The Welding Inspector - Bad Guy or Consultant?
How to make the grade as a Wärtsilä supplier – and how to remain one.
Approximately 100 days per year, Raimo Mäki-Reini is on the road visiting more than 40 different countries around the globe. He’s not a tourist: if you happen to find him at the Eiffel Tower, it’s probably because he’s curious about the quality of the welding.
Mäki-Reini works for Wärtsilä, and he’s mostly found on factory floors where he inspects, consults, advises, and trains. He’s there to decide which suppliers qualify to weld structures for Wärtsilä, the Finnish corporation which manufactures and services power sources and equipment for the energy- and marine markets.
A thousand suppliers?
Mäki-Reini works in Wärtsilä’s Energy Solutions division where they build engines for power plants to power cities and heavy industry. Although Wärtsilä has 18,000 employees in 70 countries, it concentrates on engines and buys in most non-moving and welded parts from suppliers. Mäki-Reini doesn’t know exactly how many suppliers Wärtsilä has but estimates there are likely more than a thousand. He shows a visiting journalist a map charting Wärtsilä suppliers. The world, reduced to the size of his laptop’s screen, looks as if it’s suffered a measles outbreak: there are dots everywhere, sometimes on top of each other.
The quest for quality
Over millions of cycles, Wärtsilä engines vibrate and turn on their base plates. The welding in the base plates must be near perfect: any defect will cause cracks. Yet since base plates weigh tens of tons, they are preferably welded locally in the faraway lands where the power plants are constructed. It’s to Wärtsilä’s advantage to use as many local contractors as possible, but not every supplier can meet Wärtsilä standards. It’s Mäki-Reini’s job to find those who can. He visits every current and potential supplier about once per year. “I have a quality capability checklist,” he says. “If a supplier meets a minimum 70 percent of the criteria then they can be accepted with some corrective actions. 80 percent is considered ‘good.’”
The news isn’t always positive. Mäki-Reini holds up a document far enough away that the journalist can only make out red and black text. The journalist leans in for a closer look but Mäki-Reini pulls it away. “Sorry, top secret,” he says. The journalist notes that there is a lot of red on the page. “Would it be fair to say that half of potential suppliers don’t make the cut?”
This year 70 percent of those inspected have been approved. “It’s a very good year,” Mäki-Reini says. “Last year it was only 55 percent.” He’s pleased the number is so high but notes that the relationships aren’t necessarily forever — suppliers can be cut. Quality sometimes falls when a company’s management changes. “In 2014 we had a supplier that was selling us steel structures. But when I visited in 2017 they had a new managing director who wanted to save money. They’d fired the welding coordinator, maintenance was poor, and they met only 56 percent of our requirements. I had to reject them.”
Welding is art
“Welding is an art,” says Mäki-Reini. In order to make money, the supplier needs quality at what Mäki-Reini terms “the correct level” — not too poor, but not too good. “We don’t waste money on perfection; just fulfill the requirements.”
Visual inspection results may be fine but a destructive test is conducted – a fillet weld test piece is broken to make sure the root has melted. “Welders have to follow the WPS [Welding Procedure Specification] and this is supported by a WPQR [Welding Procedure Qualification Record],” says Mäki-Reini. But he notes following the directions isn’t as simple as it might sound. “There are in total 164 standards in welding which amount to around 8,200 pages of text.”
Mäki-Reini will break apart a fillet weld and examine the heat affected zone, as well as the root. “Most cracks start at the root. If there’s a flaw in the weld, the product will crack in under a couple thousand running hours.”
Welding is communication
“Many companies only check visually,” Mäki-Reini says. “They don’t know any better. And it sometimes happens that management may not understand the requirements and push the welders to work faster and faster.”
“In manufacturing there’s sometimes a communications gap between the office and the factory floor. ‘Upstairs they didn’t tell us anything about that,’ I’ll hear. The gap is physical, too, because the office is literally upstairs.”
Mäki-Reini has a lot of respect for welders and he knows what they’re capable of. He’s qualified twice as a welder, though after 32 years in the business his eyes are no longer what they used to be. “Welders are good and they’ll solve the problem, but the result isn’t always satisfactory. Welders may not know what’s behind the drawings, and so they need support from the welding coordinator. To produce our products requires a team like an orchestra. If one musician is playing poorly then the result is poor.”
Bad guy or consultant?
In order for a factory orchestra to play to its full potential, Mäki-Reini occasionally finds himself in the role of consultant. “I organize three-day training sessions where we bring together management, the design department, and the workers. We do it in the local language so nothing gets lost in translation.”
