The largest customer-projects have taken place in aircraft hangars, shipyards, harbours, and industrial facilities. Every product is made to order for the customer. Most of the products are exported. Their sales took off 15 years ago after a large commission from Airbus.

Competition is fierce in their field. They have competitors on many continents.

AluCallOff® service frees up capital from warehousing

One of Champion Door’s most prominent competitive advantages is swift delivery. The secret behind their fast pace is Mäkelä Alu’s AluCallOff® service, which ensures that the company always has the required number of aluminium profiles in stock. Because of this, customer orders can be taken into production very quickly. Automation ensures that the stock remains at the agreed level. Stock is refilled whenever needed.

The aluminium profiles are not invoiced until they are taken into use. This way a larger number of items can be kept in stock without tying up capital.

“It’s a significant advantage that releases funds for other purposes: labour, investments, and marketing,” says Champion Door’s Purchasing Manager Anne Tölli.

Shortens delivery times by several weeks

What the service can offer is best demonstrated by imagining how the company would operate without it.

“ We would only be able to place an order for aluminium profiles once we had made an agreement with our own client. Then we would have to wait for the aluminium profile supplier to complete their previous orders before getting to work on ours,” Tölli says.

Now the aluminium profile order can be sent in immediately. Tölli estimates that it provides a competitive advantage worth at least a month in delivery times.

“We are also making agreements on raw materials to keep the prices stable. That way global market fluctuations don’t affect the costs during the contract period. It provides security and makes cost and offer calculations significantly easier,” says Tölli.

Well-designed standard profiles

The aluminium profiles delivered to Champion Door’s warehouse are manufactured with the customer’s own profile drawings. Champion Door also delivers products that are customised specifically for their customer.

“In collaboration with Mäkelä Alu, we have been able to design standard profiles delivered to our warehouse so that they can be used versatilely for different orders, and the amount of waste is minimised. The number of models we keep in stock has grown from a few to six,” says Tölli.

They order some of their aluminium profiles from Mäkelä Alu outside the AluCallOff service package. For example, when they receive a commission so large that it would ‘eat up’ their regular stock, or when using stocked profiles would not be sensible for other reasons.

“AluCallOff allows us to monitor our stock levels easily; the types and number of profiles we have in stock. This makes our life easier when we make plans for an upcoming project, for example,” Tölli says.

“Product complaints are also an important aspect of customer service. The number of complaints we receive is minuscule compared to how many kilograms of products we deliver – and when we receive any, processing them is simple and quick,” she adds.

Superior service

Tölli compliments Mäkelä Alu on how easily the agreed stock levels can be renegotiated.

“Our collaboration has been pleasant and uncomplicated overall. My experience is that Mäkelä Alu is a professional supplier that provides excellent service. The customer is always right in their books. I am extremely pleased with their work,” she says.

According to Tölli, the AluCallOff® service in particular is exemplary.

“If your company needs standard-sized profiles for which there is fairly constant demand, this service is an excellent choice,” she says.

AluCallOff® service enables flexible business

The partnership between Mäkelä Alu and Champion Door has lasted nearly 20 years. Now this collaboration is coordinated by Olli Korkia-aho at Mäkelä Alu’s sales team. He, too, is pleased with the partnership and sees heaps of potential for future growth.

“When our customer succeeds, we succeed,” Korkia-aho says.

Korkia-aho recommends the AluCallOff® service for customers who need profiles ready at their disposal and flexibility in their business operations. The service’s advantages become more prominent when the customer wishes to have several aluminium profiles ready in stock for product production without first having to place a separate order for them.

“Although the AluCallOff® service is an additional service with a fee, several of our customers have seen it as a cost-effective way to ensure that the important aluminium profiles are easily managed and that they are available when needed,” he says.

And even though the products are always made with the customer’s own prints as custom orders, AluCallOff® service allows the customer to pay for the profiles only after they have been taken from the stock for product manufacturing. With the stock capital management system AluVendor®, the customer is able to monitor their stock and delivery situation in real time.

Mäkelä Alu requires the customer to keep aluminium profiles in a protected space.

Watch the video to see how the AluCallOff® service works!

Artikkeli AluCallOff® warehousing service is a great competitive advantage julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Mäkelä Alu Oy.

Lumon has seen successful growth since the 1970s. The company is a family business, just like Mäkelä Alu. Lumon believes in innovation, technology and cooperation, which has undoubtedly been one of the underlying factors contributing to the successful collaboration with Mäkelä Alu.

