Tero Manner giving us an overview on the company
After Tero had welcomed everyone and introduced the agenda of the day, he gave a comprehensive company introduction. He provided numbers and figures to build a wide picture about ABB’s business and the various industries where their products and services are utilized. As the knowledge about ABB’s business in general seems often to be on the level of “something to do with motors and electrics”, we believe all of us learned a lot of new about the company. We also learned that ABB’s equipment is often indirectly connected to our daily life because they stand as the largest supplier of industrial motors and drives, the largest provider of generators to the wind industry, and the largest supplier of power grids worldwide.
Tero pointed out clearly how ABB’s role is underestimated in the media. In the newspapers, only the fancy “start-ups” are stressed. ABB has actually a great success story and they were highly profitable also last year. ABB is a global leader in many areas by operating in approximately 100 countries. Furthermore, they are one of the biggest industrial employers in Finland, operating in over 30 localities. Besides the company introduction, it was really nice that Tero shared us also about his personal background. Surprisingly, Tero was a previous Stratos student from the 90s and thus it was fascinating to hear about his career path.
After hearing about ABB’s business in general, Mika took a deep dive into ABB’s drive business and the recent project they had been dealing with. Mika presented a highly interesting real-time case of how they were able to enhance their service levels. By using a fundamental quality-enhancement mindset, they were able to cut their lead times significantly and hence make their customers even more satisfied. After hearing about the successful “lead-time project”, it was time for a coffee break and excellent shrove buns (laskiaspulla) – yummy!
After the break it was Janne’s turn to give us insight about the Systematic model and toolbox for Product Transfer Projects. During his presentation he showed us how the these projects are planned and followed, what is the role of communication by project leaders and how to optimize the time use of the specialists. Then, it was time for the last presentation of the day: Esa taught us a lot about planning of IT projects and how to evaluate the profitability of these projects. Like all the previous presentations, we perceived the information as very interesting, and again lots of questions and comments were raised during and after the presentation.
After all the presentations, we were unfortunately quite behind with the time schedule and thus there wasn’t a lot of time for an overall discussion at the end. Instead, the ABB team decided to start heading for the last part of the excursion – the factory tour.
First Tero took us to see the facilities where ABB manufactures engines. We saw a lot of impressive machinery and complicated generators etc. Interesting was that ABB rotates some tasks of the workers at the factory, this is done to keep everyone motivated and to avoid too long routines. After Tero’s guided tour it was Janne’s turn. He took us to a building where ABB manufactures drives. First he gave us an interesting demonstration of how a drive works with a simple example that involved an electronic motor and a small red balloon. In the factory we saw some assembly lines and Janne told us about the products, warehouse control and how different jobs are organized.
All in all, we are pretty sure that we can speak for all of us when saying that we enjoyed the visit a lot and it reminded us of the opportunities that ABB, as a truly global company, can offer for ambitious university graduates with technical or business backgrounds. We would all like to thank ABB for offering us the opportunity to learn more about businesses related to power and automation technologies and your way of doing business.
- Lauri, Miina & Joni