Other times he simply offers a new perspective on an old problem. “I bring fresh eyes and I can see things that they cannot see.”
But is he welcomed as an inspector? Is he loved or hated? “Depending on how they view things, suppliers either see me as the bad guy or a free consultant,” he says. “The companies understand my job.”
But if a supplier is required to meet 70 percent of Mäki-Reini’s requirements, the journalist asks, how are welding inspectors judged? The answer seems to be results. Mäki-Reini has been with Wärtsilä for five-and-a-half years and so far there have been no cracks caused by poor welding. “Knock on wood,” he smiles.
Big Data and Million-cycle Machines
Big data is put to use more and more to offer customers a better service. But in the off-highway industry it will soon drive the way products are designed and manufactured.
by Dr. Rafal Sornek, Senior Vice President, Fortaco Technology
-------
In 1998, the American car insurance company Progressive launched its Snapshot program. Drivers could opt to place a self-contained autonomous electromechanical sensor (telematics) in their car which would send Progressive a picture of the driver’s habits. In the beginning, the program was used to reward safe drivers with discounts.
In 2013, the company went a step further and used collected data to penalize bad drivers. They measured speed, time spent driving, and recorded incidents of hard braking. The data could tell Progressive whether a driver took risks and whether he (or she, though data shows women are safer drivers) paid attention.
The Progressive case is perhaps the most famous example of how a service company utilized big data to dramatically improve its consumer offering. It’s not often that big data is used to improve manufacturing – but that day is coming soon. I should know: it’s my company that’s pioneering it.
Your million-cycle forklift
In today’s off-highway vehicle manufacturing business, vehicles are manufactured for the most demanding use case. The forklift in your warehouse, for example, likely contains steel components which enable it to run millions of cycles, operating 24/7 to offload thousands of pallets.
But it’s also quite possible that your business doesn’t require that. Perhaps you use your forklift once a day when the truck comes with your delivery. You start it up, offload one pallet, and park it for the rest of the day. Do you really need a forklift with a fatigue life made for the million-cycle customer? What did you pay for that forklift? And how enthusiastic are you about paying to offset the design costs that are not really applicable to your needs?
Today, the steel components in your forklift are made for the most demanding use case. But they won’t be for long. Because big data is changing the way we manufacture.
The digital toolchain
Much like the Progressive Corporation gathers information about its drivers, big data and the digital toolchain enables us to gather information about forklift users.
The fleet management system provides our OEM customers with data about how their customers are using equipment. Is it once per day? Or is it thousands of times per day? Is the end customer utilizing the product’s full lifting capacity? Or only 10 percent of it? Are they utilizing the forklift’s extension boom, or simply taking something off a truck and putting it on the ground?
Next we quantify the data. What portion of our OEM’s customers are light users and how many are heavy? Is it a normal distribution, or are there peaks? If we find that 90 percent of customers are light users, how do we translate that into product architecture? How many product versions do we now need knowing what we know?
RapidSteel
The era of data-driven product design and production is not far off. In fact, at Fortaco we have already begun the process. This year we were the recipients of a research grant for a project we call RapidSteel. It's a 1.6 million-euro research project, half financed by us, half by the Polish government, which will be used to pioneer data-driven product design for one of Fortaco's top OEM customers.
It's a three-year project. This year we’re using data analytics to simulate production options. Next year we'll build the pilot line which can handle multiple product versions. In year three, we will validate those prototypes in the field.
Customization is coming
I believe that this type of manufacturing in the off-highway industry is inevitable. Whether we like it or not, the reality is that we’ve got to learn how to manage it.
Even in the automotive industry the legacy of Henry Ford is coming to an end: No longer are customers satisfied with any color they want as long as it’s black. Sure, mass production makes sense for cars that carry you from point A to point B –car sharing fleets, for example. But premium cars will have highly-customized “car content,” from the engine to the entertainment system.
Last year, Porsche said that electric vehicles are among the reasons its suppliers will have to work with a modular approach. Electric off-highway equipment will present particular opportunities for the use of big data. Since electric vehicles are powered by expensive nickel batteries, every kilo reduction in the weight of the steel structure results in huge long-term savings for the customer.
No one knows how fast the development of electric equipment will proceed, but we do know manufacturers will be required to provide both diesel and electric offerings in the near- and medium term. This doubling of product offerings can only be made efficient through the use of big data.
Communication is key
The Progressive Corporation’s use of data was so innovative that it changed an entire industry. Competitors eventually discovered that if they weren’t able to offer a similar product, they’d become a niche player serving mainly reckless drivers.
