Month: August 2023

SPRING 2023 – HILLA’S TRAINING DIARY

Posted on by Jari Silver

A corporate supporter of sports, Robit signed a sponsorship and cooperation agreement in 2021 with Hilla Niemelä, one of the most promising young skiers in Finland. Hilla has been keeping a training diary for our readers. Here is a summary of her skiing season 2022–23.

Had a great skiing season. I exceeded myself and my expectations on many measures but left a lot to be desired too. My goals for the season were to compete in the U23 World Championships and finally debut in the World Cup. The season started fast at the beginning of November, and I was in really good shape compared to previous seasons. Right in the first race, I got my best placement to date in the Finnish Cup – a good start for the season.

After the observation competitions early in the season, I made it to the World Cup in Ruka, Finland, for the first time. In my first WC start, I finished in the top 30 in the classic-style sprint. On the second and third day, I also reached the top 40. Based on these results, I was selected to ski for the World Cup abroad. For the first time, I got to experience what it is like to tour overseas. In Lillehammer, I was 37th in the classic-style 20 km – an encouraging experience for a longer distance.

The main competitions in December were the Scandinavia Cup in Östersund, Sweden, which also served as a qualifying event for the U23 World Championships in Canada. I had an excellent sprint day and finished 11th in a tough race. December was a busy month of training.

In the autumn, I started studying Environmental Engineering at the University of Tampere, which allowed me to participate in the Winter Universiade, an equivalent of the World Student Championships. On 9 January, we travelled to Lake Placid in New York State – two weeks in the USA, five days of racing and many great experiences. The most memorable trip of my life; I would go again anytime! I skied two personal gold medals: 5 km classic and 5 km freestyle, and in the relay, I anchored the Finnish team to gold. We had a great team spirit throughout the trip, and I’m sure it was largely because the team achieved top performances.

From Lake Placid, straight to Canada for the U23 World Championships. Despite the long travel days, I was in a good mood for the sprint day. I was really charged, which negatively affected qualifying, but it got better in the heat stage. However, the race day I had so anticipated ended prematurely with a crash, which was a big disappointment. In Canada, I skied one more classic 20 km with little success. I had to skip the last race due to health concerns.

Four weeks in North America left me really tired, and my race performances were hit-and-miss. I did have some successes: I won my first two personal Finnish Junior Championships, sprint and 10 km. I also qualified for the World Cups in Tallinn and Lahti, but I didn’t have much to offer. The energy was ok, but the performance fell far below my level. However, I crowned the season with success in the Finnish championships relay, where our team won silver! I made my late-season top performance right where it mattered and ended the season with a smile.

A new training season is well underway, and my hunger for success has only grown stronger. Once you know what it feels like to throw your arms up in the sky in victory at the finish line, you’re hooked forever!

Thanks to Robit for your invaluable support in my sporting career!

Best regards, Hilla

Robit ProTALK – Janne Soininen, Director, Global Manufacturing

Posted on by Jari Silver

YOUR POSITION AT ROBIT AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BY TASK AND REGIONAL LEVEL?

I work as Global Manufacturing Director and my priority is to ensure that our customers get their products delivered as promised and with the proven Robit quality. Thus, my main responsibility is overseeing and coordinating the manufacturing operations in Finland, UK, Korea, and Australia. Also, HSEQ-related topics form a significant part of my responsibilities. I work in close cooperation with factory heads of each location and, therefore, my daily tasks are much about communication; what are the current main issues, are projects on schedule, and are there any safety related concerns.

EXPERIENCE ON THE FIELD

I started my career as a production planner over 15 years ago. Since then, I have been working in different roles in metal industry, still always keeping very close to production and supply chain related processes. I could say that production management has been the guiding line of my career. In my current role it is nice to see time after time how you might be on different continents and work with people from different cultures, but “factory physics” remains more or less the same. This makes adapting existing processes and creating new ones very interesting.

KEY MARKET TRENDS ON YOUR FIELD OF EXPERTISE FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS

As automation is part of our everyday life, I believe digitalization together with AI is the next big thing. Lean philosophy will stay as a basis and sustainable supply chain will become important competitive advantage. I see that AI offers possibilities in very concrete things like machine tracking. This is an application where the amount of information is in many cases enormous, because each machining center is creating new data all the time. Still, when going for a detailed level, there might be patterns that predict, for example, machine breaks or quality issues. For humans, analyzing and identifying patterns from a large amount of data would be very time consuming, or impossible, but with help of AI it is much more efficient and reliable. From customer point of view utilizing AI and digitalization mean faster and more reliable information flow, better visibility to supply chain and eventually, happier customers. I also believe this goes vice versa, better information flow towards factories will help us to reach higher delivery accuracy through increased quality of information.

HOW DO ROBIT’S ONGOING ACTIONS SUPPORT THE CUSTOMERS AND THEIR CURRENT CHALLENGES?

Current actions will support better availability and quality. We have started a Robit-wide project to review the existing processes and related quality assurance actions. The purpose is to spot any risks that non-conforming products would be delivered to customer. We are also developing the utilization of our ERP-system. The target is to utilize a more sophisticated MRP-module that better supports our production planning processes and gives improved visibility to whole supply chain, helping us gain better availability. For customer this is visible, once again, as better information. We are able to spot possible risks for delays in supply chain, and if there’s absolutely nothing we can do to eliminate these risks, we can at least offer reliable information regarding updated delivery time. Of course, IT-systems alone don’t solve majority of the issues, they are just tools. We also need to build processes where people and IT-tools together ensure fluent and efficient communication flow.  

HOW DO YOU SEE ROBIT IN 2023-2024 – WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN EXPECTATIONS IN YOUR FIELD?

