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R-taso Oy´s annual re-certification of quality management systems has been successful. The certification included approval for ISO 3834, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 i.e., for quality and environmental management systems and welding quality system. The certificates awarded by DNV confirm R-taso being a high-quality project operator and a reliable partner. The company´s efficiency in designing and manufacturing processes of steel structures reflects to customer benefits as smooth project management.
We have worked for over a decade for quality management and development of operations and processes and our focus is now more in development than in blocking deviations.
The essential point in long term quality development is in transferring everything to customer benefits. Due to developing the operational and process qualities customers gain shorter delivery times, higher quality products and excellent project management, says the CEO Ville Törmänen. We deliver our customers certified high-quality expert services.
“We see that the meaning of standards and certifications is to affirm our mindset of continuous improvement, says Törmänen.”
R-taso emphasizes sustainable choices in all our operations and solutions. In environmental points of view, we highlight the meaning of carbon footprint and reusability. We are the first operator in our business who can offer footprint calculations of each tailored products that we design and manufacture.
Work safety is the cornerstone of our business, in addition to valuing high service and management quality. We have acted as experts in various working groups improving industrial safety and we are Finland´s representative in the global EN ISO 14122 walkway safety standardization group.
SSAB and R-taso believe that sustainability is the foundation of a successful business. Read SSAB´s customer case about our long-term cooperation towards more sustainable steel structures in the link.
Stora Enso project´s carbon footprint was calculated by R-taso Oy. The project´s stair tower has a carbon footprint of 9502 kg CO2e. Compared to more traditional stair tower structures ca. 5000 kg CO2e environmental savings are accumulated, which means a ca. 1,5 multiplier, if the compared steel’s carbon footprint is as low as the SSAB’s steel used in R-taso’s products. SSAB’s steel represents one of the lowest carbon footprint steels in the world. If the compared product’s steel origins outside of Europe, the environmental savings are much higher than this 1,5 multiplier.
The main influencers to lower carbon footprint number are more intelligent design, optimized use of raw materials and the origin country of the steel. During the site’s life cycle R-taso’s solutions effectuate even more benefits, e.g. because the product structures are easy to modify, remanufacture and to reuse.
In addition to assessing the environmental impacts of the production processes, also the decisions made during the factory’s construction are important, e.g. the origin of used materials and optimizing the amount of steel. Intelligent design accumulates remarkable benefits also during the life cycle, says the CEO Ville Törmänen from R-taso Oy.
The carbon footprint of a single product is not the main point, it is a question of everyone doing their share. The big picture counts, Törmänen continues.
R-taso’s intelligent modular product structure uses the right amount of steel in the exact right place. We are specialized in demanding industrial targets, so reliability and work safety of our solutions are the directive values in our design and production – but it doesn’t need to mean compromising clever use of raw materials or discarding environmental points of view, Törmänen says.
In addition to the product structures, the origin of the steel is the key issue where we can make an impact. We purchase our raw materials mainly from SSAB’s production sites, which are the forerunners in environmental development and from other European suppliers, who have the lowest carbon footprints in the world. Using steel produced in Finland and Europe is a responsible choice both environmentally and socially, says Törmänen.
R-taso Oy had their production’s and products’ carbon footprint calculated in the beginning of 2020, a major part of the carbon footprint is formed by the main raw material steel. Due to clever modular product design R-taso’s products require remarkably less steel compared to competing industrial walkway solutions by more traditional manufacturers. With calculated data in hand, R-taso is looking into providing carbon footprint calculations to customers alongside product offers. The calculations were executed by Macon Oy, an expert in bio and circular economy.
97 % of the respondents would buy again from R-taso.
98 % would also recommend us forward.
R-taso annually sends out an extensive customer satisfaction survey. The latest reviews are from January 2021 and we received a good amount of answers from our customers from energy, food, mining, steel, chemical and forestry industries.
Thank you for your valuable feedback! We will continue to do our best to exceed your expectations in customer service and delivery quality!
Evaluation of R-taso’s operations
In the customer satisfaction survey, our customers rated our operations in different categories on a scale from 0 to 4 (4 = excellent, 3 = good, 2 = satisfactory, 1 = poor, 0= no experience).
In eight of the nine categories, our customers gave our operations a rating between good and excellent: quality of design services, project management skills, ease of purchase and cooperation, delivery time, delivery reliability, expertise in industrial safety, as well as the quality of our solutions.
The only area of our operations that received a rating below 3,00 was the price of our solutions. We always advice our customers to contact us in a very early project stage. The most cost-effective solution is to include us in the preplanning phase. Our projects always include both preliminary and detail design for the same price, 3D models and finished products with assembly drawings. Assembly can be included as an option. The price automatically includes our technical and work safety consultancy and standard requirements know-how. The cost efficiency of our solutions is further realized in the exceptionally long lifecycles of our products, allowing flexible reuse of our modular walkways during the life cycle of the site.
Excerpts from your open feedback:
Does and delivers all as agreed!
Delivery from design to shipment was fluent and kept well in timetables.
Sharp action. Offers come fast and there are no surprises in prices.
During the years R-taso has continued to always improve their service. Keep up the good work!
Customer-oriented, effective, skilled, with international project experience.
Customer experience in different delivery phases:
The survey also evaluated customer experience in our delivery process and product-related factors, in 16 different categories. Our customers rated their experience consistently between good and excellent, in each of the 16 categories.
In the design phase, top ratings were given to ease of cooperation as well as to our designers’ technical expertise and advice. In the offer phase, the highlights included the quickness of our offers and the content and the clarity of our offer materials. In the installation phase, the best categories included the ease of installation, the clarity of installation drawings and the adjustability of our products. Out of the product-related factors, product quality and the technical features of our products received the highest ratings.