What has already happened in the insurance industry is happening now in the off-highway industry. The modular factory is coming, and big data is its driver.
In the past, OEMs sent us a drawing. This was the communication of a solution, not a need. In this new era, big data is communication – a seamless flow of information which removes opinion or conjecture from product design and manufacturing. It’s communication that cannot be ignored, and communication that allows Fortaco to deliver solutions that serve both your customers and your bottom line.
Still Waiting for the Robot Rapture
The popular press may lead you to believe that the Singularity is right around the corner. But a Fortaco welding engineer explains why robots used on big structures must dramatically improve before they’ll completely replace human welders.
by Jari Hakalahti, QHSE Manager & Welding Engineer
-------
Manufacturing professionals who are not welding engineers — often those who have been justifiably amazed by functioning robot lines –sometimes talk about robotic welding as if it's incredibly simple. Just throw the parts in the air, press a button, and voilà, your finished product is ready to ship!
At Fortaco, we enthusiastically use robots whenever they make real sense for our business, yet our behind-the-scenes vantage point forces us to think in sober terms. The robot revolution may one day arrive: robot welders which (who?) understand, learn, and adapt to changing conditions while they weld. But before this day comes, there are a host of issues which need to be sorted out.
Can you match this, bots?
At our factory in Kalajoki, Finland, our 40 welders produce around 7,000 tons of welded structures every year, among them 32-ton steel base plates on to which ship engines and generators weighing over 70 tons will be fastened. Given the millions of loading cycles and vibrations our welds will endure over the ship engine's lifetime, there is not much room for error.
For a robot to match human quality, it will need to see air gaps and immediately adapt. It will have to be sensitive to environmental conditions and immediately compensate. And of course it will have to figure out how to get to those hard-to-reach places and corners where a bot isn’t currently up to the job, or can’t be repositioned without major human effort.
Another challenge is tack welding. Since robots can drive over tack welds and may cause defects underneath, humans are necessary to ensure even quality. Assuming a robot could tack weld, you'd also need another robot who could position the parts perfectly. Yes, this can be (and is) done for simple products and huge volumes, but it doesn't make sense for Fortaco’s biggest structures over 15 meters long and weighing 32 tons.
A challenge to suppliers
The size of the structure presents other problems. If you want robots to weld them, you need perfectly-cut and pre-bent parts to avoid gaps and weld stress deformation in big structures.
Also, as any hobby welder knows, a large part of good welding is positioning the parts before you begin to weld. And even beyond the realm of robotization, we see that most new welding technologies demand very accurate parts and plate fitting. Parts manufacturers may wish to take this as a challenge, as the success of robots is partly in their hands.
It’s payback time
For robots to match human performance is not impossible, but it is expensive. Optical sensors, temperature sensors, cameras, sound sensors – all these are required to approximate the human welder. Not only are these items expensive, but they take up massive amounts of space.
Please don’t view me as a Luddite – I’m very much in favor of robotization. I love that robots don’t take coffee breaks and that they can turn a part in a second without the use of a crane. It’s just that I work with big structures and robots every day. I know their limitations.
In many Fortaco factories we have products that suit well to robot use, and we will no doubt continue to invest in robot welding in the future. [SD1] But since we’re also running a business, we have to be very careful about which robots we invite into our lives.
From an investment point of view, we cannot wait an eternity for a return on the investment. With robots, the investment is huge and the payback time is long. There’s always the risk of investing today in yesterday’s technology, and recouping only a fraction of your original investment. So before we invest, we need to be convinced the robot will make a meaningful contribution.
Sympathy for the bots
Perhaps it’s time we humans show some sympathy for robots. After all, sometimes it’s we humans who are holding them back. Robot manufacturers, interested in sales, often provide numbers that are too optimistic. For us, the best measure of efficiency is how much welding wire is used in one hour. A human welder uses approximately one-half to two kilograms per hour, depending on the welding process used. For the jobs robots can do, they use four to ten kilos per hour, depending on the set-up. It’s great efficiency, but the main issue (which is usually forgotten in comparisons) is that it’s the only part of the welding phase that can be automated — welding set-up and finalization must still be done manually. Therefore, the over-the-moon numbers some robot makers give you for the overall performance boost are not always accurate.
Also, robots can literally suffer from prejudice. Take welding around notches, for example. In some conditions, robots can do this work well, but some humans still oppose their use. Even when robots achieve the required state of development, humans may still make decisions about their use using outdated information. It takes a while for information about their proven track record to circulate. Poor robots. We’re lucky they don’t yet have emotions.
