Lean Machine

How automobiles and a highly-organized personality turned Matti Kärkölä into an advocate for lean manufacturing. Fortaco's Operational Development team is all about cultivating a zero-defects manufacturing culture where improvement is the norm.…

Szilvia Sándor’s Homecoming

When Fortaco’s Szilvia Sándor joined the Jászberény team it was a bit like coming home. “Life is sometimes strange,” says Szilvia Sándor, Finance Manager for Fortaco Group’s Jászberény business site. Strange, because joining the company in 2020…

When the Customer Sleeps Well

What ladies lingerie taught Stanisław Ozga about off-highway equipment. The early 1990s were a difficult period in Poland, which had just begun its transition to capitalism. In 1990, Stanisław Ozga graduated university with a degree as a mining…

Fortaco’s DIY 4.0

Fortaco’s approach to Industry 4.0 allows it to do things on its own terms, controlling speed, costs, and autonomy over its data. Industry 4.0 is a fashionable term, and great to throw around at cocktail parties. But the idea of Industry 4.0 can…

How Long Until a Totally-electric Off-highway World?

While the industry’s attention often seems focused on fossil-free steel as a solution to climate change, a growing number of innovative companies – both established and startups – are solving the other, bigger problem: the generation of CO2 over…

EQ for Tough Guys: Should Manufacturing Professionals Show Feelings?

Should manufacturing pros be as calm, cool, and collected as robots on the factory floor? Or should they embrace their feelings? "Must. Suppress. Rage!" is how this century’s best-known engineer, Homer Simpson, deals with his emotions. (He also has…

Reflections from the Leadership Team

As we have entered the third quarter of the year, it is a great time to view back, reflect, value the lessons learned and gain some perspective, while proceeding forward on our mission. Fortaco is committed to reshape the industry; the way things…

My Father’s Tuxedo

What my father’s tuxedo and off-highway equipment have in common, and how the Smart Steel organization is fixing the asymmetry of marketplace information. By Rafał Sornek I don’t remember exactly what happened to my suit — whether I tore it or…

Get Knocked Down, Get Back Up

Johanna Kuisma, Fortaco’s Group Financial Controller, loves contact sports. They’ve taught her a few things about how to approach her professional life. It might have been the worst time to start a new job. It was March 2020 when Johanna Kuisma…