Intriguing Engineering

INTRIGUING ENGINEERING

Tuomo Lekkerimäki is a Prohoc professional who has worked with our company on different roles abroad. One of his recent projects were on Valmet’s pulp mill project where he worked as a site manager and an installation supervisor. 

Tuomo was born and raised in Tikkakoski, Finland, and he lived on the shore of Luonetjärvi until he was 20 years old. He graduated as an engineer at the Jyväskylä Technical School in 1983 in machine automation studies. He says that he could not have guessed what he would experience in his working life. 

– “Engineering is intriguing, it includes office work but also practical duties such as installing and commissioning machines.” 

Working with Prohoc 

The starting point of Tuomo’s career in the 1980s was on automation of welding machines and other related tasks. In the 2000s and 2010s, he moved towards consulting duties and now his career has led him to Prohoc. 

Most recently he worked in Valmet’s pulp mill expansion project in South Africa as a site manager and an installation supervisor. In the project Valmet delivered a new chipping line that included the installation and extensive equipment delivery to the chip processing area. 

– “My supervising duties were mainly about installing a chipping line. My manager duties included both managing the Valmet site organization and communicating with the final customer’s project organization,” Tuomo informs. 

Various Stakeholders and Challenges 

Tuomo had to keep in touch with stakeholders as a site manager and an installation supervisor. About work-related challenges, he explains that technical difficulties are normally the easiest to solve. 

– “Schedule-related challenges are often difficult because they are almost consistently related to the coordination of work by other contractors. These can be solved by co-operation.” 

Tuomo states that cultural differences are perhaps the most challenging: 

– “You must accept there are various ways of completing things in different countries. Luckily, you can almost always negotiate about these issues.” 

Tuomo says that his motivation is high when the technology is ready for start-up. 

– It is satisfying when I see that the installation personnel have succeed in their duties and I have been able to positively influence it.”, he explains.

Read full article from Scope Stakeholder Magazine Edition Summer 2019