As professionals, the best thing we can do is to attempt to understand the real applications of robots, accept that they are not the universal fix-all in manufacturing, and not demand too much of them. From time to time, we might even offer a little bit of robot love.
Engineering with Glass?
Lund University offers new ways of thinking about glass.
Glass is generally treated by engineers as, well, glass. It offers protection from wind, insects, rain, heat, and cold, but many engineers don’t consider its mechanical properties when designing new products. From the point of view of strength, it is literally invisible! This is especially true in the heavy machinery industry where machines can weigh 70 tons -- and our job is to protect the operator with the care that might be afforded an infant in a car seat. In the event of a roll-over or fall-over, the operator must emerge unscathed.
In the cabin environment most mechanical engineers would laugh at the idea of using glass as a load-bearing element. But they would be terribly wrong, as my team and I recently learned during an informal seminar at Lund University’s Department of Construction Science.
Challenged by Professor Erik Serrano and his colleagues, we convened a meeting to discuss engineering with glass – and we invited our cabin-specialist customers. What we learned was that the civil engineering industry is bravely exploring new applications for glass. Designers and architects are driving the demand for the wider usage of glass as an engineering material.
Our discussion also explored the topic of improving visibility for the operator in the cabin. Of course, there is a list of problems to be solved, but every solution starts somewhere as a spark in a meeting like ours with our clients and the experts from Lund. It was an open discussion where engineers representing a variety of product needs could share their ideas as well as learn about what’s taking place in other parts of their industry.
Thank you, Professor Serrano, Professor Persson, and Dr. Kozlowski, for hosting us in Lund! We look forward to building further on the ideas we discussed.
The New Reality of R&D
In the race to reduce costs, traditional outsourcing of engineering tasks may lead to higher R&D costs. But to stay competitive the OEM must still outsource. Fortaco Technology's Rafal Sornek shows how to improve R&D efficiency through early involvement of strategic suppliers.
by Rafal Sornek, Senior Vice President for Technology, Fortaco
-------
Batch engineering and outsourcing your engineering haven’t always been bad ideas, but they can easily be carried too far. Savings on an hourly rate are tempting, especially for what may first appear to be repeatable tasks. But despite a better hourly rate, the number of hours involved for seemingly simple tasks can often add up.
If I would ask one of my Fortaco engineers to design a steel bracket, he’s likely to tell me we need to take five-millimeter steel and bend it in a certain way. But if I have to outsource that same bracket to engineers, who don’t know my product, they’ll use software to calculate stresses, they’ll model the bracket, establish boundary conditions, and then they’ll send me a report. The outcome may be the same, but it will take twice as long. It may not even be cheaper, and it certainly doesn’t add to my efficiency.
Too far from the product
In my past life as head of R&D for a major OEM, I witnessed the outsourcing of key component engineering. I realized that given the turnover in R&D, many OEM engineers just don’t have much of a connection to manufacturing. In new component design you design details, send drawings, you have a price target from a sourcing organization, and then you just have to pray that your supplier’s price is on target.
But usually it’s not. Then a discussion ensues about how to lower the price. The supplier will suggest alternations, and the result is three to four loops of design changes. The heavy time pressure makes engineers reluctant to make any big changes, and the outsourcing process puts engineers between a rock and a hard place. That is unfortunate, because the bigger game – what the OEM needs to worry about – is being first to market with your product.
The costs of inefficiency
Delays to market can mean the loss of the premium price and share-of-mind that first-to-market products command. But even simple delays will cost you dearly. To understand what delays cost you, first forecast your revenue, your cost of goods, and get your net present value. If you have a 30 million NPV in a 60-month period, then every month of delay is costing you one-half million euros. Companies often fail to calculate delay costs, or are sometimes even unaware of them. They don’t see it directly in the cost, but it’s there.
A third cost of delays can be felt in the return on R&D, calculated as the gross margin generated by the product divided by the R&D spend over a given period. According to studies done on OEMs, their return on R&D is 12 euros gross margin per one euro spent on R&D. But if you concentrate on your core — let’s say you’re a system integrator — then I know companies that can go up to 60 euros gross margin per one euro spent on R&D.
How is this possible? It’s because these companies are not asking their engineers to design a hydraulic cylinder. Instead, they outsource it to a company that specializes in hydraulic cylinders. An OEM simply cannot afford to be an expert in everything.
Electric mobility: problem or opportunity?
