According to the newly appointed CPO, Arnon already has a solid foundation for growth. The staff understand what the company needs, and Arnon has secured the cooperation of major international suppliers with highly efficient processes. The company only buys high-quality components. The whole of Arnon Group uses a single ERP system, and there are just three production facilities. These factors help to keep things simple.
Investing in supplier relations
Rautiainen brings an international perspective to Arnon. He previously had a long career with John Deere Forestry, where he held a number of global positions.
Good supplier relations are vital for large and small companies alike, and the challenges are the same for everyone. Rautiainen wants to build closer relationships with Arnon’s suppliers.
“Everything starts with friendly and respectful communication. If you have a good relationship with your supplier, they also treat you better,” he says.
Rautiainen’s experience of global business has instilled in him a certain firmness of purpose when it comes to supplier relations. He believes, for example, that a price increase announced by a supplier is not something that you automatically have to accept but simply a starting point for negotiation. Shopping around for more competitive prices is standard practice in big business, but a trick that many small businesses miss. Arnon is already benefiting from Rautiainen’s hard-line approach.
Arnon expects its suppliers to be responsible corporate citizens and to have the documentation to prove it.
“We want our supply chain to be sustainable throughout, and sustainability is also important to our customers,” Rautiainen says.
Focusing on continuous improvement
Even though Arnon is already going strong, there is always room for improvement. The first item on Rautiainen’s agenda is to increase the degree of automation in the company’s procurement process. With fewer stages of manual work involved, staff can focus on building better relationships with suppliers, shopping around for more competitive prices, negotiating for more favorable contractual terms, and fine-tuning the company’s internal procedures. Scaling up automation is not possible without a foundation of reliable data and systems.
“Automation makes people’s work more meaningful and frees them to focus on what they do best,” Rautiainen explains.
Rautiainen’s second priority is to increase cooperation between the head office and the company’s factory in Poland.
“We have good practices and opportunities in both countries that are worth sharing. There are surprisingly big differences between suppliers even within Europe, and we have the advantage of being able to choose where to put together each customer’s order.”
The third area where Rautiainen sees room for improvement is supplier harmonization. Sourcing everything from a select group of suppliers reduces the number of product names in the system. Harmonization also gives the company more purchasing power per item and volume-based discounts, saves time, and means fewer bins for stock in the factory, which in turn impacts inventory value and financial metrics.
“The whole Group benefits from having fewer product names to juggle. Knowing ahead of time which components we will be using simplifies both product development and project management,” Rautiainen explains.
Commuting by bicycle
Changing jobs a little over a year ago transformed Rautiainen’s entire way of life. Having previously spent a hundred days a year traveling around the world, he now has a commute of just 22 miles, which is short enough to do by bicycle. He now also makes it home in time to enjoy his family in the evenings.
Bicycling, and especially gravel and road riding, is a passion of Rautiainen, who covered more than 3,700 miles on a bike last year alone. His favorite pastimes in the winter include cross-country skiing and exploring the rural area where he lives.
