future power - Konecranes Way Up Magazine

A magazine about Lifting Businesses
TM
TM
www.konecranes.com
4 Lifting
1,200 meters
underground
6 Supporting
wind energy
market growth
ISSUE 1 / 2010
18 How to
better
understand
customer’s
industry
22
ASIA’S
BIGGEST
WIND TURBINE
MANUFACTURER
FUTURE
POWER
Konecranes
Editor’s note
REBUILDING
TRUST AND
CONFIDENCE
In the very turbulent global economy in 2009, most companies
were faced with challenges, setbacks and surprises. The first
half of 2009 was full of worries, while the second half was
a mixture of mild optimism and doubt. With the continued
governmental investments and some early signs of recovery
in consumer spending and industrial production, it is time
to rebuild the trust and confidence in the world economy.
This does not necessarily indicate that 2010 will be easier in
anyway, but it does strengthen confidence that a fresh, new
wind will blow in. With the right actions and investments, a
company can be prepared for the upswing, and emerge even
stronger than before.
The first issue of Way Up in 2010 takes a look at the fastexpanding renewable energy of wind power. Two articles about
turbine and gear manufacturing based on competence, quality
and reliability offer good insight into the business. We zoom
in on the future of communication where travelling is replaced
by modern technology in the form of instant messaging, VoIP,
and video calls. In this issue the theme section offers the value
of deeper customer insight and how that information can be
transformed into usable knowledge. As a final important note, I
am proud to report that the new Konecranes Smarton heavy-duty
process crane has been launched. An evolutionary crane based
on the best available technology on the market.
It is time to let go of the “wait and see” attitude and behavior.
All companies need to act and to not wait for the different
governments to stay in the driver’s seat.
© Mirva Kakko
You want to speed up the recovery of the world economy?
Invest now.
Mikael Wegmüller
Editor-in-Chief
Sales by Business Area
September 2009 (R12M)
Konecranes is a world-leading group of Lifting
Businesses™, serving a broad range of customers,
including manufacturing and process industries,
shipyards, ports and terminals. Konecranes provides
productivity-enhancing lifting solutions as well as
services for lifting equipment and machine tools of
all makes. In 2009, Group sales January–September
totaled EUR 1,242 million. The Group has 9,700
employees at 485 locations in 43 countries.
Konecranes is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.
2 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
Sales by Market Area
September 2009 (R12M)
35%
37%
1,893
MEUR
29%
56%
1,893
MEUR
15%
28%
Standard Lifting
Europe, Middle East, Africa
Service
Heavy Lifting
Americas
Asia–Pacific
January 2010
CONTENTS
6
SECTIONS
4 LIFTING SOLUTIONS
German K+S Kali GmbH has a
total of 18 Konecranes cranes
running underground.
12 aGENDa
Antti Koskelin: The technology
brings the world closer together.
18 ThEmE
Deeper customer insight brings
more value.
wIND
pOwEr
This renewable energy
source is used in over 80
countries. Way Up visited
a wind turbine manufacturer in India (page 22)
and a wind turbine gear
manufacturer in Finland
(page 6).
13
mEET ThE
SmarTON
Konecranes launched a new
space-making and sustainable
heavy-duty process crane.
Smarton can be added and
updated by features according to
customer’s evolving needs and
challenges.
30 TECh #1
Global and efficient team work
is possible with 3D engineering
tools.
32 TECh #2
Standards harmonize safety
principles and technology.
34 EXOTIC
A Konecrane wire rope hoist lifts
oil drums and technical devices
in a lighthouse in the North Sea.
28
aSIaN
mULTILINGUaLS
Cultural manifestations as well as
languages vary greatly across India. In
addition to Hindi and English, there are
22 national languages in India.
Publisher Konecranes Plc., P.O.Box 661 FIN-05801 Hyvinkää, Finland, Telephone +358 20 427 11, www.konecranes.com
Editor-in-Chief Mikael Wegmüller Managing Editor Anci Sandås Production and Graphic Design United Magazines, Kynämies,
Finland Team Leader Teija Laakso Producer Jaana Kalliokoski Art Director Väinö Teittinen Graphic Designer
Petra Antila Translation English and German versions: Lionbridge Oy Printed by Libris Oy Cover Photo Tommi Tuomi ISSN
1796-9700 © 2010 Konecranes. All rights reserved. ‘Konecranes’, ‘Lifting Businesses’ and are registered
trademarks of Konecranes. Please send your feedback to: [email protected].
™
This publication is for general informational purposes only. Konecranes reserves the right at any time, without notice, to alter or discontinue the products and/or specifications
referenced herein. This publication creates no warranty on the part of Konecranes, express or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranty or merchantability or fitness
for a particular purpose. The articles in Way Up magazine contain opinions of individuals. They do not necessarily represent Konecranes’ official position.
3
LIFTING SOLUTIONS
Story by Kimmo Kiimalainen Photos by Konecranes
Lifting underground
German K+S Kali
GmbH, the leading
provider of potash
and magnesium
crude salts in Europe,
deploys Konecranes
know-how to keep
its mining business
running – 1,200
meters (over 3,900
feet) underground.
With an annual output of around 8 million tons
of potash and magnesium products, Germanybased K+S Kali GmbH needs reliable, high-quality,
heavy-duty industrial lifting and hoisting solutions
to run its mining business deep in the ground.
The company extracts crude salts in six
German mines and processes them into highgrade mineral fertilizers and intermediate
products for businesses in the pharmaceutical
industry, chemical industry, pulp and paper
industry, health care sector as well as for food
producers. In many parts of the world, for
example, agricultural production is dependent on
German K+S products. Playing a crucial role in
food production carries great responsibility.
THE RIGHT CHOICE
© Konecranes
K+S Kali began its partnership with Konecranes
in the 1980s to guarantee constant and flawless
production of crude salts in workspaces more
than a kilometer deep. The company equipped
its Hattorf-Wintershall mine in Philippsthal,
Hesse with Konecranes industrial cranes, Stahl
CraneSystems chain hoists and monorail tracks.
More than two decades of cooperation have
proved that Konecranes solutions were the right
choice here, too, deep in the German ground.
“We are very satisfied. We’ve worked together
for over 20 years, a fact that testifies to our
commitment. And as the price/performance ratio
is all right, too, we have everything needed for
successful cooperation,” says K+S Kali GmbH’s
Jürgen Radick.
Radick is especially pleased with Konecranes’
fast response times and ability to combine its own
and third-party solutions, if needed. This flexibility
4 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
is of vital importance in keeping K+S’s large-scale
mining business running smoothly.
Since the cooperation started, K+S Works in
the Philippsthal mine have become the biggest
– and also one of the deepest – underground
Konecranes workshop worldwide. K+S Kali
GmbH now has a total of 18 Konecranes cranes
running underground: Most of them are used for
maintenance tasks when repairing machines and
other mining machinery. Two cranes load and
unload vehicles with tools.
“All of them have proven to be very reliable.
We rarely encounter any problems,” Radick says.
CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT
Even so, K+S Kali GmbH’s 18 Konecranes crane
installations make up just about 40 percent of
the over 50 different lifting and hoisting solutions
being used in the Philippsthal mine. So there
is more to do than just keep Konecranes’ own
products running. All cranes in the mine have
to be taken care of reliably in temperatures as
high as 35 °C, in an environment where a high
concentration of airborne salt particles and
corrosion can cause unexpected problems not
known elsewhere.
To reduce production downtimes to an
absolute minimum, K+S Kali GmbH relies
on Konecranes’ engineering know-how for
maintenance. This has resulted in a maintenance
contract for all 50 cranes in Hattorf-Wintershall
mining area – a solution that covers virtually all of
K+S Kali needs in this area.
