Today, we visited Valmet automotive. Valmet is where Katja from the Finland-to-Oklahoma team works as the EA to the CEO. Valmet is the only place that manufactures Porsche Cayman and Boxters outside of Germany. Finland is very proud of this fact and they should be as Porsche is very strict in their standards (as they should be given their price) and those that are made in Finland actually score better in quality than those from Germany - even given their reputation.
(On a side note, this is consistent with what we've seen throughout the country - with only 5 million inhabitants, they don't have many companies, but those that they do are top-notch - of course, including Nokia. I had a site visit to Technip Offshore - a manufacturer of deep water drilling rigs. As is typical in today's business market, Technip has been acquired and is now French owned, but was previously Finnish. Though rigs can be built cheaper in Asia, Technip has maintained the Finland operations because of the superior quality. During Hurricane Katrina, the only platforms NOT lost in the gulf were those built by Technip's Finnish plant. Additionally, we later visited STX (you'll hear more on this later) - the largest builder of luxury cruiseliners in the world. Of course, this shipyard started locally as a Finnish company years ago, but is now Korean owned. Once again, boats can be built cheaper elsewhere, but the quality doesn't compare so the best boats are still built in Finland where the top talent is.)
OK, back to Valmet - it truly is unfortunate that we were unable to take any pictures inside Valmet - (I'm sure the five of us looked pretty threatening to their trade secrets) - this place was most men's dreamland as Porsches floated over our heads one after another down the assembly line - every color, hard top, soft top, fancy-schmancy wheels, etc. Each vehicle was custom-made to order and each vehicle varied from that ten feet in front and behind on the line. The huge robots used to assemble much of the body of the car were amazing - quite large, nimble, and eerily human-like in their motion. Humans still manipulated much of the small details of the cars, but they have over 70 robots today.
In addition to these two Porsche models, Valmet is in first production of the 'Karma* for automotive company Fisker-Karma. This is a cool-looking, fancy hybrid, until we were turned off by the steep price that is proposed - $80,000. For those of you crazy/wealthy enough to buy this, they're coming out next year so keep your eyes open!
Finally, Valmet also manufactures high-end electric golf cart/Smartcar sized vehicle called Think - City. This is an all electric vehicle - takes about 8 hours to charge. Unfortunately, we weren't able to drive a Porsche, but we did have the opportunity to drive a Think!
Following our Valmet visit, our host picked us up and took us to the town hall of Mynämäki where we met the mayor. We find it interesting as we've met two Mayors to date and they've both been quick to let us know that they're appointed not elected - but we've learned that the town council consisting of the strongest political parties is who appoints the mayor, so they are actually quite political and as such popular or unpopular as any other politician. We heard quite a bit about his viewpoints on energy, consumption, and conservation. While we didn't agree with the majority of his comments, it certainly was interesting to hear his point of view.
We headed to kill time in a Finnish grocery store then a sandwich/coffee shop - not so different from Panera Bread. We enjoyed coffee and tea and then headed and presented to the Mynämäki Rotary Club's dinner meeting.
(On a side note, this is consistent with what we've seen throughout the country - with only 5 million inhabitants, they don't have many companies, but those that they do are top-notch - of course, including Nokia. I had a site visit to Technip Offshore - a manufacturer of deep water drilling rigs. As is typical in today's business market, Technip has been acquired and is now French owned, but was previously Finnish. Though rigs can be built cheaper in Asia, Technip has maintained the Finland operations because of the superior quality. During Hurricane Katrina, the only platforms NOT lost in the gulf were those built by Technip's Finnish plant. Additionally, we later visited STX (you'll hear more on this later) - the largest builder of luxury cruiseliners in the world. Of course, this shipyard started locally as a Finnish company years ago, but is now Korean owned. Once again, boats can be built cheaper elsewhere, but the quality doesn't compare so the best boats are still built in Finland where the top talent is.)
OK, back to Valmet - it truly is unfortunate that we were unable to take any pictures inside Valmet - (I'm sure the five of us looked pretty threatening to their trade secrets) - this place was most men's dreamland as Porsches floated over our heads one after another down the assembly line - every color, hard top, soft top, fancy-schmancy wheels, etc. Each vehicle was custom-made to order and each vehicle varied from that ten feet in front and behind on the line. The huge robots used to assemble much of the body of the car were amazing - quite large, nimble, and eerily human-like in their motion. Humans still manipulated much of the small details of the cars, but they have over 70 robots today.
In addition to these two Porsche models, Valmet is in first production of the 'Karma* for automotive company Fisker-Karma. This is a cool-looking, fancy hybrid, until we were turned off by the steep price that is proposed - $80,000. For those of you crazy/wealthy enough to buy this, they're coming out next year so keep your eyes open!
Finally, Valmet also manufactures high-end electric golf cart/Smartcar sized vehicle called Think - City. This is an all electric vehicle - takes about 8 hours to charge. Unfortunately, we weren't able to drive a Porsche, but we did have the opportunity to drive a Think!
Following our Valmet visit, our host picked us up and took us to the town hall of Mynämäki where we met the mayor. We find it interesting as we've met two Mayors to date and they've both been quick to let us know that they're appointed not elected - but we've learned that the town council consisting of the strongest political parties is who appoints the mayor, so they are actually quite political and as such popular or unpopular as any other politician. We heard quite a bit about his viewpoints on energy, consumption, and conservation. While we didn't agree with the majority of his comments, it certainly was interesting to hear his point of view.
We headed to kill time in a Finnish grocery store then a sandwich/coffee shop - not so different from Panera Bread. We enjoyed coffee and tea and then headed and presented to the Mynämäki Rotary Club's dinner meeting.
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