Supplying scaffolding from Nurmijärvi

Today and tomorrow, Suomi Teline aims to be the customer-friendliest scaffolding supplier in Finland. The facilities at the Karhukorpi industrial estate in Nurmijärvi play a major role in achieving this objective.

As tailored scaffolding solutions and weather protection are sent out and returned every day, high quality is required in both the design and the running of the yard and the warehouse.

“Functionality, occupational safety, and space management are the focus of our warehouse and yard design. We emphasise them in our daily work,” says Jere Sieppo, Suomi Teline’s director of sales.

Suomi Teline has operated at its current location in Nurmijärvi since the spring of 2019. The plot is 6,500 m2 in size with 1,200 m2 of warehouse and office space.

The warehouse includes a break room, tarpaulin handling facilities, accessory storage, and a workshop. The offices house company administration, offer and bid calculation, and scaffolding sales. The building also has meeting rooms and offices for supervisors.

“We have plenty of warehouse space. We’ve grown considerably and increased our scaffolding stock to keep up with new business. We considered expanding the plot, but that’s a zero-sum game: when our salespeople succeed, our stock will be on the move, but we do have to make sure that all our facilities can keep up with the needs of our growth.”

According to Sieppo, the main factor for logistics is the location next to the Tampere motorway. Many ALFIX scaffolding customers are located outside the Helsinki metropolitan area.

“We can make deliveries from our sales stock with relative ease to the east and west, and north and south are an absolute breeze.”

“Our sales may get a call at half past four in the afternoon for setting up a 7 a.m. delivery. In this case, it’s better for the customer’s schedule that we’re further away from downtown Helsinki. Our location close to the Helsinki metropolitan area by the Tampere motorway puts us close to all our customers,” says Jere Sieppo.

Nurmijärvi also serves Suomi Teline’s own contracting work. Both materials and workers can be delivered swiftly to worksites, mostly located in and around the Helsinki metropolitan area.

Clean and organised

Most of the plot’s area is used for storage. For example, there may be five loads arriving and departing during a workday, so keeping the yard clean and orderly is necessary for both occupational safety and smooth logistics.

“We receive materials in the middle of the yard and distribute them to the correct storage areas. The outgoing materials are located on the right side of the gate when you come in. The stream of materials never stops, but the peak season for deliveries is early summer and the returns start in earnest in October.”

Jere Sieppo raises the management of ice and snow as the current topic. In the winter months, yard maintenance is increasingly important as more equipment is in storage and the passages become narrower. It is naturally hazardous to drive a forklift around an icy yard, so ice and snow management is an important safety issue as well.

Suomi Teline’s warehouse and equipment are looked after by a warehouse manager and warehouseman. Having in-house employees is reflected in high quality and good cleanliness.

“People care for their job and identify strongly as company employees. When business processes have strong owners, things feel more immediate and everything works better,” says Sieppo.