“The support has proven to be very reliable in
every respect, even when maintaining cranes that
are not Konecranes products,” Radick says.
NEWS
News around the world | January 2010
Significant acquisitions
During the second half of 2009 Konecranes made four
significant acquisitions.
In July 2009 Konecranes increased its ownership in the Austrian ACS
Konecranes GmbH from 49.9 % to 80 % and at the same time acquired
the assets of German company Knight Europe GmbH & Co KG. Through
these acquisitions Konecranes entered the market for load-handling solutions with aluminum rail systems and manipulators. The main industrial
segments for these products are aviation, automotive, health care, solar
energy, food and electronics industries.
In October Konecranes expanded its machine tool service (MTS) business to the U.S. by acquiring the company Machine Tool Solutions Unlimited in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company provides a wide range of services, including machine tool rebuilding, control retrofits, preventive maintenance,
calibration and repair services. Through this acquisition Konecranes can
expand its MTS offering from present Nordic countries and the U.K. to
North, Central and South America.
In November Konecranes finalized the acquisition of majority holding in
Chinese hoist and crane manufacturer Jiangsu Three Horses Crane Manufacture Co. Ltd (SANMA), one of the leading hoist and crane manufacturers
in China. With SANMA, Konecranes is able to penetrate the market segment in China that mainly has been dominated by local suppliers.
Konecranes also acquired the remaining share capital in crane and
service company Dynamic Crane System Ltd. (DCS) in South Africa.
Konecranes (Pty) Ltd specializes in the manufacture, sales, services and
assembly of industrial and process cranes, serving key industries such as
mining, energy, steel, aluminum, paper and general manufacturing.
FACT SHEET
■ Part of the K+S Group, one of
the world’s leading suppliers of
specialty and standard fertilizers,
plant care, and salt products.
■ Main products: potash and
magnesium crude salts. Fourth
largest producer in the world and
the leading provider in Europe,
meeting about 13 percent of the
worldwide potash needs.
■ Main markets: Europe; other
important markets are USA, Brazil,
South Africa, India, Singapore, and
Japan
■ Sites in Germany: 6 mines
■ Annual output: 8 million tons of
products
■ Revenues (2008):
2,397.4 million euros
■ EBIT I (2008): 1,203.2 million euros
■ Capital expenditure (2008):
111.1 million euros
■ Employees (2008): 7,800
© Verlinde
K+S Kali GmbH
The new RailQ method
Konecranes has developed, patented and launched a new unique runway
measurement and analysis method called the RailQ. With the RailQ method
the customer receives a 3D model of his current runway condition. In addition to the 3D model the customer receives a thorough report of the analysis, pointing out the improvement needs and corrections needed to bring
the runway back to accepted tolerances. Contact your nearest Konecranes
location for more details and to get your runway surveyed with RailQ.
5
Story by Kristiina Tammitie
Photos by Petri Blomqvist
POWER
THE WI
The Finnish company
Moventas Wind Oy, one of
the world’s leading experts
in mechanical power
transmission, meets the
rising demand at its modern,
highly automated plant for
wind turbine gears.
6 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
R FROM
IND
7
T
he global debate on climate change,
restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions,
and the preference given to renewable
forms of energy have made wind power
an increasingly important energy source.
The new and bright Moventas plant in Ikola,
south of the town of Jyväskylä in Central Finland,
is a prime example of the latest technology, highly
developed automation, and efficient production
processes. Any traditional notions of the mechanical
engineering industry are quickly dispelled on a tour
around the clean and neat facilities. The loudest
sounds are the warning signals of the wire-guided
carts transporting goods around the place.
Covering slightly over 17,000 square meters
(approximately 183,000 square feet), the Ikola
plant came on stream in November 2008. Moventas
already had a unit manufacturing wind turbine gears
in Jyväskylä, but it alone was unable to meet the
ever-growing demand for gears, which is boosted by
the increase in wind power.
The standard product of the new plant is a 2MW
gear worth a couple hundred thousand euros. The
The gear is one of The
mosT criTical componenTs of a wind Turbine.
FInLAnd
Jyväskylä
Helsinki
Sweden
8 Konecranes magaZine
company caters to wind turbine manufacturers
around the world. Competition is intense although
there are only around ten serious contenders
worldwide.
“Our main customers are wind turbine
manufacturers from Germany, Denmark,
and Spain. Our greatest competition in gear
manufacturing comes from the same regions,”
says Ilkka Jauhiainen, head of wind turbine gear
component manufacturing, while introducing the
production process.
Competence, quality, reliability
The Ikola plant aims to make its serial production
as efficient as possible, while also taking into
account the individual needs and wishes of
customers. Ilkka Jauhiainen believes that the future
will bring bigger turbines and power transmission
needs in excess of three megawatts.
The gear is one of the most critical components
of a wind turbine. Perched at the top of a
100-meter (328 feet) tower, the 35–40-meter (115131 feet) turbine blades reach a rotation speed of
10–15 rpm. The gear raises this speed through
two or three steps to 1,500–1,600 rpm for the
generator that produces electricity.
“Our strengths and main values include
competence, quality products and work, as well as
reliability. The reliability of components is a key
competitive factor for wind turbine manufacturers,
FACT SHEET
Robust growth at Moventas
■■ Moventas Oy designs, manufactures, and markets power
transmission solutions and maintenance services to the
process and energy industries.
■■ The company’s net sales in 2008 totaled €382 million.
They have doubled in the past four years, mainly due to the
successful production of wind turbine gears.
■■ Moventas Wind Oy produces wind turbine gears and provides
maintenance services to the global energy industry.
■■ The biggest owner of Moventas Oy is IK Investment Partners, a
private equity investor.
■■ Moventas Oy has over 1,300 employees developing, producing,
selling and servicing mechanical power transmission solutions
in Finland, Germany, Sweden, Canada, the U.S., Chile, Brazil,
and China.
■■ Its principal site in Jyväskylä, a town of 130,000 in Central
Finland, has three units and nearly 700 employees, one-fourth
of whom have been recruited in the past twelve months.
since their products must run for 15 to 20 years.
What sets us apart from competition is that we
also offer maintenance service,” Ilkka Jauhiainen
remarks.
The roots of Moventas go back over 70 years
to a state-owned artillery factory founded in 1938.
After many twists and turns, mechanical power
transmission became a part of the Metso Group,
from which it was separated by acquisition in 2005
and made into a gear-supplier called Moventas.
Efficient production process
The Ikola plant is divided into two sections, one
of which makes planetary gears and the other, the
“clean area”, assembles gearboxes from components
made by the company and its subcontractors.
Cranes play an important part in all production
phases and work stations: they are used in the
assembly of heavy gear wheels, the paint shop, the
transfer of ready gearboxes, and the final loading
in the dispatch center. Most of the cranes used at
Ikola have been supplied by Konecranes.
The production process starts with the
reception of blanks for planetary wheels from
subcontractors. Fully automated wire-guided carts
transport the blanks along preprogrammed routes
according to computer instructions. The carts use
laser to identify any obstacles along the route. After
This is what a
completed wind
turbine gear looks like
in the final assembly.
9
The cog wheels are
being sanded in order
to finish the bearings
and toothing.
carrying out their tasks, the carts station themselves
at the charging point to wait until more components
are needed somewhere along the process.
The blanks are turned to measure and toothed,
after which the planetary gears are moved to the
hardening stage. From here, the cog wheels continue
to sanding, where the bearings and toothing are
finished. The measurement cell at the end of the
production process ensures that the planetary gears
match their dimensions with micrometer precision.