Given changing CO2 emissions standards and improving technologies for lightweight steel structures, electric mobility in the off-highway business has finally arrived – and with it the potential to destroy an OEM’s return on R&D. Electric mobility does not mean the replacement of diesel engines, but rather that crane manufacturers, for example, will need to produce every model in both diesel- and electric-drive versions. This means companies will be looking at doubling their R&D expenses in order to produce an electric model.
Unfortunately, there is no reason to expect sales to double, and with sales held constant, doubling R&D expenses will result in the return on R&D decreasing by half. OEMs will be left with the choice to invest more in R&D, or find partners who can do it on their behalf. Since there is no fixed cost connected to the external option, this approach holds appeal to bean counters at OEMs. But it makes engineering sense, as well.
In this age of digitalization OEMs need to focus their R&D on what makes them unique versus the competition. Does it make you unique that you design your own steel structure yourself? I’d argue that it’s better to put your resources into thinking about the solution you’re offering. Think at the system level.
Bring it home with Fortaco Technology
“Outsourcing” may be one of the uglier words in the engineering vocabulary, but it is not necessarily a synonym for cheap or low quality. We created Fortaco Technology to offer design-to-manufacturing capabilities for the off-highway industry.
In 2017, we began working with a major construction equipment company in a design-to-manufacturing advisory capacity. We’re the guys looking over their shoulder. We were able to show the customer how their current designs would mean a robotic arm couldn’t get access to make a weld and would require human intervention. Our advisory approach is expected to reduce manufacturing costs for the customer by 15 to 20 percent.
A second solution from Fortaco Technology is called Toolchain. Its role is to extend the “looking over the shoulder” aspect of Fortaco all the way back in the work process to data analytics and carried through, in part with a digital twin, to product specification, concept, design, and manufacturing. Expected benefits are a 10 percent material savings, 18 percent labor cost reduction, and 50 percent faster product development time.
A new reality
It’s the new reality of R&D. Outsourcing doesn’t have to be a dirty word. In fact, outsourcing is inevitable, and how we handle it can make or break the business. The good news is that while engineering services may have to be outsourced, there is no good reason an OEM can’t improve efficiency – and its return on R&D – by doing so.
Rafal Sornek, PhD, Fortaco's Senior Vice President for Technology, invites you to calculate your return on R&D and get in touch rafal.sornek@fortacogroup.com
How OEMs can get the most out of a supplier
"An OEM-supplier relationship is like a marriage", says Marcus Engman, Senior Vice President at Fortaco. We asked him to play marriage counselor and answer tough questions about OEM-supplier relationships.
If we look at the OEM-supplier relationship as a marriage, what are the key factors to keep a couple together? What makes a relationship work?
It’s really important to sit down, talk and to get to know each other, because no relationship can support too many wrong assumptions. In terms of business, both parties have to understand the supply chain. Since you can’t keep marrying and divorcing all the time – or if you do, it gets disastrously expensive – it pays to invest in a strategic partnership and, as importantly, invest in the selection process to ensure a strategic fit.
For a supplier it’s exhausting to fill out RFIs and RFQs that arrive via email. You fill them out, you tell your story, but you never meet your potential client. Generally speaking, things that happen via email are not fruitful. When an OEM begins looking for a new supplier there is always a reason behind it. Maybe their current supply chain has price or quality issues, or capacity constraints, or perhaps they’re going to open a new factory somewhere and need to localize the supply chain . You’ve got to understand their motivation, and an email exchange doesn’t provide the type of dialogue so that a supplier can add value.
But OEMs are so burdened that they’re even bringing in consultants to do RFQs. What’s a more ideal process – better than email – for finding the right match?
It’s true that consultants are often brought in to do prequalifying work. Another common practice is to leave that work to dedicated business intelligence. They don’t always have the authority to do more than the bosses have told them to do. No dialogue comes from it.
It’s not efficient if an OEM is paying a lot of money for someone to shortlist companies without even knowing whether those companies are really interested or if they’re a good match. If an OEM’s short list is full of suppliers that don’t fit their strategy, then the OEM really has no short list. Choosing a good tier-one strategic supplier isn’t as easy as just doing a Google search, though this tool can aid you in preparing a long list. More important is preparing the correct supplier profile.
Of course, you have to take part in RFIs and RFPs. These are the steps before the RFQ. But the level of commitment to the process is different. If an unknown OEM approaches me and asks for a long list of information, and they’ve provided an RFQ. I don’t immediately say “Yippee, let’s do it.” I’ll say “Yes, we’re interested, let’s meet.” It’s a complicated relationship and many things must fit: ambition, timing, resources, industrial processes, just to name a few.