I expect flexibility to increase in manufacturing operations. This is done through training people and setting up machines so that they are not dedicated to one product group only but can manufacture several product groups. This helps us adapt to changing market situations and market demand. Better utilization of IT-tools (MRP, machine tracking) decreases the manual workload and helps us better understand the current situation and plan development actions accordingly. Another big improvement I expect to really kick off is an improved forecasting and capacity planning process. As a summary, next couple of years will further develop our processes towards better customer service. Combining of technical tools and our expertise of drilling consumables will make Robit even more reliable partner to our customers.

For more information: Janne Soininen, firstname.lastname@robitgroup.com

 

Read more Robit ProTALK interviews:

FINGEO RELIES ON DOMESTIC WEAR PARTS IN DRILLING AND PILING

Posted on by Jari Silver

Fingeo is a Finnish drilling and piling contractor with solid experience. They also carry out more extensive projects, including civil engineering. For drilling consumables, the company relies on the quality, reliability, and competitive price of domestic Robit.

Founded in 2008, Fingeo Oy is now part of the E.M. Pekkinen Oy group.

“Our goal has been to develop our operating methods and provide a high-quality overall service. Fingeo has traditionally been strong in drilling and piling contracting. In recent years, we have expanded our service offering to include extraction by wedging and blasting and rock reinforcement by shotcrete, grouting and bolting. “We now also offer comprehensive foundation work contracts, which makes it easier for the client as the same contractor takes responsibility for the work from start to finish. We have the flexibility to handle smaller projects as well as larger ones. Our extensive experience in soil and rock drilling, together with other civil engineering professionals, ensures an overall sustainable contract and smooth project management,” says Veli-Antti Pekkinen, Project Manager at Fingeo Oy.

Construction continues to be strong in the Helsinki region

While Fingeo’s operations mainly focus on the Helsinki metropolitan area, several projects, particularly demanding piling contracts for industrial and bridge projects, are carried out throughout the country.

“In the future, we will increasingly offer our services in different parts of the country, especially in challenging projects and large turnkey contracts. We have plenty of work for the rest of the year as construction in the capital region continues to be strong on the ongoing sites. As for new projects, the future is not quite as clear,” says supervisor Jukka Jääskeläinen.

Wide variety of work methods, skilled staff

For drilling and anchoring, Fingeo uses a large variety of methods and a wide range of special equipment.

“Our pipe piling projects range from a few piles to construction sites with several thousand piles. Tensile anchoring is used, for example, in trench shoring to absorb tensile forces. Our areas of expertise also include specialities like offshore drilling from a raft and combi walls for trench support.”

“The backbone of our equipment consists of pipe piling and anchoring machines and drill rigs, of which we have about a dozen units. While the machinery is state-of-the-art, our motivated and highly skilled staff is key to successful projects. Our team has an excellent working atmosphere. Our minimal turnover rate speaks for that,” says Kai Jaakkola, supervisor.

Robit – the trusted partner for consumables

Drilling and piling is a consumable-intensive business. Fingeo’s main supplier in these applications is Robit, with its products manufactured domestically in Lempäälä.

“At the moment, we get practically all our wear parts from Robit: for quarrying, that includes rods and bits; for piling, we use their reamers, pilot bits, and DTH hammers. We appreciate their domestic manufacture and great customer service that ranges from sales to delivery to problem-solving. Robit actively develops technically advanced products, and the manufacturing quality is high. Their consumables allow us to drill further, resulting in cost savings. And while Robit’s products are definitely at the top of the market, they are also competitively priced. It’s quite a rare equation,” Jääskeläinen and Jaakkola say.

CERRO CORONA: TESTING IN THE SHADOW OF A PANDEMIC

Posted on by Jari Silver

Thanks to its rich gold deposits, the Cajamarca region in northern Perú has been home to gold mines since the Inca times. One of the current mines is Cerro Corona, where Robit recently became the preferred supplier of DTH drill bits.

Cerro Corona mine, owned by Gold Fields Inc, is located on the eastern slope of the western Andes, some 80 km north of the regional capital of Cajamarca. The open pit mine is expected to produce some 2.1 Moz (about 60,000 kg) of gold and 407 kt of copper in concentrate over its 15-year mine life.

The rich gold deposit is hosted by diorite porphyry, an extremely hard rock embedded in limestone. MUR-WY, the drilling contractor at Cerro Corona, uses the so-called pre-splitting method, where closely spaced holes are drilled and lightly charged, causing fractures that isolate the gold-bearing rock from the surrounding rock mass. Successful pre-splitting requires very straight holes, and, as always, this should be achieved with optimal cost, penetration rate, and tool lifetime performance.

Robit believed their tools might improve productivity, so they contacted MUR-WY in 2021 to arrange test drillings for 5” DTH bits at Cerro Corona. Test drilling is typically a very hands-on type of work where you monitor and make adjustments on the spot with the contractor. However, the COVID pandemic complicated things.

“In 2021, access to the mine was heavily restricted, so we had to get creative with MUR-WY to follow up on the tests. We ended up monitoring the performance remotely through WhatsApp videos and messages”, says José Luis Cisneros, General Manager of Robit SAC.

Luckily the restrictions were eventually lifted, and Robit’s Regional Sales Manager, Martín Rodriguez, was able to revisit Cerro Corona and conclude the tests, which proved highly successful.

“On average, compared to the tools they had used, we reached 20 to 25% better yields with our DHD340 Flat Face Premium bits and 40 to 50% better with our D45 HD hammers.

“We detected several ways to improve productivity. Not only did Robit’s components perform better, but a key factor is also the service we can provide. We are now the preferred supplier for DTH consumables at Cerro Corona. There are still challenges to tackle, but we will work with our strategic partners from MRU-WY to articulate better ways to approach their needs and increase security regarding the project’s required logistics”, Martín says.