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The Sisu Diesel engine design philosophy is based on over 50 years experience in designing and manufacturing diesel engines, mainly for various off-road applications, used in the harsh northern climate conditions. The company’s net sales in 2003 totalled 130 million euros and the amount of personnel was approximately 620.
Applications for the company’s products include industrial and farming tractors, agricultural machines, forest machines, load handling machines, other construction machines, special vehicles, diesel generating sets and marine engines.
A unique part of Sisu Diesel’s production method is the fact that one person assembles the whole engine from the beginning to the end. As Eero Tomi, managing director of Sisu Diesel, explains: “This method is very rare in our industry, but we have been doing this for the last 30 years. Typically in the industry one employee just makes one tiny part of the engine, or a few components. But in our company the same person makes the whole engine, which can consist to up to 1500 different components.”
He continues: “This helps to make the job more satisfying, as the employee is responsible for the whole process from start to end. We are so proud of this way of working that the name of the person who has built the engine is included on the engine label.”
Eero believes that the workforce is very important to the success of the business, and emphasises that Sisu Diesel’s employees all receive specific training and that it can take many years to gain all of the company’s qualifications. “The right qualifications are important,” he confirms, “and our staff have to stay with us for a long time to get them all. Nevertheless we see very low staff turnover and high staff morale.” This successful recruitment is helped by a close relationship with local schools, as Eero explains: “Normally the people we employ have just finished school, and then we train them to do specialist jobs. We co-operate closely with the local schools for engineering training, and young students come to our site on work experience for two to six months, so they can get a better idea of what to expect from this environment, and also we get to know them better too.”
From its production plant in Nokia, Finland, Sisu Diesel manufactures engines, gearboxes and gears, generating sets and pump sets and spare parts for these products. Product development is a key part of the company’s business strategy, focusing on these three product lines, with new versions being released on a regular basis. Eero comments: “Earlier this year we released our Tier 3 compliant engine. This fulfils all the incoming emission regulations that are due to start in January 2006. Those are the regulations everybody has to fulfil, and we wanted to make sure our engines complied.
“All of the engines are of our own design, formulated in our own design centre. Here we have 50 engineers working on our products to make them more competitive for the future than they are today. This is a very fast moving industry, and we have to keep up with the competition.
More Electronics
“For example, we have more and more electronics coming into our engines, compared to ten years ago. Today electronics are more or less standard on an engine and so we have quite a lot people working solely on electronics to make engines more efficient and cleaner than they were five to ten years ago. This is true of the entire industry.”
Supporting this focus on R&D and NPD, the company’s products are all manufactured to the quality standard ISO 9001 standard, issued by Det Norske Veritas in 1994. The company also works to the environmental management system ISO 14001, and achieved this accreditation four years ago.
As part of the company’s quality policy, it also does a bi-annual customer satisfaction survey, to ensure that the customer receives a good service, and to address any potential issues. “We have up to 30 different questions that we ask customers, about our conduct, how we have done and how we have achieved the goals we have set together,” explains Eero. “This is one way to monitor how we are doing, plus as a modern business to business company we have very close contacts with our customers and continually try to make sure they get the best service.”
As part of AGCO, the company supplies the engines for many famous brand names, such as Massey Ferguson. Agco is the third largest agricultural machine manufacturer in the world, and its brands are Sisu Diesel’s main customers. In addition the company also provides products to other blue chip companies with well-known brand names, including Case and New Holland.
Eero identifies this change of ownership as one of the secrets of Sisu Diesel’s success, alongside the need to be consistent in product development, and the necessity to listen to customers. “You also need luck,” he says, continuing: “For example, we were very lucky to get AGCO as our parent company.” Having had five new owners over the past ten years, Eero is now very happy that the company is part of AGCO. “AGCO is an American company, and an ideal owner for our type of business,” he says.
“The demand for our engines is growing all the time, and since we became part of AGCO our aim is to increase products substantially for the future.”
VTR
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