Ponsse’s fac­tory, ori­gi­nally only 300 square met­res in size, was built in Vie­remä in 1970. After deca­des, the fac­tory is still stan­ding in the same place. During its his­tory, the fac­tory has been expan­ded 16 times, and the cur­rent size of the fac­tory area is four hec­ta­res. The last 1.3‑hectare exten­sion was com­mis­sio­ned in 2018. The fac­tory area is home to pro­to­type tes­ting faci­li­ties, as well as tes­ting and deli­very equip­ping areas. The fac­tory moder­ni­sa­tion focused especially on well­being at work, safety and ergo­no­mics.

All PONSSE forest mac­hi­nes and most of the com­po­nents used in forest mac­hi­nes are
desig­ned, manu­fac­tu­red and tes­ted in Vie­remä. Ponsse’s fac­tory is desig­ned to serve cus­to­mers in mac­hine acqui­si­tions throug­hout the lifecycle of mac­hi­nes. This way, qua­lity cont­rol of mac­hi­nes and com­po­nents, as well as lifecycle and risk mana­ge­ment, remain in Ponsse’s own hands.

The qua­lity orga­ni­sa­tion covers four main proces­ses: qua­lity cont­rol, pro­duc­tion sup­port, mea­su­re­ments and new pro­ducts, and sus­tai­na­bi­lity. Wel­ded struc­tu­res are con­ti­nuo­usly ins­pec­ted using spot checks and by X‑ray, if requi­red. Ult­ra­so­nic mea­su­re­ments, mag­ne­tic par­ticle ins­pec­tions and visual ins­pec­tions are also used in qua­lity assu­rance. The latest addi­tion in qua­lity assu­rance is a robot-cont­rol­led camera mea­su­ring sys­tem, which ren­ders a per­fect image of the object being mea­su­red,
allowing this image to be com­pa­red to the desig­ned 3D model.

Efficient and sus­tai­nable pro­duc­tion

At the fac­tory, the parts manu­fac­tu­ring and assembly of forest mac­hi­nes has been stan­dar­di­sed as modu­lar, whe­reby dif­fe­rent mac­hine models can be manu­fac­tu­red through a single manu­fac­tu­ring process fol­lowing takt time. This allows cus­to­mers to flexibly select the pro­per­ties they want for their forest mac­hine. Pro­duct infor­ma­tion is also retai­ned in Ponsse’s sys­tems so that the main­te­nance mea­su­res, cont­rol sys­tem upda­tes and com­po­nent replace­ments direc­ted at a mac­hine over time can be saved in mac­hine infor­ma­tion.

In con­junc­tion with the 2018 expan­sion, an auto­ma­ted ware­house was built to stream­line ope­ra­tions in logis­tics, and assembly underwent a complete change. The capacity of the frame mac­hi­ning centre was also inc­rea­sed. Buil­ding sys­tems are based on the latest tech­no­lo­gical solu­tions. As an example, a solar power plant has been ins­tal­led on the fac­tory roof, whose solar panels cover 2,000 square met­res. The system’s capacity is equi­va­lent to the annual elect­ricity needs of 100 homes. Lights have been replaced by LEDs, and the bra­king energy of auto­ma­ted ware­house sys­tems is reco­ve­red. Recently, the factory’s auto­ma­tion rate has been inc­rea­sed.

During 2024, lique­fied pet­ro­leum gas was replaced by bio­gas in the paint shop’s drying plant. Pre­viously, the con­sump­tion of LPG accoun­ted for more than 90 per cent of emis­sions from pro­duc­tion in Vie­remä. Bio­gas is expec­ted to reduce annual emis­sions by roughly 215 tCO2e. In addi­tion, local bio­gas pro­duc­tion strengt­hens energy self-suf­ficiency and reduces depen­dence on fos­sil fuels.

The fac­tory is cont­rol­led by takt time, which is based on the annual volume esti­ma­ted
by sales. The annual volume is adjus­ted at regu­lar inter­vals in the sales, ware­house and
pro­duc­tion plan­ning process. Takt time takes into account the fac­tory personnel’s days off, trai­ning and joint mee­tings. The comple­tion of a single mac­hine takes about 460 wor­king hours, or 7–8 wor­king days, star­ting from the manu­fac­ture of main com­po­nents. Every PONSSE forest mac­hine ente­ring pro­duc­tion already has a cus­to­mer, and no mac­hi­nes are manu­fac­tu­red in stock.

From com­po­nents to to forest mac­hine

Assembly con­sists of four main com­po­nent assembly lines: crane assembly,
cabin assembly, frame pre-equip­ping, and rear frame equip­ping. The com­po­nent assembly lines feed a 180-metre base mac­hine assembly line, where mac­hi­nes are given their final shape with the selec­ted adjust­ments, and their test drive rea­di­ness is ensu­red. In pro­duc­tion, har­ves­ters and forwar­ders can be manu­fac­tu­red flexibly on the same line, and all assembly teams know how to assemble all mac­hine models in pro­duc­tion. At the end of the main line, mac­hi­nes are tes­ted before their test drive. Tes­ting ran­ges from hydrau­lic adjust­ments to calibra­tions and tests rela­ted to
cont­rol sys­tems.

A sepa­rate pro­duc­tion line and tes­ting site for har­ves­ter heads are loca­ted next to the
main line. All har­ves­ter heads for Ponsse’s mac­hi­nes, as well as those sold sepa­ra­tely, are comple­ted there.

From the last sta­tion of the main pro­duc­tion line, mac­hi­nes are trans­fer­red to the
deli­very equip­ping area. There, mac­hi­nes are was­hed and ins­pec­ted before their test drive. A mac­hine test drive takes about eight hours, and Ponsse employs seve­ral full-time test dri­vers. Most har­ves­ters are tes­ted in forests. Some forwar­ders are also tes­ted in forests, where they pick up trees fel­led by har­ves­ters during their test drive, whe­reas the rest of the mac­hi­nes are tes­ted on a two-kilo­metre test track near the fac­tory. A test report is comple­ted for each mac­hine, inclu­ding the items to be tes­ted. After the test drive, mac­hi­nes are retur­ned to the deli­very equip­ping area, where
they are was­hed and equip­ped for deli­very to the cus­to­mer.

Safely at work

Every day, some 600 Ponsse people work at the fac­tory, of whom 130 work in parts manu­fac­tu­ring, roughly 200 in assembly and deli­very equip­ping, and 40 in logis­tics.

The fac­tory per­son­nel are trai­ned and encou­ra­ged to make safety obser­va­tions.
In addi­tion, the per­for­mance-based remu­ne­ra­tion of the per­son­nel also encou­ra­ges
emplo­yees to achieve the tar­get of zero acci­dents. Solu­tions and tools that make
wor­king easier and improve ergo­no­mics are deve­lo­ped at the fac­tory along with solu­tions that make the work of mac­hine ope­ra­tors easier and more efficient. Focus is also on safety equip­ment. The num­ber of occu­pa­tio­nal acci­dents is moni­to­red acti­vely, and each near­miss inci­dent or acci­dent will be inves­ti­ga­ted and ana­ly­sed with Ponsse’s occu­pa­tio­nal safety and health team. The num­ber of occu­pa­tio­nal acci­dents has dec­rea­sed sig­ni­ficantly in recent years.