The final gear takes shape through the stages of
the assembly process. The cleaning stage towards the
end of assembly ensures that any impurities inside
the gear are removed.
“Cleanliness is extremely important in assembly.
The hall is overpressurized and features several
component washers. This ensures that the ready gear
is free from any foreign elements,” explains Jani
Hänninen, maintenance engineer.
After assembly, each gear goes through a trial run
where it is subjected to approximately eight hours of
simulated wind farm conditions. Before being sent
out into the world, the gear is painted and furnished
with the remaining accessories.
Continuous development
and improvement
The gear plant is highly automated. When operating
at full capacity in four shifts, it requires a staff of
some 150 metal industry professionals.
The machinery and equipment represent cuttingedge technology and guarantee efficient production.
Each work phase nevertheless calls for human skills
to guide the machines and cranes and to thus ensure
the quality of work.
“Our goal is to continuously develop production
and improve quality. We spent thousands of hours
improving and enhancing processes and making the
10 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
most of our staff’s competence while constructing
and running in the plant,” says Jani Hänninen.
What catches your attention around the plant
is the exceptionally large share of female employees.
According to Hänninen, machining work suits
women just as well as men.
“In the past year, we have recruited many
women who have made a radical career change.
One of the reasons might be that the pay is
better than that of traditionally female-dominated
professions,” he suggests.
Service agreement offers reliability
Moventas emphasizes reliability, competence, and
quick reaction to customer needs in its own operations
but also when choosing cooperation partners.
“We are very
satisfied with our
cooperation,” says
Jani Hänninen
(right) and Jari
Kapanen.
For production to be efficient, the equipment,
including hoisting devices, must offer high quality
and operate reliably. When running at maximum
capacity, the plant produces as many as 8,000
planetary gears a year, each
weighing an average of 400
kilograms (881 lbs). A ready
gearbox weighs 10–40 tons
(20,000-80,000 lbs). According
to Jari Kapanen, maintenance
manager at Konecranes, the
– Jari Hänninen, Moventas Oy
size and features of each crane
correspond to the requirements
of the work station, whether dealing with a
400-kilogram planetary gear or a 40-ton gearbox.
“During our many years of cooperation, we have
supplied dozens of cranes to Moventas’ units in
Jyväskylä – around fifty in the past year alone. The
most significant input was made here in Ikola,
which now operates 34 recently installed, testloaded, and fully implemented cranes,” Kapanen
adds.
The lifting capacity of cranes varies from two
to fifty tons depending on the work station. The
biggest cranes are those used in assembly, featuring
bridge spans of 26 meters (85 feet).
Konecranes has also been in charge of crane
service and maintenance since March 2009. The
service agreement encompasses a total of 150 cranes
at Moventas’ plants. Konecranes handles scheduled
inspections, maintenance, and repair, thus ensuring
the functionality and safety of equipment.
“The maintenance agreement signed with
Konecranes enables our own staff to focus on its
core competence. We were looking for a reliable
CLEANLINESS
IS IMPORTANT
IN ASSEMBLY.
and skilled partner, who could ensure troublefree cooperation and understand our needs.
Uninterrupted crane operations are an extremely
important, even critical, success factor,” explains
Jani Hänninen.
Cooperation emphasizes preventive
maintenance. In practice, the Ikola plant has at least
one Konecranes employee, and often two of them,
servicing cranes on a daily basis.
“We are very satisfied with our cooperation in
every respect,” say Ilkka Jauhiainen, Jani Hänninen,
and Jari Kapanen.
“Our strengths are com
of products and work petence, quality
reliability,” says Ilkka in addition to
Jauhiainen.
20,000 MW of new
wind power in one year
Wind power is used in over 80
countries, especially in the U.S.,
China, and India. The biggest wind
power users in Europe include
Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Ireland,
and Germany. In 2008, wind power
was the most commonly installed
form of energy. According to the
European Wind Energy Association
(EWEA), wind power accounted for 43
percent of all the power generation
capacity installed in Europe.
“The growth in the popularity of
wind power is a megatrend in the
power sector. The global recession
has also resulted in a temporary
slowdown in wind power production,
but as soon as the economy picks
up, capacity will continue to grow,”
says Ilkka Jauhiainen, in charge of
wind turbine component production at
Moventas.
The wind power capacity
constructed last year totaled
20,000 MW, equivalent to the power
generated by some 15 nuclear
power plants. Moventas commands
approximately 12 percent of the gear
manufacturing sector.
In fact, Moventas is an old hand
in the rapidly growing field, having
manufactured its first wind turbine
gears back in the 1980s.
11
Konecranes
Agenda
Technology
brings the world
closer together
Employees of globally operating companies end up travelling a great deal.
The number of travel days is often higher than employees wish for or is no
longer sensible in terms of costs to the company.
I, for example, travelled up to 120 days a year in my previous job.
My subordinates and stakeholders were spread around the world. Faceto-face meetings were a necessity – until we adopted Unified Business
Communication (UBC). Among other things, the platform enabled video
meetings and conference calls. My days on the road quickly dropped to
some twenty a year.
Konecranes took UBC into use at the end of last year. The concept
integrates all of the main forms of electronic communication: email,
instant messaging, VoIP and video calls, calendars, user status, desktops,
and real-time material distribution.
The implementation of UBC is a part of the
oneKonecranes project, which aims to
12 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
Text and photo by Manu Marttinen
harmonize the company’s operations.
Electronic communication has become rapidly more common in the
business world, with travel taking up a great deal of time and money.
Our primary goal, however, is not to reduce the number of travel days,
but rather to improve our customer service and competitiveness. UBC
enhances sales, since it gives our sales representatives answers to customer
queries faster than before. It also improves maintenance reaction time,
with the right people for every problem found more quickly. Our
development teams around the world will find it easier to communicate in
real time, and this, in turn, speeds up product development cycles.
The drop in the number of travel days also improves cost-effectiveness.
According to our estimates, the use of UBC will reduce travel over 40
percent by 2012. Most of the reduction will result from our arranging
fewer internal meetings.
However, UBC does not lead to faceless business; we continue to meet
customers, goods suppliers, and colleagues in person.
Many people still think of cranes as being a heap of metal equipped
with some sort of an engine. In reality, they are full of advanced
information technology. Today, the use of IT is also an important part of
sales and customer relationship management. Our IT department used
to be in charge of maintaining service production, but these days we are
responsible for developing all business systems.
How does online communication across the globe work? I can assure it
works well. Surprisingly many people would rather wake up in the middle
of the night for a video conference than travel to the other side of the
world for a single meeting.
Antti Koskelin, CIO
Story by Katariina Lampinen Photos by Jari Kivelä
THE HIGHEST
LIFE
CYCLE
VALUE:
This article is part of a series which
introduces the concept of life cycle. This
article is about designing and launching a
whole new crane.
Predictive
Maintenance
New
equipment
Repairs
and
improvements
Modernizations
Service life
analyses and
planning
SMARTON
GROWS WITH YOUR BUSINESS
SMARTON, the new
Konecranes heavy-duty
process crane, adapts
to user needs. It is a
customized, intelligent,
and sustainable
solution for demanding
maintenance and
heavy process use.
13
The key driver
of SMARTON is
modularity.
T
he letters in the SMARTON name
symbolize process industry customer
expectations, which the new overhead
crane, a result of 3.5 years of intensive
development work, now meets. It is
space-making and sustainable, maintenance friendly
and modular, adjustable and applicable, reliable, and
able to move tons.