But an OEM can’t meet with everyone, so how should a good short list be built? What’s one important element that must match between supplier and OEM?
One observation I can make is that size matters. A supplier needs to have a certain size of business, the right processes, people, and so forth. Take steel fabrication, for example.
One European OEM’s spend in steel fabrication can be 100 million euros and upwards. Fortaco’s larger competitors in steel fab are around 30-50 million euros in turnover, but you can find suppliers who have turnover of five million euros or less. A supplier has got to have the critical mass, a certain amount of fixed competences or resources – project management, quality, sourcing, inventory management, and other support functions. Fortaco’s turnover in steel fab is 170 million euros, and this means we can afford a higher fixed cost base.
Those serious about being a tier one supplier must have the willingness and ability to invest in the operation. The bigger the company the bigger the investment budget. Investments can be in the range of millions. It doesn’t make sense to form a new relationship for revenue of a half-million euros. There’s got to be a clear target, commitment, and the long-term business case must be clearly understood by both parties.
So can you define your dream OEM?
For us, our dream customers are those with whom we have a strategic relationship that’s not only about manufacturing, but where it’s also about technology and early involvement. Fortaco’s dream customer comes to us with a question and is open to ideas about how to develop new products that are easier to manufacture or products that come with improved functionality. The dream customer is quality driven, values performance in terms of delivery accuracy, and is more focused on value than on cost.
The dream customer gets involved in R&D and we work together in the early stages to secure the best product at the right price and right quality. A dream customer is a customer who can critically examine their own processes and, if something goes wrong, doesn’t take the easy way out and blame the supplier. To make any marriage work it’s got to be a balanced relationship.
You have been known to say that “suppliers actually choose the OEM, not the other way around.” Explain what you mean, because it seems OEMs are often proud of their huge spends and some have reputations for being dictatorial.
In principle, you should choose your customers yourself. Why should you let somebody else decide on your future or your destiny? You have to be in charge of your own business!
Fortaco lately had a rather good experience with one customer we’ve been with in talks with for many years. And I mean literally years—this customer was already auditing our factories several years before we had a concrete business case. We both wanted to work with each other, but we had to wait for the planets to align and for a concrete project to appear so that we could begin cooperation.
We have made mistakes in the past when we were not critical enough of a potential customer. Perhaps we were hungry for new business and we began working together, but later we understood that it was not a good match. We’ve learned that we need to use our resources on relationships that are fruitful in terms of executing our strategy. It means that we must choose our customers as much as our customers choose us.
Bringing you back as a marriage counselor, how about one practical idea for OEM-supplier relationship improvement?
Consider this: a typical supply agreement is about ten pages long. Three of those pages are concerned with how prices are formulated, one page about warranties, one page about liquidated damages if you don’t perform, and another page about quality, and so forth. In all of those ten pages there may be only a few sentences about how we will work together to ensure we meet the delivery performance and quality targets. The part which describes how we’ll work together is basically missing! The communication, sharing of information, production planning, capacity flexibility issues – this is crucial information in order to meet targets, but it maybe rates the attention of only a few sentences.
My point is that lots of energy is expended when it comes to price. But very little energy is put into the question of how we’ll work together. I am not placing blame here, because we as a supplier can also take some responsibility for this. But the supply agreement might be one place where we could start—in the name of better marriages—in order to shift the focus away from cost and back to value.
Please contact Marcus to discuss in more detail about OEM-Supplier relationship
marcus.engman@fortacogroup.com
Pay attention to these design challenges related to ergonomics
Functional cabin ergonomics is a result of many optimized factors. Basically, ergonomics means all interaction between operator and working environment.
What comes to a cabin, it simply means that good ergonomics can maximize operator's concentration and focus during the entire working shift, and this way both safety and efficiency will increase remarkably. Balanced ergonomics also reduces end-user’s stress and makes maneuvering significantly easier from the very beginning when the end-user steps into the cabin and adjusts personally his/her seat and other steering instruments.
When designing a functionally optimized cabin there are even legal aspects to be considered. “It is normal that authorities have placed regulations, which might vary, for example between tractors and harvesters. Typically, those requirements are ensuring the overall safety when operating a machine”, says Mr. Juha Juvonen, Technical Manager at Fortaco.
According to Mr. Juvonen authorities and legal stipulations are defining the minimum level of requirements for the cabin and the entire working machine. For example, the minimum door opening measurements are strictly enforced. Besides the legal aspects, also one of the very important design aspects is the fact that the cabin products are available globally. Many parameters can vary, and regional regulations can differ. Also, cabins are designed for the end-users of all sizes, and they are also used in the different kind of climate conditions.
