“Surprisingly much was achieved in such a short span of time. Huld had a systematic approach to the project and a strong motivation, exhilaration and commitment lowed from their development team thorough the process,” summarizes Arto Haavanlammi, Valmet’s project lead.
Together with its’ partner, Valmet has been developing a novel wood-based 3D-product with a high ambition level. It was identified early on in the process that the time-to-market for such products would be critical and the development of the required process and production line should be carried out with a prompt schedule.
After echoing signals from our customers that the traditional product development processes are too slow and expensive, we at Huld had decided to take an action to provide the demanded solution. We have been developing our rapid product development processes and tools to match our customers’ needs for fast-paced development, which have become so much more acute especially by the COVID-19 pandemic, as non-hesitant and bold decisions are required now more than ever.
Hulds’ rapid product development model Huld Garage still needed a pilot project and considering our strong partnership, it was a natural choice to implement our ideas into the benefit of Valmet and the company’s need for fast results in a completely new kind of production line.
In the project kick-off, Valmet had a clear picture of how the process from pulp to a finished product would go down to, but no concrete plans on how the required production line would unfold. In just 17 workdays and close-knit communications with Valmet, Huld went on from pen and paper sketches of several concepts to high-quality rendered images of the mechanical concept. Start of the production line, optimal factory layout, sound background studies on industrial design, modularity and UX design were all included.
“It is very hard to imagine that any other engineering agency could have yielded faster results or displayed similar flexibility and capacity to absorb new ideas and information during the process. Collaboration with any other operator would have required much more support from our side,” points out Sampo Immonen, Head of line R&D at Valmet.
The toolbox and the process of Huld’s rapid product development are a combination of Design Thinking, Scrum framework with its’ proven patterns and an extensive list of some of the best practices we have learned as one of the leading design houses in Finland. While this process and tool development is still in its’ early stages, the ideas behind them proved powerful, according to Valmet:
“Surprisingly much was achieved in such a short span of time. Huld had a systematic approach to the project and a strong motivation, exhilaration and commitment lowed from their development team thorough the process,” summarizes Arto Haavanlammi, Valmet’s project lead.
More information:
Lassi Sutela, Chief Technology Officer
, +358 50 384 5430
Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. Valmet’s vision is to become the global champion in serving its customers. Valmet’s net sales in 2019 were approximately EUR 3.5 billion. More than 13,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers’ performance forward – every day. Valmet’s head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.