SMARTON is an evolutionary, not revolutionary,
technology that combines time-tested components
with innovative refinements.
“We wanted to introduce a crane that satisfies
customer needs and is implemented using the best
available technology. Its development benefited from
our experience accumulated from the maintenance
of hundreds of thousands of cranes and from our
wide product range, which is among the most
comprehensive in the field of industrial lifting
applications,” says Ari Kiviniitty, Konecranes Chief
Technology Officer.
Adapts to customer needs
A key driver of the design is modularity, meaning
that customers can select exactly the features they
14 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
need for their
process, both now and
in the future. Thanks
to standardized modules,
products can be customized
reliably and faster than ever
before to suit the special needs of
individual customer processes in widely
differing fields of the process industry.
“A product made of modules is considerably
faster to customize, as well as being reliable
and easy to maintain. SMARTON consists of
familiar elements that maintenance engineers
are used to handling,” explains Jaakko
Koppinen, Director, Heavy Duty Cranes.
There is no need to equip SMARTON with
everything one expects to use in the future. The
product can easily be updated with additional
features, such as automated positioning, defined
working areas, maintenance monitoring, or remote
diagnostics. This is enabled by the crane’s intelligent
control system based on programmable logic, which
can be adjusted according to the control need.
“SMARTON grows with the customer’s business,
FACT SHEET
enabling future needs and challenges to be taken into
consideration. This device will not easily grow out of
date nor will it compromise on performance,” says
Koppinen.
Saves space and energy
SMARTON is lower than its predecessor, the SM
Spacemaker. This enables new industrial halls, for
example, to be built to be lower than before, so the
product pays back in the form of lower construction and
heating expenses. The compact structure of SMARTON
also allows the user to put the load down much closer to
the wall.
The product is designed to meet or exceed
environmental standards for some time to come.
The feedback of braking energy, a standard feature
in SMARTON, can save up to one-third in energy
consumption. And that feature not only lowers the
energy bill, but also saves our environment.
SMARTON is at least 98 percent recyclable.
Thanks to the compact design, its production also uses
up fewer natural resources. Konecranes, moreover,
made the crane control more intelligent to reduce the
dynamic load on the crane structures.
SMARTON in brief
SMARTON is a heavy-duty crane concept for demanding
maintenance and heavy process use. SMARTON is
made of standardized modules, which Konecranes uses
to tailor a product to customer needs.
SMARTON features:
■ a newly designed trolley
■ hook housing
■ a novel crane control
system
■ an intelligent user
interface.
Key messages:
■ Easy and efficient
operation - HIM (Human
Interface to Machine)
■ SMARTON is compact
- saves building
construction and
heating costs
■ SMARTON
sustainability - saves
up to one third in
energy consumption
and is 98% recyclable.
■ Crane remote
monitoring 24/7
- maintenance
shutdowns are
minimized.
SMARTON can be customized for several sectors
in the process industry, such as steel warehouse,
automotive, general manufacturing, power,
workshops, automatic storage systems, and mining.
15
Minimizes maintenance shutdowns
One of the main goals in the development of
SMARTON was to minimize the duration of
maintenance shutdowns.
“In the process industry, standstills are very
expensive. The better we can predict when equipment
needs to be serviced and the faster we can perform
maintenance, the longer a crane can operate and
benefit the process,” says Koppinen.
The SMARTON service platform folds over the
trolley to protect the trolley components. The spacesaving, foldable platform is a brand new concept,
for which Konecranes has sought patent protection.
All of SMARTON’s service points are located on the
same side and are easily accessible, contrary to many
The rope
life can be
extended
50–100 % by
optimizing
pulley angles
and rope
reeving.
16 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
other products on the market, which have service
points on both sides of the trolley.
The crane monitors its own condition and
recommends when and what kind of inspections or
preventive maintenance to perform. Among other
things, SMARTON is designed to continuously
monitor the condition of the hoisting motor brake.
The service panel, in turn, shows the location of the
fault.
“The service panel enables faults to be solved
quickly. Since the fault and its frequency are
displayed on the panel, Smarton is designed to
eliminate the need to inspect, say, the frequency
inverter panels,” explains Timo Ruokonen, a
maintenance fitter at Konecranes Service.
Konecranes has paid special attention to the
durability of wire ropes.
“The service life of hoisting wire ropes is a key
element in maintenance expenses. The wire ropes
are costly, and changing them is a time-consuming
task. We have clearly extended the life of wire ropes
by optimizing the pulley rope angles in the hook
housing, making them as small as possible to reduce
the wear and tear of wire ropes,” explains Kiviniitty.
Remote maintenance is a standard feature of
SMARTON. Three support centers located in
different time zones around the world ensure that
Konecranes can offer 24/7 support for equipment
irrespective of the location.
“We opted for tried and tested components
instead of unique parts in SMARTON. Should
spare parts be needed, their availability is
guaranteed. We always have a given number of
components in stock,” says Koppinen
Makes operations easy and efficient
Konecranes designed the functions of the
SMARTON user interface to be simple and clear
so that they can be understood without consulting
heavy manuals. The intelligent yet easy to use
Human Interface to Machine (HIM) keeps the
user continuously up to date on the weight and
position of the load.
The HIM implementation tool makes it easy
to understand the features of the device and speeds
up user training. In the case of problems, the user
gets guidance from the device’s error detection
diagnostics. In other words, HIM can provide
instant instructions on how to deal with problems.
And it’s not only HIM providing instructions;
with HIM, the crane operator himself can program
SMARTON’s working cycle - A true productivity
feature!
SMARTON also contains productivityenhancing features. Its precise, stepless-speed
control ensures that loads can be lifted, moved,
and lowered faster, which reduces the overall
load-handling times. Depending on the set-up,
the crane can lift weights ranging from 30 tons to
more than 500 tons.
SMARTON has been used at the Ruukki
Hämeenlinna steelworks
in Finland for around
one year, mainly as a
maintenance crane.
“We got what we
wanted. The control
precision, positioning,
and motion control are
like never before. The
crane is easy to steer
and it does exactly what it is told to do. When
lifting big loads, it is important that the weight
is displayed at all times. Sway prevention and the
automated positioning option are other positive
features,” says Seppo Aalto from Ruukki.
The working
limits for
SMARTON’s
movements can
easily be set
with the HIM
radio.
smarton is
at least 98
percent
recyclable.
From idea to product
The SMARTON development
project is an excellent example
of the systematic way in which
Konecranes carries out R&D
activities. R&D projects are
systematic and must pass through
several gates on the road towards
a finished product. To create a
triumphant product that meets
the customer’s needs, experts
from maintenance, procurement,
manufacture, industrial design, and
sales are involved in development
projects from the very beginning.
Konecranes gets versatile
information about customer needs
from its global database of annual
crane maintenance. The database
contains over 350,000 devices,
around 75 percent of them made
by other manufacturers.
Konecranes offers the widest
range of products for industrial
lifting, running from chain hoists
with a capacity of a few dozen
kilograms to goliath gantry cranes
with a capacity of more than
1,600 tons. All of the accumulated
data is available to centrally
managed R&D.
17
Story by Pertti Suvanto
Illustration by Vesa Lehtimäki
Professor Kaj Storbacka:
SHIFTING THE CE
ATTENTION TO TH
“Deeper customer insight means
more value for everyone to share,”
says Kaj Storbacka. The product is
only a tool in the process.
18 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
ENTER OF
HE CUSTOMER
W
Why is it so important to understand the logic of the
customer’s industry?
Professor Kaj Storbacka, founder and chairman of
Vectia Ltd, calls into question the notion:
“Customer insight is what it really boils down
to. Companies need a better understanding of the
customer’s business in order to jointly produce more
value with the customer.”
