Powder coated aluminium profiles directly to customer’s production

We have been cooperating with Lumon, a manufacturer of balcony, terrace glazing, and sunshade products for more than 10 years. Both companies have grown along the way, and new solutions have been developed together. Mika Korkea-aho from Mäkelä Alu and Antti Aholainen from Lumon (on the right) hold regular meetings.

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.