25-year-old Relicomp headed for growth
Relicomp Oy, the versatile company specialising in sheet metal technology, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with two major investments in Kurikka, Finland: a new welding robot and an automated paint booth, which will increase the plant’s efficiency by up to one-fourth. In addition to investments in new machinery and equipment, Relicomp is strongly committed to developing its IT systems. The new paint booth is already in use, the welding robot will be installed at the turn of October and November, and IT systems are currently being developed. The total value of these investments is nearly one million euros.
And more good news will follow: Relicomp is planning to recruit ten new employees every year in the near future. At the moment, Relicomp has approximately 130 employees.
Relicomp’s growth has been strong this year.
We recently signed a contract with a large new client in Sweden, and the number of orders from our existing customers is also growing. This will increase our turnover by at least five million euros in the next three years, from EUR 15 million to EUR 20 million, says Marko Jyllilä, Managing Director of Relicomp.
Relicomp will have ten new jobs in both robot and manual welding by next summer. The company will also recruit experts in other areas of metal production, such as cutting, press braking, painting, assembly and shipping.
We have also been training new experts all this time. Employees must have the right attitude, that is the most important thing. We will need new experts also in the future, Jyllilä says.
Cost-efficient welding and painting, even for small volumes
Relicomp has already taken the automated paint booth into use. Thanks to this investment, the company can meet customer needs more flexibly, enabling cost-efficiency also for smaller painted series.
Our paint booth represents the latest technology in Finland. It helps us paint smaller batches flexibly and keeps us from being forced to only paint larger series. We can paint more complex shapes in higher quality and carry out the orders with a tighter schedule. The entire supply chain is in our own hands, comments Arto Pitkämö, Director of Production.
The ABB welding robot will be installed at the Relicomp plant later this year. Thanks to the robot, Relicomp’s customers will no longer be tied to long welding series, but each piece can be different. The robot is able to change the program “on the fly.” This investment is very significant to Relicomp, as it enables the cost-efficient welding of completely new kinds of products. Relicomp’s long-term goal is to increase automation, which does not mean replacing people with robots. However, work at the welding plant will change in many respects. Using the robot requires that a worker arranges the products to be welded optimally, after which the robot can be left to work unsupervised. This means that there will be no downtime between different welding operations.
Relicomp has launched its own DigiRoti project to develop its IT systems. We continue to develop our planning and warehouse management to make them serve our production better. We are also working to create clear, visual reporting tools for areas such as quality and internal accounting. These will help our daily managerial work immensely, Jyllilä says.