Storbacka adds that every industry has a certain
logic that customers often follow. This may involve, for
example, increasing the installed base attempting to
create new maintenance agreements and more stable
cash flows. This is already common in many equipment
manufacturing industries.
Storbacka points out, however, that every company
has its own way of dealing with the characteristics
of their industry. What this means is that companies
must understand the strategic choices important to
customers, as well as the goals that customers hope
to achieve. Customer value can only be measured in
relation to the goals. It is also important to understand
the customer pain points; the reasons why customers
lose sleep at night.
“A company must understand how to make its
competence and resources available to the customer in
order to support the customer to run its business. It is
this balancing act that lies at the core of everything.”
New focus – new views
In earlier thinking, it was the product that contained and
conveyed value to the customer. These days, it is the other
way round: value is generated when the product is used.
Companies must supply resources that enable customers to
produce value.
“The product is only a tool. It is not the equipment, but
what the equipment makes possible, that is the main point.
This would have sounded strange ten years ago, but the
importance of goods is now decreasing.”
In Storbacka’s view, a company must become embedded
into the customer’s business process. The company should
become a part of the customer’s business. The product should
be viewed, not as an output of the company’s production
process, but as an input in the customer’s process.
The business world has adopted the same style of thinking
that Storbacka and his fellow students used to favor. When
they faced a tough mathematical problem, they moved the
center of the coordinate system – and got a whole new view of
the problem.
“Companies must shift the center of attention from
themselves to their customers. That will show where the added
value really resides.”
Basic products – goods as well as services – face tough
competition today. They also look very much the same.
Products are not a source of differentiation, having been
pruned of all unneeded features. Most companies have
19
set up their operations around a product. This makes it
important to define the product so that it offers a good
match to the customer’s operations.
According to Storbacka, companies now talk about
solution business, which encompasses the notion of
adaptation. Companies that understand the customer’s
operations and sector can make adaptation into a
competitive advantage.
Purpose first
Storbacka emphasizes the great difference between
information
and knowledge.
the product must
Customer
offer a good match information has
never been as
to the customer’s
abundant as today.
operations.
Knowledge or
– Kaj Storbacka insight is the result
of interpreting
and refining this information and often involves the
combination of different types of information. It is also
important to define what the information will be used
for.
“Start with the purpose: the type of decisions to
be made. Decision-making requires customer insight,
which is something that is emphasized especially in the
development of products and services.”
According to Storbacka, companies have understood
that customers normally produce value through practices,
which they repeat over and over. All company operations
are the sum of such practices.
“To produce more value, you usually need to modify
practices. This means getting customers to perform their
work in a different way. It is ultimately a question of
20 Konecranes magaZine
how a company’s products change customer practices.
Researchers now believe that the most productive way
to create value is to innovate practices.”
“Which of the customer’s work tasks are
necessary? Can I come up with the world’s best way
to perform them? Customers don’t necessarily need
to be tightly segmented, since many of practices that
they engage in are surprisingly similar. Proximity to
customers provides great fuel for innovation.”
From strategy to strategizing
According to Storbacka, only a few companies have
adopted the new philosophy: they sell a product, not a
solution. He points out, however, that truly customeroriented companies are often highly product-centered.
Taking a customer-oriented approach does not mean
doing away with the product dimension.
“If you don’t have a good product, you have
nothing to sell. Customers won’t buy poor products
however much you kowtow to them.”
The answer is not either-or, but both-and. This, in
turn, leads to many structural issues. Companies must
organize their activities around products, perhaps
based on geography, as well as customers.
“In the worst case, the result is a three-dimensional
matrix, which is quite a challenge to management.”
Storbacka believes this calls for strategic agility,
with a bottom-up rather than top-down approach.
There is no point in management withdrawing to a
secluded location and returning with endless pages of
strategy for their subordinates to implement.
“Strategy should be view as “strategizing”: a
learning process that involves as many people as
possible.”
This goes back to one’s view of humans: whether
Kaj Storbacka
■■Professor of Marketing,
Hanken School of Economics.
Previously Professor of Sales
and Account Management at the
Nyenrode Business University
in the Netherlands. MSc (Eng.)
in shipbuilding, and Ph.D. in
marketing, by education.
■■Chairman of Vectia, a consultancy
he founded 15 years ago, which
focuses on sales and account
management. Cooperation with
nearly all of Finland’s 30 major
companies. Offices in Finland and
the Netherlands.
■■Board member of SAMA (Strategic
Account Management Association),
a U.S. organization.
■■Author of over ten books on
marketing strategy, sales and
account management.
one believes the staff is capable of independent
thought and of creating solutions.
“Much of it has to do with a new kind of
competence. Many existing strategies spell out how
to act, but implementing them has proved to be
enormously difficult. The problems are often related
to customer insight, which isn’t generated.”
Mirror images
When creating value with the customer, the main
question for management to solve is how to share
it. Once you get rid of product defined business, the
upper limit for revenue may also disappear.
“Companies have major problems with pricing,
trying to figure out the amount of value generated and
the best way to divide it. They must be able to show
and sell the value to customers.”
With a sigh, Storbacka admits that the matter is
now approached from the wrong direction, with the
task given to salespeople. It should be the responsibility
of those working with the actual product. Salespeople
will sell just about anything, but what is sold also needs
to be delivered.
“Companies need a systematic process that
makes solutions visible and enables their industrial
production. Organizing operations around a sector
enables solutions to be repeated.”
Customer work has long been characterized by
juxtaposition. It should instead be made more open
and interactive. Storbacka believes both sides can learn
from one another.
“It’s not only a question of how companies sell
things, but also of how customers buy them. Advanced
procurement is at least as important as sales. Buyers
often seem to keep sellers at arm’s length, asking them
to show their product and leave the purchase decision
to the buyer. This does not generate a great deal of
value. However, how we sell and how we buy value are
mirror images of one another.
Refining information into knowledge
Konecranes customers have widely
differing needs.
“We want to fulfill our customers’
needs for products and services in a
professional and efficient manner and
provide high-quality solutions”, says
Tomas Myntti, Market Operations
Director at Konecranes. “Being able to
do that on a continuous basis requires
a deep understanding of the customer’s
situation”.
According to him, the trend in
customer organizations is to make
investment decisions at an increasingly
higher level. Decisions are also
influenced by more and more technical
and commercial experts.
“Many multinational companies
coordinate their operations and
purchases at a global level. They expect
us to offer harmonized operations and
standardized service irrespective of their
location.”
As Myntti explains, Konecranes
aims to meet the challenges by
developing customer management,
among other things, by creating
virtual customer teams. Teams share
information internally and refine it into
an understanding of the customers’ true
needs.
“We can use the wide product
and service range of Konecranes to
proactively put together solutions best
suited to customers and to develop our
products to meet customers’ current
and future needs.”
Understanding these needs
requires continuous input into building
customer relations, as well as long-term
commitment to joint development.
“We have appointed specialists to
selected lines of business. They are
responsible for gathering deep insight
into the operating processes and
trends of the sector and for adapting
the Konecranes offering to each line of
business. Specialists offer support to
sales representatives and share their
own knowledge within Konecranes.”
According to Myntti, the new
approach to customers and businesses
calls for a great deal of internal
cooperation and team sales. Team
buying has also become more common
among Konecranes’ customers.
“We are also harmonizing our sales
process throughout the organization.
This will make communication and
information sharing easier.”
