Nokian Heavy Tyres has been a supplier for John Deere Forestry Oy, the biggest manufacturer in its industry, since the 1970s. The long-standing co-operation has relied on both companies' aspiration to quality and success.
John Deere Forestry is the world-leading manufacturer of forestry and agricultural machines and a significant supplier of earthmoving and environmental machinery. The company's cornerstones have always been integrity, quality, commitment and renewal. Co-operation partners are also expected to share these values.
- We conduct a practical evaluation of our suppliers twice a year. The evaluation covers quality, delivery reliability, technical support, degree of co-operation and cost management. Nokian Heavy Tyres has steadily kept its place at the top of our range, the Partner level, says Ilpo Orell, John Deere Forestry Oy's Strategic Sourcing Manager.
The optimal solution for the buyer
John Deere Forestry has an over 40-percent share of the global forestry machine market, and some 95 percent of the company's machines have Nokian forestry tyres. The co-operation of these companies goes back a long time: Nokian Heavy Tyres has been John Deere Forestry's supplier since the 1970s. Ilpo Orell points out that a close partnership is not possible without open communication and complete trust. Common factors, such as market leadership and highquality, safe and environmentally-friendly choices also play an important role.
- Apart from reliability and safety, we particularly value the tyres' impact on the exhaust fume emissions and fuel consumption of our machines. When the machines are in operation 10-12 hours a day, fuel consumption is a major factor in purchase decisions, Orell notes.
According to John Deere Forestry's buyer, Jaakko Aho, the end result achieved together is an ideal solution from the buyer's perspective.
- We make, at average, eight machines per day, all of which already have a customer order. Thanks to the jointly-developed, integrated logistics system, Nokian Heavy Tyres gets order information direct from our production database and can deliver the tyres pre-installed on rims and labelled by quantity, machine and serial number to our Joensuu plant one day in advance. Deliveries are made daily, which means that we don't need to tie valuable floor area or capital to unnecessary storage, Aho tells us about the well-functioning system.
According to Kalevi Tuomainen, Sales Manager of Nokian Heavy Tyres, logistics development has been a challenging but interesting task. Electronic communication connections facilitate practical processes to both parties' benefit.
It all starts with genuine customer need
The tightening requirements of the business environment have created a continuous challenge to achieve shorter delivery and turnaround times. Product development should always be one step ahead of the market.
- Our product development people are in direct contact with the corresponding unit at John Deere Forestry. This way, we can develop demanding special tyres based on genuine customer needs, Tuomainen explains.
The companies also collaborate in the field of marketing, after sales in particular. The end customers can most clearly see the co-operation in technical customer service, training and maintenance. Mr. Tuomainen tells us that Nokian Heavy Tyres intends to further develop its post-sales and technical product support activities, for example, with the help of the Vianor chain. For the technical customer service of John Deere Forestry, the expansion of the Vianor sales chain is a positive development.
- No matter where in the world we have customers in need of help, Nokian Heavy Tyres helps keep them satisfied. The regular reporting provides us with valuable information from the field, which enables us to further improve customer satisfaction, Jaakko Aho notes.
- When buying a machine from us, the customer can be confident that all of its components fit together seamlessly. This is also an important safety factor, Orell adds.
Future guidelines
Safety is and will always be a relevant topic for Nokian Heavy Tyres. Kalevi Tuomainen tells us that the tyre pressure during transportation is one of the current focus issues. In case of an accident, tyres with high pressure are a risk factor.
Therefore, the pressure is kept as low as possible during transportation.
- We are currently working on machine-specific pressure instructions that will provide detailed recommendations for such situations as mounting on rims, transportation and use. In the future, the tyres' transportation pressure will be based on the front tyre pressure, and during assembly, pressure is only added to the rear tyres. This increases safety and saves valuable assembly time.
Ilpo Orell and Jaakko Aho from John Deere Forestry confirm that this solution will significantly increase occupational safety and reduce the process completion time by as much as 1.5 hours.
- These two companies draw guidelines for future solutions in the forestry machine industry. With the joint effort of two world-leading experts, a positive outcome is guaranteed. John Deere Forestry is looking forward to a bright future with Nokian Heavy Tyres, Orell concludes.
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