“We are aware of the different factors, and having a wide base of subcontractors and part manufacturers, we can mix and match different components into the suitable combination for all markets exceeding regulations and norms with our own and higher criteria”, says Mr. Juvonen.
Mr. Juvonen continues, “when designing a cabin, usually the initiation point simply is a cabin with limited outer measurements. Design work turns the cabin into an optimized working environment.” This means that all the instruments, monitors and maneuvering equipment can be reached easily.
Good visibility can never be compromised
Already today, an increasing feature is to maintain the balance between good visibility and monitors placed inside the cabin. “Computerized cabin demands and good layout in a way that the monitors are fully visible, but at the same time, clear and all-around visibility is not jeopardized, says Mr. Juvonen.
When designing an ergonomic cabin, also service operations should be considered. According to Mr. Juvonen, the easy cleaning procedures combined with the easy access to all service points are crucial. “While keeping an operator on focus, we are paying attention to the service as well, because it is part of the excellent customer satisfaction.”
How cabins reflect evolution of working environment
Working environment has always been there. Driver cabins have become part of it, as an essential part of working environment.
One might say that the cabin is the working environment of the driver. Yes, it is, but one should also see it in a larger context. Working environment consists of several factors influencing not only the driver itself, but everything around the working process as well. A safe working environment must be facilitated for all around the process.
A short world history of the cabins starts from the machine, which needed to have some place for the operator – a seat. When one was working outdoors, a shelter was nice to have. To keep the operator alive, an overhead guard or a roll bar was found to be good. Today, the most sophisticated cabins fulfill much more requirements than the basic needs.
"The first cabins just matched the user's basic needs. They were just protecting drivers from rain. Later, the roll bars came and made a giant leap in driver's safety", says Juha Juvonen, Technical Manager at Fortaco.
The new innovations and added features did not penetrate the entire market simultaneously. There are remarkable differences in the needs and timing, when it comes to cabins and their features in the different market sectors and user preferences.
According to Mr. Juvonen, all the latest developments are being implemented within a longer period of time, because there are a lot of different parameters. The influencing factors, which are depending on the working environment, are for example different daily routines, extreme weather conditions or uneven terrain, just a few to be mentioned.
Today the cabin is an extension of user's arm. Many automatic features are installed in as standards, like rain sensors for wipers, operating/driving mode selector systems, automatic working lights, interactive control systems or automatic work cycle functions. It is easy to see that the autonomous procedures and features are being first tested on the roads in passenger cars and truck technology, and they come inevitably available for off-road vehicles as well.
The evolution of the cabin, with some automated features and processes, will never stop. When adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the processes, and an instrumentation of the cabin, the machine can take some role in the decision-making process, and learn about the options and selections. The machine is becoming more or less an autonomous entity.
In Fortaco, we constantly invest in the technological know-how and service to support our customers’ businesses, not just according to the latest needs, but also according to the coming needs. The well-designed cabins are benefitting our customers with increased productivity, low maintenance cost, additional safety, serviceability and superb ergonomics.
Well-designed cabin is an interface between driver and machine
Cabin design has advanced a long way since cabins were only to protect users during the bad weather and to provide just a functional working station. Today, an emphasis is also on the other criteria, like safety and working ergonomics, which means a pleasant working environment. Also, the needs of users have changed and become more specific and individual.
“Users are supposed to be healthier and their endurance level in their own working environment is higher than earlier. This is what the working ergonomics is aiming at. On the other hand, the operational comfort and less stress factors are also very important drivers in the cabin design process”, lists Mr. Juha Juvonen, Technical Manager of Fortaco.
Mr. Juvonen sees that the following approaches are providing a good foundation to design a well-functioning cabin:
- Visibility is good and feel of a roomy cabin.
- Instrumentation installed is easy to use and reach.
- Vibration and noise levels are low and indoor air good.
When designing a cabin, instrumentation can be pre-planned in a way that the individual adjustments are very easy to do. Furthermore, even a small cabin can provide a sufficient space and compartments to store lunchbox, drinks and working clothes etc.
“Fortaco is carefully listening the feedback from end-users. All comments and requests are greatly valued when the cabin environment is being designed”, says Mr. Juvonen.
The Fortaco engineers along with the customers are discussing about the different design approaches directly with the end-users in order to manufacture even better cabins in the future. The cabin must be well-designed by using advanced computer simulations, which are based on the recent results of user studies. The modular design can be modified accordingly. This kind of project flow assists an engineer to analyze, compare and improve design to better address requirements of today.