21
Story by Juha-Pekka Kervinen Photos by Tommi Tuomi
Full-service
wind power
22 KonecrAnes MAGAZine
e
r
Suzlon Energy, the largest wind turbine
manufacturer in Asia, starts off a turbine
project by monitoring local winds for 12 to 18
months. The result is a wind turbine project
designed to meet the specific needs of the
customer.
23
G
rey pieces of steel sheets have been compressed
into cubes weighing a few dozen kilograms.
There are piles of these scrap metal cubicles lying
in the automated crane scrap well of the SE
Forge foundry in Coimbatore, southern India.
Foundry Production Head K. C. Mathew watches as an
electromagnet hanging from a crane cable picks up a number
of cubes and drops them in a cart running on rails. The cart
moves from the loading platform inside the foundry and
tips the steel cubes into the blazing mouth of an enormous
induction furnace.
The cubes, compressed from waste metal from a car factory,
serve as raw material for wind turbine components cast from
steel, such as the frame and nacelle. SE Forge is a company
owned by the Indian’s Suzlon Energy.
The brand-new foundry halls in Coimbatore cover an area
corresponding to 12 soccer fields (20 acres).
“We are one of the largest foundries of this type in the
world. Our capacity is 120,000 tons of castings per year,”
Mathew says.
The foundry, which employs just over 450 employees,
focuses on the production of heavy components weighing
thousands of kilograms. Currently, it manufactures 25
products, and the aim is to bring this figure close to one
hundred within a year.
Wind turbines for headquarters
Suzlon Energy is the largest wind turbine manufacturer in Asia
and the third largest worldwide.
Listed on two domestic stock exchanges, Suzlon has
manufacturing operations in seven locations in India. It also
24 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
has factories in China, Germany, and the United States.
“We monitor wind conditions at various locations for 12
to 18 months. Based on the results, we make an offer to the
customer which often includes several options,” says Sriram
K. Iyer, GM, Finance at Suzlon.
The options use wind turbines of various capacities,
varying in terms of the total price and properties at different
wind speeds. Suzlon also advises its clients on project financing
and connecting the turbine to the electrical network.
“We provide the customer with an end-to-end solution
from a feasibility study to a service and maintenance
agreement covering the entire life of the turbine,” Iyer says.
Suzlon’s largest wind turbine model has an output of 2.1
MW. Suzlon’s R&D team is also developing bigger machines
with larger power output.
The annual capacity of Suzlon’s factories is sufficient
for manufacturing wind turbines with a total output of
4,200 MW.
”Suzlon’s production capacity was raised by 1,700 MW in
18 months. This substantial lift was possible in such a short
time with support of all the vendors and contractors, and
Konecranes is one of them,” says Niraj Shah, Asst. General
Manager at Synefra E&C, a subsidiary in charge of Suzlon’s
investment projects.
Suzlon has several R&D units in Europe and India.
The R&D for engineering components is in Germany and
Belgium, whereas the R&D for aerodynamics is in the
Netherlands. The manufacturing technology R&D is based
in India.
“The Netherlands provides state-of-the-art expertise in
wind turbines. The industry is in a mature phase there, which
is why we placed an aerodynamics research unit in Hangelo,”
says Prashant Trivedi, Sr. Manager of Synefra E&C.
Wind power will also soon be used to meet the needs of
Suzlon.
The company’s new headquarters, which are under
construction, is equipped with 18 small wind turbines. The
headquarters are located in Pune, Maharashtra.
Bright future for wind power
India is the fourth largest wind power producer in the
world after Germany, Spain, and the United States. China
comes fifth.
Similar to other wind power countries, the state of
India provides ample support for wind-generated electricity
production. Consumers in India cannot purchase wind
power at a higher special tariff in accordance with the
European model.
The aggregate output of the wind turbines built in India
so far is 10,000 MW. “CWET (the Centre for Wind Energy
Technology) estimates show that India has feasible locations
for wind turbines of 45,000 MW implemented using modern
technology,” says Suzlon’s Sriram K. Iyer.
Over the last few years, wind power has grown by some 20
percent annually worldwide. The economic crisis that set in late
2008 has cut the growth rate, which seems to remain flat this year.
Konecranes‘ Mohan
Pai (left), Sami
Korpela and Jayant
Vaidya (right) in a
meeting.
Maintenance engineer
Sathiskumar Sellappan
services the cranes of
the Coimbatore foundry
during their warranty
period (big picture).
“However, there are strong indications of a recovery. The
U.S. President Barack Obama’s pro-renewable energy policy
promises a bright future for companies in this sector all over
the world,” Iyer states.
Slender but robust
The slender-looking wind turbine rotating far away at the
top of a hill is extremely robust in reality.
There are a total of 59 cranes in use at the shiny new
Coimbatore foundry, all of them delivered by Konecranes.
The smallest can lift a load of 1.5 tons and the biggest 120
tons.
The sturdy overhead industrial cranes running on rails
are needed for moving casting molds, ladles containing
molten metal, and finished castings. The casting itself, i.e.,
pouring molten steel out of a ladle into a mold, is also
carried out with the help of a crane.
The cranes are controlled by radio frequency or radio on
remote control. There are no designated crane operators at
the factory; the cranes are used by various professionals.
The casting foremen are just removing the hub, i.e.,
the center of the rotor, of a 2.1 MW wind turbine from a
sand mold. The casting weight of this block of steel, whose
diameter is more than two meters, exceeds 13 tons.
The hub needs to be sturdy, as the turbine’s more
than 40-meter blades will be connected to it. The power
generated by the rotor is transmitted through the hub to the
shaft driving the generator and onward to the power supply
cables.
After being extracted from the mold, the hub is
sandblasted and machined. The machining involves drilling
dozens of holes for bolts and milling even spots for attaching
the blades and other components.
Machining removes such a large amount of steel chips
that after the treatment the hub is a couple of tons lighter
than when it was cast. The Coimbatore foundry finishes the
machined products at a paint shop.
A turbine component that is even heavier than the hub is
the main frame, which is also cast from steel. After casting, it
weighs 15 tons.
“We can cast components weighing up to 20 tons,” says
Foundry Production Head Mathew, holding a small teacup
made of steel.
A tea cart goes around the factory every morning and
evening, delivering cups of Indian tea to the workers. The
FACT SHEET
Suzlon Energy
■
■
■
■
■
■
Established in 1995
Sales, USD bn 5.4
Personnel 14,000
Market share in India > 50%
Worldwide market share 12.5%
Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director Tulsi Tanti
25
There are a total
of 59 cranes in
use at Suzlon
Energy’s foundry in
Coimbatore. “We
wanted to have
cranes from a top
manufacturer”,
says K.C Mathew,
Foundry Production
Head.
tea comes with milk and sugar, in the true British
style.
One half of the components produced by the
Coimbatore foundry goes to Suzlon’s own factories
and the other half to wind turbine manufacturers
other than Suzlon.
Via China to India
All cranes used at the Coimbatore factory were
delivered by Konecranes.
“We wanted to have cranes from a top
manufacturer. We asked for bids from a few
competitors, and Konecranes proved to be the
best,” says K. C. Mathew.
Suzlon and Konecranes first became involved
with each other in China. Suzlon was building
a factory for manufacturing wind turbine
components in Tianjin in 2006. The Chinese
contractor informed Konecranes of the project,
which then placed a bid on the cranes required for
the factory.
“We delivered all of the 51 cranes needed for
the Tianjin project from the Konecranes Shanghai
factory. The cranes are of the same high quality
as the products manufactured in any other of
the company’s factories”, says Steven Xie, head
of industrial crane production of Konecranes in
China.
Suzlon, which has increased its production
rapidly in recent years, asked Konecranes to also
submit a bid on the cranes for its new factories in
India.
