The cornerstones of any successful partnerships are honesty, openness and willingness to listen. When you are looking for partner in automation, you need competency and proven track record – your partner needs to have knowledge and the resources to execute automation as well as maintain it. Executive Vice President of operations and technology, Tero Peltomäki tells us insights on the why and when Cimcorp would be your best match in automating your distribution center or tire factory.
How do you find the right partner for automation?
What is your goal? What do you want to achieve? Your automation partner should have the integrity to tell you if your goals, or schedule for achieving those goals, are unrealistic. Cimcorpers believe in open and honest communication, and for some customers, this can be quite startling and unusual! It is not that we don’t believe in your projects and business goals, but it’s because we do believe, and we want to make sure that our solutions actually achieve those goals. We recognize that there are times that our solutions won’t meet your needs, and we’re honest enough to let you know this.
What if we do not match?
That happens! Your company might be the best in your field – like we are in ours – but let’s face it, sometimes we’re just not a good fit. We rather see you succeed with somebody else than sell you something that doesn’t work for you and leaves you dissatisfied. That is why, we want you to be open about your goals, business environment and end-customers’ needs. We do not want to waste your time.
Isn’t it a little bit arrogant claiming to be best in your field?
It might be, but we have history of successful long-term customers – or we rather call them partnerships – to back it up. We also have the courage to tell to potential customer, if we are not the right partner for them. We know our strengths, but we also know where we have to develop our skills, and while our solutions are perfect match for some companies, they don’t suit some others.
Why would you choose Cimcorp to do your automation?
Our 40 years of industry experience, a knowledge acquired through executing and engineering many projects, coupled with an openness to explore new ideas, makes us experts in intralogistics and tire automation. We believe that learning through listening has made us strong. We understand our customers’ businesses and operations, and that is the key to being a good partner.
What makes you think you can handle big projects?
Because we have versatile experience, we’ve done massive projects automating several distribution centers as well as smaller islands of automation. While Cimcorp is quite agile and can adapt fast to market changes, being part of Murata Machinery, Ltd. gives us the benefits of their R&D efforts and diversified revenue streams and risk profile. So, we have the agility of smaller company and financial security of big corporation.
What are the biggest challenges Cimcorp has faced in projects?
Communication! Not all customers are experienced with automation so we need to focus on our customers ’goals – what was the reason for automating in the first place, what did the customer want to achieve with it, and take the time to educate as well as automate. The biggest challenges come from mismatched expectations – when a customer is open about their needs, problems and challenges, there is an opportunity to meet those expectations.
Why do you talk about partnership and not what it really is, customers?
Because we believe, that partnership is in both ours and our customers’ best interests. The keyword is “partner”, which works in both directions, each bringing their own expertise and capabilities to the project.