“We have performed several user experience studies, focusing on the cabin we have manufactured for the machine”, says Mr. Juvonen.
According to Mr. Juvonen, R&D is steadily advancing, and that is why the future cabins are already being designed by Fortaco. The new milestones in R&D are remote and virtual management, for example the benefits of camera technology, big data and tracking systems.
Benefits of purchasing complete plug and play operator cabin
Quality, cost efficiency and less complexity
A competent and trusted supplier can take care of the entire supply chain for a customer, starting from the understanding of customer needs to the delivery of a serial product. Cabin design, engineering, manufacturing and logistics are the core competencies of a supplier. Processes are optimized to provide the highest quality and to reduce costs and complexity. When purchasing a cabin as a complete plug and play unit cost-effectiveness is even further increased and customer’s own resources are released to core business.
The benefits of outsourcing are not only limited to the cost of material and manufacturing. A service provider is often also responsible for the planning, resourcing and operation of the full supply chain. Several value-adding activities can be provided during the cabin project, these are bundled up into the competitive service package delivered to the customer.
The following activities are examples of what a cabin supplier can provide to an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer):
- Industrial design and cabin concept
- Cabin specification and BOM development
- Cabin technology R&D
- Integration of the cabin into the OEM equipment, e.g. electrics, software etc.
- Cabin documentation for production and maintenance
- Continuous improvements and maintenance
- Sourcing of materials and components including development of supply chain
- Maintaining quality standards and documentation
- Production planning and management
- Warehousing and logistics solutions
- Aftermarket services
A cabin supplier can provide extensive know-how and expertise to the customer by offering long-term perspective and a wide spectrum of services that positively reflect to the quality and cost-level of a product and remove the complexity from the OEM to handle.
A competent supplier continuously improves products and processes, leading to a higher quality and reducing Total Cost of Ownership.
“Our key target is to make our customers’ life easier by finding quick solutions when problems occur. While at the same time, we are constantly developing general ideas for product improvements to avoid future quality issues. We are flexible and capable to implement changes in all details in a short period of time, while actively working with customers to improve the quality level or our products. Customers expect our continuous support to improve their products, reduce cost and smoothen the supply chain”, underlines Juha Juvonen, Technical Manager at Fortaco.
Boosting of manufacturing and product management
Efficiency in manufacturing and related processes is one of the greatest advantages a cabin supplier can provide to its’ customers. Manufacturing automatization provided by a supplier improves quality, adds value in efficiency, offers cost-reduction potential while reducing production time and increasing flexibility to customer demands. “We aim to automatize production with modern welding robots and assembly tools. A large investment offers us long-term benefits, while for many of our customers it’s not a sustainable solution due to low production volume and utilization rate”, summarizes Tomi Metsä-Ketelä, Fortaco Sales Manager.
A cabin may include up to 1.000 – 1.500 different parts and a sourcing work requires constant supplier management, quality reviews, logistics documentation, tracking and handling of material. Outsourcing of such a work to a specialized cabin supplier provides an OEM customer with a reliable level of delivery accuracy and quality for a competitive product. “The complexity of material procurement can be seen when we manage material purchasing, storage, documentation and quality inspection on behalf of our customer. This way the customer can order a fully assembled and ready-made cabin with a single line item”, Tomi Metsä-Ketelä explains.
Supplier's logistic competence is a guarantee of continuous production
For the customer's production flow the deliveries just-in-time or just-in-sequence are crucial. Supplier flexibility releases inventory and storage space at the customer end. Logistical arrangements, such as VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) are getting more in the focus.
“By using Lean methodologies and shortened production times we assure quick and continuous cabin deliveries, but when needed, we can also provide VMI arrangements through a third party service providers. VMI is a solution we are using for long distance deliveries, for example to the US or even in Europe, to compensate long transport times”, says Juha Juvonen.
Commonality brings clear savings for customers
“We are continuously aiming to standardize components used in cabins we manufacture to increase their usage more widely and to benefit from the scale effect. We have also centralized our procurement channels, implemented common sourcing categories and supplier management processes to improve our competitiveness further. By offering common and proven technical solutions at a competitive price we can mutually benefit with our customers”, Tomi Metsä-Ketelä explains.
Key benefits when outsourcing cabin production
- Enable customers to focus on their core business.
- Turn fixed costs to variable costs and reduce capital employed.
- Increase operational flexibility.
- Improve efficiency of core in-house manufacturing processes by reducing complexity.