LiSEC & Lumon are close to their customers

Lumon was founded in 1978, and sets new benchmarks with balcony and terrace glazing systems, as well as, balcony façades well beyond the borders of Finland. The international company is active in over 20 countries and can draw on more than 40 years of experience. With sales of EUR 138 million in 2018 and over 1000 employees, 2019 was the company’s year of investments. The primary focus here was placed on expansion in the form of a new hall, to create additional space and added capacity for glass processing.

Lumon has firm values: The phrase “close the to the customer” consists of more than just empty words for the company, and it is closely linked to upholding the promises made to customers in particular with regards to agreed deadlines. This pledge to be dependable requires an equally dependable and also competent partner.

With its own in-house R&D department, Lumon detects current trends and converts these into high quality products for its customers. In order to keep up with the times with its products and new developments, the company needed to expand its machine suite and production space. An additional 4600 square meters of production area offers sufficient space not only to produce existing products and new developments, but also to establish further workstations for 40 new production employees and 7 new permanent members of staff when working in full capacity.

Long-term partnership – we keep our promises

Cooperation between LiSEC and Lumon initially began in 2007. At that time, this first project was also the first major challenge for Pekka Oikarinen in his new role as investment manager at Lumon. “That was a huge project back then – changing over from manual to automated”, he recalls. At that time, the LiSEC employees stood available with their expertise and supported the process from the planning stage right through to final realisation.

The Lumon suite of machinery consists of the glass store, which is equipped not only with fixed glass storage racks, but also with 13 additional storage spaces for internal loader frames. Following delivery by the glass supplier, the raw glass sheets can be collected directly and fully automatically from these frames by the gantry loading system and fed to the glass cutting systems.

Two sorting systems are fed by highly automated glass cutting and breaking lines. These sorting systems offer the advantage that glass is stored in a “wastage optimised” manner, and feeding the downstream machines can take place on the other side in the required sequence.

At the time, the sorting system for Lumon was the first of its kind to leave Austria in the direction of a customer site.

In 2015 / 2016, a new LiSEC lamination system followed.

Competent and reliable project execution

In 2019, the starting signal was sounded for the new project with an overall investment volume of EUR 16 million, which included not only the construction of a new hall and its equipment with machinery, but also investments in the remaining machine suite and the software systems.

The most recently completed investment project consisted of a second new gantry loading system and a further automatic cutting line with automatic X and Y break-out devices. A second sorting system was also installed, which is integrated in the system line on both the inlet and outlet side by shuttles. Vertical transport sections and a tilting table perform the automatic loading of a “double-edger”. Furthermore, the sorting system also facilitates the individual discharging and feeding of production runs for both manual and semi-automatic processing steps with a separate inlet and outlet.

Despite certain challenges with respect to the different floor levels in the new and old sections of the hall, commissioning and start-up of the sorting system took place faultlessly, providing a further indication of competent and reliable project execution.

“We have developed a very good mutual understanding with LiSEC, from the outset of our cooperation in 2007. And that was why we got in contact with LiSEC once again for this new project. The bottom line is that LiSEC, as a company, does the same as us: it seeks close proximity to the customer, and it attempts to listen and understand the customer, and to find a solution. The project management worked extremely well with us throughout this recent project!”, enthuses Pekka Oikarinen, the manager responsible for investments at Lumon. The project also brings back positive memories for the colleagues at LiSEC.

“The optimum progression of the project – on time and in budget – can be clearly attributed in this case to extremely good technical preparation by the customer and the good cooperation of both project teams”, explains Stefan Putschögl, the LiSEC project manager responsible. During this project, he was confronted not only with a very tight schedule but also with challenges arising due to the delayed completion of the new hall.

The successful collaboration between the LiSEC project management and the company’s own project management was based in particular on close coordination, as well as regular meetings and consultations – directly on the construction site and also via digital media. With this project, LiSEC also assessed the technical requirements of the customer and provided solution-oriented proposals, which led not only to an optimised solution following the final decision of the customer, but also formed the basis for an efficient and optimally planned common project.

Service as a factor for success

Lumon has a clear attitude towards the service it delivers to its customers. “The reason we go to work every day is to create better “homes” for our customers. And because we also wish to maintain this over the course of time”, explains Pekka Oikarinen. With a small service team, Lumon also continues to support its customers long after the completion of their new balcony or façade. And Pekka Oikarinen is also able to draw parallels with the cooperation with LiSEC here. “With regards to the service provided by LiSEC, we are not simply satisfied with the ongoing servicing. Moreover it begins with the training of our personnel on the new machines and is confirmed with the rapid response times when any problems arise”.

The visits to Austria have also left a lasting impression. The discussions during planning and the visits to reference customers, as well as the insights into production with LiSEC machines in the GlassForum.

Last but not least: the LiSEC software

And Lumon is also optimally equipped when it comes to software. The LiSEC machine range is further supplemented for example with autofab, gps.order, gps.prod and asset check.

“Alongside the high level of professionalism that LiSEC has demonstrated throughout our cooperation, in my opinion one of the greatest advantages of working with LiSEC is the software, which is optimally tailored to the customer’s needs. Autofab continues to delight me – this program is individually customised to us and our work procedures”, enthuses Oikarinen.