In addition to the Coimbatore foundry, the
deal includes cranes for three other factories.
The contract covers full service and spare
parts backup for the cranes for five years. The
Coimbatore factory has five Indian Konecranes
employees who are responsible for the condition of
the cranes.
The India deal with Suzlon is one of the
largest deals concluded by Konecranes for
industrial cranes with a single client. The delivery
includes 170 cranes, 10 of which are heavy-duty
process cranes. All the cranes were manufactured
in Shanghai.
26 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
Besides the cranes, the deal includes logistics
arrangements and site operations in India at the
customer’s factories.
“Getting nearly 200 containers and 12,000
cubic meters of materials to various ports in India
and onward to four different locations was an
enormous challenge for our logistics partners. After
some challenges in the beginning, the deliveries
went smoothly and according to schedule. For this,
we must thank our competent staff and partners
in different areas of the whole supply chain,” says
Tero Vallas, Director of the Suzlon project.
Over the last couple of years, Konecranes has
stepped up its operations in India. In addition
to Suzlon, it has installed hundreds of cranes for
dozens of other customers.
“There is demand for cranes manufactured
using cutting-edge technology. We have sold cranes
to oil refineries and steel mills as well as reach
stackers to ports, for example,” says Sami Korpela,
Country Manager of Konecranes India.
The company employs more than one hundred
people in India. The Pune office of Konecranes
also includes a design department of over 40
employees.
“We also carry out global design projects for
the Konecranes Group. More than ten percent of
the design hours within the Group are worked in
India, and the share is growing,” says Korpela.
Konecranes also has a factory manufacturing
steel structures for cranes in Pune. It produces
standard and process cranes from components
manufactured in own component factories around
the world.
“Our production capacity is approximately
300 cranes per year. At present, we can only
manufacture cranes that can lift a maximum load
of 80 tons, but soon we’ll be able to make bigger
cranes,” says Factory Manager Jayant Vaidya.
On the day of the visit, the assembly welding
of the main girder of an industrial crane is
underway at the factory. Through the noises of
welding and a slag hammer, you can hear the
calls of barn swallows nesting in the ceiling of
the hall.
NEPAL
PAKISTAN
New Delhi
Agra
INDIA
Vadodara
ARABIAN SEA
Mumbai
Pune
BAY OF BENGAL
Badubidri
Coimbatore
Casting foremen pour
molten steel from a
ladle into a sand mold
at the Suzlon foundry in
Coimbatore.
27
Pune is a vibrant industrial and
university city with a strong
presence of the traditional
Indian culture.
28 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
Multilingual Indians
The Indians communicate in at
least five languages. In addition
to that, they may fully understand
several other national languages.
“At home, I speak the local Konkani language with my wife and child which
does not even have a unique script,” says Mohan Pai, who lives in Pune,
India. He is a project manager working for a multi-national company.
In addition to the language spoken at home, Pai is fluent in Hindi,
Kannada, and Tulu – and English, of course. He also says that he can fully
understand Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu, although he does not speak them.
Due to the large number of languages, it is quite common for an Indian
to be able to communicate in five or six languages. In many cases, the
languages of neighboring villages are completely different from each other.
The most recent surveys indicate that Indians use more than 1,600
languages and dialects. In addition to English and Hindi, there are 22
national languages, which are official languages in certain states. Bills have
text printed on them in 14 languages.
English is the most widely understood language. India has long been
trying to shake off this colonial heritage by advocating Hindi as the first
official language of the country. So far, the opposition of the southern parts
of the country has prevented this. Hindi is widely spoken in the north of
India, but South Indians are completely unfamiliar with it.
Similar to languages, many other cultural manifestations vary greatly
across India. Take drinking culture: South Indians drink coffee, while North
Indians favor tea – with plenty of milk and sugar.
In the north, food is most likely served from small metal bowls, katoris.
The traditional southern way is to place the dishes on a large banana leaf.
The customary way to eat throughout the country is to use your right hand
and thin naan or roti bread.
Naan is cooked in a tandoor, or clay oven, while roti is cooked on a flat
iron griddle.
The names of the breads have spread across the world with Indian
restaurants. There are also surprisingly many words in everyday use in
English and many other languages that are of Indian origin.
For example, we can sit in our pajamas on a veranda with sandals on.
All of these three concepts
originated in India.
© BNSF
The Taj Mahal, completed over 350 years ago in
the city of Agra, is India’s most famous tourist
attraction. Descendants of the mausoleum
builders continue to make ornaments in their
workshops using ancient methods.
29
Konecranes
TECH REPORT
R&D
S T O R Y B Y: L E E N A K O S K E N L A A K S O I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y: K O N E C R A N E S
Global teamwork with
3D engineering tools
Efficient 3D engineering tools introduce an entirely new product development culture to Konecranes with many
advantages to customers.
The development
of multi-variant
products in
global projects
requires excellent
support from
the engineering
tools used. The
implementation
of such an
environment has
been started at
Konecranes.
30 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
The cutting-edge engineering data
management (EDM) tools with advanced
3D modeling functions produce more
user-friendly products with better overall
ergonomics. They shorten the time
to market and create better product
documentation. Due to earlier error
detection and more visual early stage
product representations, the 3D tools
help improve product quality. These 3D
engineering tools are gradually being
adopted by Konecranes, starting from the
R&D function.
A SINGLE ONLINE PRODUCT MODEL
”The new 3D engineering tool has great
visualization capabilities, but that is
only part of the big picture. We are in
the process of introducing an entirely
new product development culture to
Konecranes. It involves centralized
engineering data management and a single
#1/10
online product model – a joint master
version accessible simultaneously to
all our R&D engineers over the intranet.
A global system and international
teamwork are the key ideas here,” says
R&D manager Matti Lehto.
The global engineering system
enables Konecranes R&D engineers
to work independently, effectively, and
in a controlled manner in a multi-site
collaboration environment. The system
controls user rights and keeps the
product model up to date, so that
project work can be started on one site
and continued safely on another site
in a different country. Data integrity
is maintained, because the system
ensures that only the instance of an
object that is defined as the master at a
given time can be modified. According to
Lehto, this is a definite improvement to
the previous situation where engineering
data was more scattered around the
world in various systems.
“We wanted to improve the quality
of engineering by utilizing the best
available in-house expertise regardless
of where the people are located. Another
aim was to better cater to local needs
in the different markets during project
implementation.”
The single online product model is
based on a confi gurable generic product
structure (GPS) that allows Konecranes
to create and manage tens of thousands
of product variants within a product
family. “Our goal is to create products
whose delivery is as simple as possible.
Modularity allows us to more easily
manage, maintain, and deliver products,”
Lehto notes.
responsible for CAD and PDM systems.
“We chose Siemens because their
tool set was the most comprehensive
one on the market. Besides, they
provided a complete set of data
management functions. Their system is
scalable and comes with a full range of
top-notch features.”
MORE EFFECTIVE
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
“When product confi guration is modified,
the new system enables us to see
what else needs to be revised as well.
Structural analyses can be updated
faster, and implementing changes takes
less time than before. And thanks to
more effective change management,
new products can be brought to the
market faster,” Kentta points out.
The new EDM tool has been
used for creating the configurable
generic product structure of
the new Konecranes product,
the Smarton crane. In this
project, big steps were taken
in increasing the product’s
customer value and improving
the development process and
culture.
FACT SHEET
Customer benefits of
the engineering data
management system:
■ Faster time to market
■ Better product quality via earlier
error detection and a more
communicative development
process
■ Advanced product documentation
■ More user-friendly products with
better overall ergonomics
“The new engineering tool set was
developed by Siemens PLM Software
and adapted to Konecranes’ needs.
