if it has micro leaks and when it would be time to replace the gasket. In this way, accidents could be avoided, the environment would not be burdened with unwanted emissions, and there would be no unnecessary costs for the process owner as efficiency decreases.

All of this may soon be possible with TT Gaskets’ smart gaskets, for which we’ve applied for a global patent.

Improved safety for flange connections with smart gaskets

Gaskets are critical components of many industrial solutions. Their functionality often depends on people’s expertise, as the single biggest cause of leaks is an installation error.

This is addressed in the training we plan and provide together with the Tampere Adult Education Centre (TAKK). The flange connection installer qualification training according to EN 1591-4 standard states that the installation error can be caused by, for example, improper condition of the bolts, incorrect tightening, or incorrect types of bolts.

Smart gaskets are specifically designed to rule out the possibility of error. In the future, the gasket may indicate that it’s ready to work as desired. When this is combined with our flange joint installer qualification training, we are able to significantly improve the safety of flange joints.

Innovation has always been an important part of TT Gaskets

Joint innovation and development have been done at TT Gaskets since 1943, when my grandfather founded our family company and innovated Finland’s first gasket materials for the needs of the Finnish Defense Forces. The time of scarcity, demanding conditions and intense urgency were excellent motivators.

Today, innovation continues to flourish for us, thanks to the Smart Innovation Lab we founded three years ago. Together with our extensive developer network, we are exploring industry-leading gasket innovations, such as smart gaskets, or gasket authentication markings, virtual warehouses, and gasket material selection tools.

We are also implementing an innovation culture in the interdisciplinary design department. Together with our customers’ design departments, it solves and designs new sealing solutions for existing applications – and to an increasing extent also new solutions for the future applications around the world.

In recent years, we’ve systematically invested in innovation so that we can be more involved in our customers’ design projects in the areas of mechanical testing, theoretical modeling, and computation. We’ve been able to accelerate the development of our customers’ new machines and other solutions, and have found safer, more environmentally friendly, and productivity-enhancing solutions for existing applications.

Employees want to constantly improve their work

However, if any company wants to renew itself constantly, innovation and challenging current operating models cannot reside in just a few of the company’s operations. We’ve wanted to ensure that we develop as innovators and that it is truly a matter for everyone – a part of our culture.

The most recent manifestation of this was the first TTG Academy, which ended in the summer. Over the course of 1.5 years, TT Gaskets’ foremen and team leaders received training on modern supervisory work, and one of the themes addressed was building and nurturing an innovation culture. At the Academy, we also developed a day-to-day management model that provides a way to form a common snapshot in each of our production departments. As a result, the production of new initiatives and ideas, for example, has gained significant momentum, even though it was already on a good level before.

I’m very happy and grateful that our employees want to take our company forward on a daily basis. With various new openings, we are developing ways to serve our customers in an increasingly diverse way, refining our operations from a sustainable development perspective and offering our employees safer and more interesting days at work.

Ambitious goals drive innovation

In recent years, we’ve increased our cooperation, especially with the Tampere University community. The various final projects, internships, recruitments, development work and experiments carried out together have brought us thinking that has made it possible to carry out many reforms.

These projects would probably not have been possible without outside help. From time to time it’s important to admit that not all smartness can be found in your own organization. It’s ok to look in the direction of partners and ask for help.

A culture of cooperation and constant innovation must be always nurtured with ambitious goals. At the same time, one must be prepared to change direction if a project doesn’t produce the desired result after several attempts.

Stronger cooperation with customers

The development of the new and our enthusiasm for taking it forward has brought us significant new customerships even during the coronavirus epidemic. We’ve succeeded in securing and streamlining existing sealing solutions by standardizing them across multiple sites, reducing maintenance complexity. On the other hand, some of the new customer relationships have started with our ability to come up with completely new types of sealing solutions for the machines of the future.

We’ve also been able to strengthen our collaboration with our customers and more often present them with new solutions that could improve their business model, increase their additional sales opportunities, and develop to make it easier to differentiate themselves from competitors. In the future, we’ll become even more active in this field.

Thank you for your time and answers to our customer experience surveys! Through them, we received confirmation that the more active and innovative TT Gaskets has been liked by many in recent years. During the autumn, we will produce video material presenting our sustainable development investments, our new factory and our expanding product and service offering.

Stay tuned and see you on LinkedIn and hopefully live too. We are at the Subcontracting Fair in Tampere from 21st to 23rd of September 2021 and at Elmia, Sweden from 9th to 12th of November 2021.

Let’s design and pilot together for a safer tomorrow!

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.

The new gasket material selection tool will be launched at the Subcontracting Fair

September 7, 2021

The tool under the working name TTG Material Tool is ready for testing and then piloting. TT Gaskets will present the tool facilitating gasket material selection at the Fall 2021 Subcontracting Fair.

The TTG Material Tool is designed to facilitate gasket material selection by providing answers even when TT Gaskets’ vendors are not available. The new tool is the first step towards ecommerce-type thinking.

– The idea is to help in the selection of gasket materials via the Internet, so that the customer gets an answer when they need it, taking into account the conditions of the process and the medium. At the end of August, the operating principle and layout of the tool were presented to the customer. They will start using the tool as soon as the problem areas are resolved, says Smart Engineer Jaakko Niukkala.

Fast product selection via the Internet

The library covers the materials and stock products currently used by the pilot customer, but the tool is to be more widely used both internally and externally as soon as possible. In the future, for example, the tool can directly offer a suitable product from the portfolio once the technical information related to the application is added.

– TTG Material Tool also speeds up our own material selection, as we don’t have to browse everything through the system and the datasheets, but the information is quickly available in visual form instead. It will also be a low threshold contact channel for customers in the future, as it asks the right questions before contacting, and not everything has to be started from a clean slate.

Welcome to the Subcontracting Fair to hear more!

Presenting our new sales engineer Antti Taavila

September 6, 2021

– My previous work experience is from big organizations, so I’m excited to see the flexibility and opportunities of a smaller company – and I already have. Things run smoothly without drowning to twists and turns of bureaucracy, Antti says.

Antti has a degree in bio-product and process industry. He’s an engineer who has worked on both process and production development as well as the customer interface. He also has some Lean expertise. At TT Gaskets, his job includes managing some of the domestic clients. Antti enjoys problem solving and feels that he can bring new perspectives to the company, as well as experience on what works and what doesn’t. The beginning of his career in TT Gaskets has gone smoothly for him: there’s a positive vibe at the office and the coffee machine deserves praise too.

Antti will surely be a great help to our customers!