Customers benefit from Arnon's new processes

Arnon has developed its product management process to better match its rapidly growing business, but also to produce more value for its customers.

“We have standardised and harmonised our products and centralised our supplier partnerships. All this is reflected in increased efficiency and shorter turnaround times for our customers. Our customers value quality, delivery time and price. They value quality the most, and our quality will improve even further with improved product management,” says Chief Product Officer Jouni Mäki, who is responsible for the product management process.

Compliance is an important part of product management. As the supplier, Arnon is responsible for the compliance of the products and services with the standards, directives and customer requirements.

“We make sure that customers get what they need. Customers are not always able to consider everything but we take full responsibility for our products and make sure that everything is done according to standards and legislation. In any case, we see the overall picture and have a wider perspective on the solution, which often makes it more efficient,” says Mäki.

At Arnon, standardisation helps professionals find common benefits between different customer accounts, benchmark players in different sectors, and add value to the solution chain with their own expertise and innovative thinking.

Traditional subcontracting is no longer relevant

The modernised delivery process at Arnon has been divided into four sub-processes: operative sales, supply planning, purchasing and logistics, and production.

“Our customers benefit from harmonised operations in our production units. This will allow us to make better use of our resources, realise the scale advantage and further increase flexibility. The quality and delivery capacity of the process will improve, which is reflected in the long term as a better overall cost for the customer,” says Toni Ristamäki, Chief Operating Officer responsible for the delivery process.

They say that speed kills competition, meaning that delivery capacity must be very good.

“When we as our customer’s partner are able to maintain good delivery capability, our customers can, in turn, move fast and make deals in their own market. We have customer-specific teams comprising representatives from each sub-process. They work with the customer to go through the customer’s issues, sometimes on a daily basis, either face-to-face or through video conferencing,” Ristamäki explains.

Sharing information with customers is made as transparent as possible with a variety of collaborative software tools. Open, two-way activities support and deepen the partnership. “The traditional subcontracting model is no longer relevant,” Ristamäki emphasises.

Arnon is currently working on digitalising sales and purchase transactions. Their goal is to digitalise the entire purchase order process and most of the sales process transactions. Digitalisation improves the flow of information and considerably reduces the margin of error.