Our processes, product definitions,
and specifi cations were integrated
with Siemens systems. The tool set
contains several digital engineering
data management applications, such as
Teamcenter, a data management system
that houses all our design models, and
NX, a modeling application,” explains
Sami Kentta, chief R&D engineer
Konecranes R&D engineers
share globally, in a carefully
controlled manner, the
product definition under
development, joining the
strenghts of several sites.
© Konecranes
SIEMENS TOOL ADAPTED TO
KONECRANES’ NEEDS
31
Konecranes
TECH REPORT
R&D
S T O R Y B Y: L E E N A K O S K E N L A A K S O I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y: K O N E C R A N E S
Standardization
is a KEY ISSUE
The rope
calculation
method is
specified in
the EN 13001
standard, which
makes it possible
to estimate rope
life time for the
first time.
Crane standards specify
safety and compatibility
requirements, and allow us
to talk about them in
uniform terms.
Standards are technical documents
that are used as a rule, guideline,
or definition. Essentially, they are a
consensus-built, repeatable way of
doing something. Facilitators of global
trade, standards improve safety in the
workplace, enhance manufacturing
efficiency and competitiveness, and
improve product quality.
INTERCHANGEABILITY,
COMPATIBILITY, AND SAFETY
SMT Trolley has a
compact, folding
service platform
for best-in-class
approach
dimensions.
The hook block
features tilted
sheaves, thanks
to which the
rope angles are
optimal.
32 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
“Originally, standardization was about
compatibility. It was not important
who had manufactured a product,
for all standardized products were
interchangeable. The first standards
gave precise regulations about how
things had to be implemented,” says
senior chief engineer Hannu Rantala of
Konecranes.
Today, there are two kinds of
crane standards: those that relate to
compatibility and those concerned with
the safe use of cranes. Safety is the
principal driving force within the European
Union, and safety standards are the only
ones that can reach a legal status.
#1/10
SMARTON crane’s design is based on a modular
approach and on EN standards.
The Machinery Directive issued
by the European Commission is an
important regulation guiding the
crane industry. It is discussed and
interpreted by a machinery committee,
and the practical applications
are discussed in a working group
consisting of authorized delegates
from each EU country. Finally, the
directive becomes part of the
national legislations of EU member
states. The latest amendment to the
Machinery Directive was published in
2006 and came into force at the end
of 2009.
Harmonized European EN
standards provided by European
Committee for Standardization (CEN)
support European directives. When
certain EN standards are linked to the
Machinery Directive via a legal status,
they become part of the official rules
of the industry. When manufacturers
follow a harmonized European
standard, their products are presumed
to conform to the relevant directive.
“Preparing a harmonized standard
takes at least fi ve years, and
harmonized standards are expected
to remain valid for more than 10
years, Rantala notes.”
LEANING FORWARD
“Konecranes participates voluntarily
in the preparation of crane standards.
We also have a follow-up network
keeping us posted on developments
in international standardization.
This way, we know in advance in
which direction standards are
going. Leaning forward requires
real commitment, though,” admits
Rantala.
“A good example of standardization
work is SMARTON, the new
Konecranes crane concept launched
in June, 2009. Its design was based
on a modular approach and on EN
standards. SMARTON was engineered
according to the EN 13001 standard
series, which uses work cycles
instead of hours to measure crane
usage, and also contains the new
concept of limit state design. The
rope calculation method specified
in the EN 13001 series makes
it possible for the first time to
estimate rope life time,” explains
mechanical engineering manager Jari
Kaiturinmäki.
Kaiturinmäki says the modularity
of SMARTON shortens lead times
and engineering time by allowing
the engineering of crane mechanics,
electrical components, and
automation to start simultaneously.
FACT SHEET
Customer
benefits of
standards:
■ Harmonized and accepted
safety principles
■ Means of technical
specification for customer
■ Uniform terminology
■ Uniform crane user interface
■ Standards specify highquality user instructions
Dating back
to the 1970s
“The first crane standards in
Europe were
published by Federation of Euro
pean
Engineering Manufacturers (FEM
) in the
1970s. FEM standards are non
-legal but
generally accepted as good prac
tice. After
updates and amendments they
continue
to be the rules according to whic
h
crane specifications are made.
They are
gradually giving way to other stan
dards,
however,” says senior chief eng
ineer
Hannu Rantala of Konecranes
.
The next player to emerge on
the
international standardization
scene was
Crane Manufacturers Associa
tion of
America (CMAA), which star ted
providing
CMA A standards for the United
States.
FEM standards were later follo
wed by
international ISO standards prov
ided by
the International Standards Orga
nization,
a voluntar y non -governmental
organization. The ISO TC96 Cran
es series
contains nearly 100 published
crane
standards.
After that, European Committ
ee for
Standardization (CEN) star ted
issuing
European EN standards, whic
h have a
mandate from the European Com
mission,
and can be legally linked to EU
directives.
The new EN standards do not
specify any
particular way of implementing
things,
as they are not allowed to limit
technical
development.
According to Rantala, EN stan
dards
are the most advanced standard
s. They
are the ones in which industry
and other
interested bodies invest most
time,
energy, and resources.
33
Story by Merimari Kimpanpää
Photos by Martin Vermeer
SURROUNDED
BY THE
SEA
Xxxx
34 KONECRANES MAGAZINE
Lichteiland Goeree is a lighthouse,
a meteorological and hydrological
observation station. There is a
Konecranes wire rope hoist, which lifts
200-liter oil drums, technical devices,
and food to the station.
A Konecranes wire rope hoist operates
in an unmanned lighthouse island in
the North Sea.
Martin Vermeer, a Konecranes field service engineer, is sitting in a
helicopter wearing a flotation suit. The North Sea spreads out underneath,
and the southwest coast of Holland is soon left behind as the copter
heads towards its destination. Numerous ships down below plough one
of Europe’s busiest routes to the megaport of Rotterdam. Vermeer’s task
today is to service a crane and repair a control panel at a lighthouse
island 18 kilometers (11 miles) out to sea.
Lichteiland Goeree is a manmade island home to a lighthouse and a
meteorological and hydrological observation station. Standing on piles
at a height of 20 meters it resembles a rig. The island’s main task is to
assist vessels traveling along the congested shipping lane.
“The station is a part of the radar chain serving maritime traffic. It
is also used for the air traffic control of small airplanes. The station
measures wind strength and direction, atmospheric pressure, visibility,
temperature, humidity, and wave height. The results are also used by the
Dutch Meteorological Institute, as well as for storm flood warnings and to
satisfy the needs of nearby oilrigs,” says Jaap van der Horn, an adviser of
Rijkswaterstaat, Centre for Data and ICT.
Others too, such as surfers following tidal information, have found the
data to be useful.
The unmanned island, in operation for nearly 40 years, is visited by
a service team around once a month to ensure that the radars, electric
power generators and other devices stay up and running around the clock.
The team usually travels by ship but may opt for a helicopter if the sea
gets too rough.
“The lighthouse has had a Konecranes wire rope hoist for several
years. It is used to lift 200-liter oil drums, technical devices, and food to
the station. Lifting must be quick because of the instability caused by the
waves,” explains Vermeer who repaired the crane quickly.
“Luckily they had an outgoing copter this morning as well. Otherwise
I would’ve had to come up with something to do until the following flight
out at seven pm. I hear there’s good fishing on Goeree,” says Vermeer,
grinning with a glint in his eye.
35
not just lifting things, but entire businesses.
www.konecranes.com