Tatu Kivinen has been appointed Fimpec’s Quality and Planning Manager
Tatu Kivinen has been appointed to the new position of Quality and Planning Manager. The position, which involves development projects and internal audits, as well as the development and implementation of the Group’s common operating system, is new for the entire Group. Kivinen is excited about the extensive development potential of his new role.
Tatu Kivinen began working at Fimpec Engineering in 2018 through the CTS Engtec training programme. After the programme, he worked in plant engineering. After working for about a year, Kivinen realised that he needed new challenges alongside his engineering work, and brought the situation up with CEO Antti Lukka. Kivinen says that he was almost immediately given the opportunity to be more involved in the company’s quality development. The Group’s brand reform created an opening in a quality and operating system development project.
“Fimpec has ambitious growth targets, and the Group needs common operating methods and models. That is why we set out to develop a common operating system. We have now reached the point where we can start implementing it,” Kivinen explains.
Kivinen’s new role as Quality and Planning Manager was created as a natural continuation to previous quality development work. In the future, Kivinen’s work and responsibilities will include various development projects. However, at the moment, there are a few clear issues that he must work on.
Fimpec PMO’s LastPlanner method has previously been piloted by the planning department, but its development will continue under Kivinen’s leadership. Similarly, the operating system and its maintenance and updates will fall under Kivinen’s responsibilities. In addition, audits of internal projects are a significant part of his job.
“After all, we use audits to compare what has been promised with the actual actions taken. If we have deviated from our promises, either our promises or procedures must be updated. In project audits, this means that we must be able to identify good practices to be implemented in future projects and pitfalls to be avoided when new projects are launched.”
“You could even say that I am kind of an internal facilitator or consultant,” Kivinen says of his new role.
Personal initiative led to new challenges
Kivinen’s new position was made possible primarily by his own initiative and the management’s open-mindedness. Kivinen expressed his desire to take on new challenges and develop his own work. As a result, Kivinen was assigned new quality development duties. This also revealed the need for more extensive quality and planning management.
“I am curious by nature, and I ask a lot of questions. I have always taken the initiative myself and asked for new responsibilities. At Fimpec, there is a lot of talk about career opportunities, and I am an example of that,” Kivinen says.
Kivinen encourages people to take the initiative and express their desire to change their roles. He feels that, especially after the brand reform, the number of available career paths has increased as Fimpec’s companies have become closer to each other. According to Kivinen’s experience, employees’ promotion proposals have always been received with an open mind.
In addition to his new job, Kivinen is also working on his Master’s thesis at Fimpec. He is a graduate engineer in industrial engineering with a major in performance management. The subject of his thesis is the design of performance indicators for an expert organisation.
“The brand reform revealed that Fimpec needs new common tools. As a result, I had the opportunity to create a strategic management tool for Fimpec’s senior management as my thesis,” he says.
Wide range of opportunities to influence company development
Kivinen says that his new area of responsibility as a whole is exactly what he hoped for from his work. It provides an opportunity to exert a broad influence on the company’s development on many fronts. Through his work, Kivinen can assess the company’s potential for improvement and learn how to boost the company’s sales, production and customer satisfaction.
“The focus of my work is shifting from engineering to making engineering and other project work easier. I pave the way for others. I want to help and support the organisation. This is the core of my management work. Serving others and achieving good results – that is what I excel in!” Kivinen says.
