Mikemet Oy, based in Mikkeli, is a company whose Managing Director Jukka Kokkonen says growth is part of its operating principles. Mikemet is a company with its own distinctive character, as social responsibility plays a significant role alongside technology. In addition to industrial production, the company provides tailored vocational rehabilitation services for different industries. For example, the company also operates as a personnel leasing provider, supplying trained labour for companies’ temporary needs.

Mikemet’s technical expertise is focused on metal and sheet metal work. Annual steel sheet consumption is around 350,000 kg, which, with an average thickness of less than one millimetre, represents a considerable number of square metres. The company invests in technology, one example being the first Salvagnini P4Lean automatic panel bender commissioned in Finland in July 2015.

Long experience in the background

Behind today’s Mikemet lies Kokkonen’s approximately twenty years of experience at Ensto’s Mikkeli factory. From there, he moved to a local work centre providing rehabilitation services, where he became familiar with this type of activity. Alongside hard technology, he also had to become familiar with softer values. The current Mikemet was created through an acquisition of business operations at the end of 2011. The family-owned company from Mikkeli employs almost fifty people and has a turnover of EUR 4.5 million.

In addition to sheet metal work, the company carries out assembly of electronics and electrical components, as well as other sub-assembly work. Combining rehabilitation services with technology is new in Finland, and Kokkonen says he is something of a pioneer in this field. The advantage of the operating model is a light cost structure that supports the company’s competitiveness, as well as the possibility to use wage-subsidised labour flexibly.

Ensto, which applies Lean, Kanban and modularisation, is an important customer for Mikemet. The operating methods are developed together, for example by delivering goods directly to shelves. Mikemet has adopted these techniques and is ready to respond to all future challenges. A growing product area for the company is structures for residential ventilation technology. The company’s machine base consists of sheet metal technology machines, supported by welding equipment.

Modern technology

The Italian company Salvagnini is also looking for customers outside the traditional user base of automatic panel benders by developing new machine designs. Alongside the P2Lean model launched at last autumn’s EuroBLECH, the new P4Lean automatic panel bender has been introduced, and Mikemet is its first Finnish user.

Compared with Salvagnini’s earlier stand-alone models, the new features of the machine include MAC 2.0 technology, which compensates for variations in material properties during bending, as well as the CLA-SIM device for automatic adjustment of the tool composition. These extensions increase production flexibility, broaden the machine’s range of applications and make it possible to process mutually different and geometrically demanding parts within the same bending cycle.

The bending unit of the machine also includes new features. For example, the clamping system for the sheet hold-down tools is pneumatic, eliminating the risk of oil leaks onto the sheet surface. The material thicknesses that can be processed are up to 3.2 mm for steel, 2.5 mm for stainless steel and 4 mm for aluminium. One example of new features that benefit the user is the DPM gripping device, which works together with the rotating and feeding manipulator and enables even smaller and narrower parts to be bent.

Other machine features, such as automatic sheet centring and handling, as well as automatic springback compensation according to sheet thickness and material stiffness, also help ensure optimal bending results from the very first workpiece.

In the development of the P4Lean, considerable attention has been paid to energy efficiency. Thanks to new motor and structural solutions, the machine’s energy consumption is among the lowest on the market. As the dynamic power source in the main cylinder, there is only a closed, servo-valve-controlled hydraulic system with a volume of approximately 20 litres.

The punched and cut sheet blanks for the automatic panel bender are produced with the company’s previously acquired Shear Genius equipped with a Finn-Power right-angle shear.

Managing Director Kokkonen decided on the machine investment because of its rapid setup changeover, which is suitable even for single-part production. Another advantage is the possibility of using barcode control, which is well suited to operators with a lower skill level. In suitable work, the automatic machine’s cycle times are significantly shorter than those of a press brake; for example, a four-minute operation is reduced to 45 seconds. The setup times of a press brake are also considerably longer. On the automatic system, a program that has already been created is simply read by barcode.

Vocational rehabilitation services

Mikemet provides vocational rehabilitation services for pension insurance companies and Vakuutuskeskus ry, with the aim of finding a return-to-work plan for the customer and, for example, for a person facing health-related limitations or recovering from a traffic accident. The means used include work trials, job coaching, apprenticeship training and retraining.

HR and Service Manager Jenni Rytkönen says that Mikemet employs people who are in a difficult position in the labour market. The rehabilitation activities train customers for the open labour market, supported by connecting real production work to the rehabilitation process. A key question in work ability assessment and rehabilitation is work that takes place at the right time and at the right level.

Job coaching is vocational rehabilitation and work coaching designed by Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, for mental health rehabilitees, with the aim of improving a person’s ability to perform by supporting them in achieving work capacity and earning capacity.

In work trials organised by the TE administration, participants become familiar with working life, with the aim of improving their opportunities to move into employment and strengthening their vocational competence. During the work trial, they try out new types of tasks and prepare for practical working life. The practical work tasks in the trial are carried out in Mikemet’s different departments. The trial includes familiarisation with the rules of working life, assessment of working-life skills and interviews with a rehabilitation counsellor.

The company has also worked with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to develop the Finnish Työpankki model. It is a flexible and risk-free solution for companies’ temporary personnel needs. Personnel are both leased to customer companies and recruited for their needs.

Success on the growth path

Etelä-Savon Kasvupolku is part of the national Kasvu Open competition. The path is not merely a comparison of plans and targets; the programme also includes coaching and mutual sparring. Mikemet Oy is this year’s winner of the South Savo Growth Path, aiming for 25 percent growth by 2018. The company is implementing an extensive investment programme. Both personnel and customers are involved in the company’s development work.

Edited by Prof. Veijo Kauppinen and published in Ohutlevy 2/2015.