“Mäkelä Alu’s development and genuine desire to be a part of our supply chain have been crucial. The will to grow and develop together in a transparent way has also been vital,” says the Head of Procurement Antti Aholainen from Lumon Oy.

“We supply powder coated aluminium profiles to Lumon, but in reality, our cooperation extends well beyond that. In practice, it can be said that we are part of Lumon’s production, as the powder coated profiles are delivered directly to their production lines. Over the years, we have strengthened our cooperation to suit customer needs and to ensure that both of our processes are sufficiently efficient,” says Mäkelä Alu’s Sales Director Mika Korkea-aho.

“When both the owners and the people involved have a genuine desire to develop and challenge current practices, there is a real opportunity to make the cooperation something truly unique,” says Petri Mäkelä, the Chairman of the Board and owner of Mäkelä Alu Oy.

From a self-managed warehouse to a rental warehouse and beyond

Mäkelä Alu’s role in the supply chain is considered significant by Lumon. The cooperation has a direct impact on efficiency and costs.

“We have previously had our own warehouse for profiles, but then we switched to Mäkelä Alu’s CallOff service, which worked very well at that time. But once the volumes began to grow, we were no longer able to store the profiles. However, last year, Mäkelä Alu introduced a solution which, from our point of view, had a very positive effect on profile availability: The company opened a new office with a paint shop and warehouses in Voikkaa, Kuusankoski. Now we have the opportunity to get pre-treated aluminium profiles for each production batch directly from Voikkaa,” says Antti Aholainen.

“The location of the Voikkaa paint shop in proximity to our Kouvola factory and the reforms made to the operating models and processes shortened the delivery time of the profiles by several days,” Antti adds.

High hopes for the future

Lumon is a major company in the European and North American balcony and terrace markets. The company’s main export countries are Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Russia, France, Switzerland and Canada. The group employs more than 1,000 people in total. The company’s production is centralised in Finland, with the exception of one plant in Canada.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Lumon is looking forward to the future and future developments.

“Lumon is continually growing and becoming more international. Strong growth is expected especially in the domestic residential sector and international business. We have not been immune to the effects of the coronavirus, but this year is still going to be successful from a business point of view,” Aholainen says.

Cooperation with Mäkelä Alu will also be continuously developed in the future.

“We hold regular strategy meetings with the owners and key personnel from both companies. We are constantly improving our processes.”

The balconies of the apartments in the Tripla shopping centre in Pasila, Helsinki, have been glazed by Lumon. The railing and balcony glazing products shown in the picture have been designed, manufactured and installed by Lumon.

Artikkeli Powder coated aluminium profiles directly to customer’s production julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Mäkelä Alu Oy.

Mäkelä Alu supplies aluminium profiles for the Swedish window manufacturer Svenska Fönster AB’s entire range of windows. The profiles are delivered to an external subcontractor who stores and processes the profiles before the windows are manufactured.

“We started cooperation with Mäkelä Alu on a small scale in 2013. In 2015, our cooperation expanded significantly with the introduction of Mäkelä Alu’s specialty colours. Mäkelä offers specialty colours that can be customised to order. This places high demands on order accuracy and the quality of profiles. The specialty colour segment also includes the surface treatment of plates. Mäkelä Alu also supplies standard colours for some of our windows,” says Stefan Hellgren, Purchasing Planner at Svenska Fönster AB.

“Mäkelä Alu’s operating model helps us to produce our products cost-effectively and enables us to offer our customers an extensive range of windows in different colours. This makes us an attractive window supplier for a wide range of customers. We are very pleased with our cooperation with Mäkelä Alu. We think that Mäkelä Alu is a committed supplier who wants to develop its operations together with Svenska Fönster,” Hellgren adds.

Successful cooperation is based on trust

Mäkelä Alu offers warehousing and surface treatment services to Svenska Fönster.

“Since the beginning of our cooperation, we have earned Svenska Fönster’s trust to supply them with more and more painted aluminium profiles in different colours. The cooperation has been very interesting,” says Anders Bengtsson from Mäkelä Alu AB. Mäkelä Alu AB is Mäkelä Alu Oy’s subsidiary located in Sweden.

“A short delivery time from order to delivery places high demands on the warehousing and management of raw profiles. This requires committed and customer-oriented staff. Our unique logistics model enables the fast delivery of painted profiles. Having our high-bay warehouse and paint shop in the same location brings flexibility to colour modifications in both small and large orders,” says Anders.

Would you like to know more? Contact our sales team and set up an appointment!

Artikkeli A service package for surface-treated aluminium profiles julkaistiin ensimmäisen kerran Mäkelä Alu Oy.