Excerpts from your feedback on offers and design:
3D models remarkable speed up our designing and assemblies. We get necessary 3D models from your company with ease.
Skilled personnel in designing.
Everything runs like clockwork.
Sometimes we need tailored parts e.g. for fixings. Also in these cases we get 3D models fast from you and the product is usually ready the next day.
Are you interested in cooperation? Contact us!
A warm thank you to our customers and cooperation partners for this year from all of us!
The year has been nice and busy with lots of interesting projects. The complex times that we are living have brought many new and unexpected challenges to all of us. We did an agile jump to remote work and do our best to ensure a safe and healthy working place for our team. Thank you to our customers for your trust and great projects and thank you to our partners and team members for managing demanding and busy projects to finishing line, with good delivery reliability and quality!
R-taso turned 35 years this December. Birthday cakes and team gifts were enjoyed at site and at home offices. Happy Birthday R-taso, this was a good year and we hope for many more good years to come!
We start the new year and new projects with excitement. We wish you all Merry Christmas and a successful and healthy New Year 2021!
Our customer CTC Tankbouw in Belgium shared great pictures of a tank with platforms and ladders we delivered. Looking good!
Thanks to modular product structure, the walkway products are easily tailored to target’s needs and the assembly is easy and fast. Check the tank’s journey to its destination from our customer’s link!
R-taso conducts annually an extensive customer satisfaction survey. The latest survey was carried out in the beginning of 2020. The respondents of this year’s survey consisted of a thorough cross-section of our customers from the food, mining, forestry, paper, construction and chemical industries, as well as of other industrial operators and design consultancies.
We thank our customers for the valuable feedback!
95 % of the respondents would buy again from R-taso. Moreover, 97 % would also recommend us.
As part of the customer satisfaction survey, our customers rated our operations in nine main categories on a scale from 0 to 4 (4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = neutral, 1 = poor, 0= no experience).
In eight of the nine categories, our customers gave our operations a rating between good and very good: quality of design services (3,44), project management know-how (3,3), ease of purchase (3,36) and cooperation (3,43), delivery time (3,15), delivery reliability (3,42), expertise in industrial safety (3,38) as well as the quality of our solutions (3,52).
The only area of our operations that received a rating below 3,00 was the price of our solutions, rated 2,83. Because our projects always include both preliminary and detail design for the same price, the customer will save a great deal from design costs by contacting us before preliminary design even begins. At the same time, the project itself will benefit from the start from the intelligent modular structure of R-taso’s industrial walkway products, which will in turn enable further savings from the total cost of the project. This is how we are able to offer the best industrial safety solutions in the world with an excellent price/quality ratio.
The cost efficiency of our solutions is further accentuated by the exceptionally long lifecycles of our products, allowing for flexible reuse of our modular walkways when there are changes to the facility layout.
The customer satisfaction survey also included an evaluation of customer experience in three parts of the project delivery as well as with regard to key product-related factors. This evaluation was carried out in 16 different categories, on a scale from 0 to 4.
Our customers rated their experience of different parts of the project delivery consistently between good and very good, in each of the 16 categories. In the offer phase, the highlights included the information content and the clarity of our offer materials (3,41) as well as our offers’ accurate correspondence with the customer RFQs (3,42). In the design phase, top ratings were given to ease of cooperation (3,48) as well as to our designers’ technical expertise and advice (3,49). In the installation phase, the best categories included the clarity of installation drawings (3,35), ease of installation (3,36) and the adjustability of our products (3,24). Out of the key product-related factors, product quality (3,55), the technical features of our products (3,44) and the packaging of the products during delivery (3,33) received the highest ratings.
We will conduct the next satisfaction survey during 2021.
Read also about R-taso’s sustainability and carbon footprint.
Early 2020 was very active and busy for us at R-taso. Despite the exceptional times we are living, we have had the privilege to deliver interesting projects and our products all over the world.
Moreover, in the beginning of 2020, we had our production’s carbon footprint calculated. We are now able to provide carbon footprint calculations of our industrial walkway solutions to our customers alongside product offers. Read our newsletter online!
A specialist in design and manufacture of industrial walkway solutions, R-taso has calculated the carbon footprint of the company’s production. The majority of the Raahe-based, family-owned company’s production footprint results from the use of steel as the main raw material. Thanks to clever design, the amount of steel R-taso’s products require is more than 30 % smaller, which reduces the carbon footprint by a third when compared to competing industrial walkway solutions by more traditional manufacturers. With the fresh data in hand, R-taso is looking into providing carbon footprint calculations to customers alongside their product offers. The carbon footprint calculations have been carried out by Macon, experts in bio and circular economy.
– R-taso specialises in demanding industrial environments, wherefore the reliability and safety of the walkways is a key aspect guiding production. This does not prevent the sensible use of materials nor taking the ecological viewpoint into consideration. The clever, modular structure of our products means we use just the right amount of raw material in the right places, explains CEO Ville Törmänen from R-taso.
– The clever design of R-taso walkways accounts for raw material savings of over 30%. The difference to traditional structures is substantial, Mr Törmänen adds.
– Our design principles also allow for climate benefits in logistics. The modular structure means our products can be loaded on to cargo containers more densely. As an example, emission reductions of a shipment to Uruguay come to roughly 150 tonnes when compared to the shipping of more traditional solutions. This is equivalent to driving a diesel car over 400,000 kilometres, explains Mr Törmänen.
When it comes to steel as a raw material, its origin accounts for a significant share of the product’s final carbon footprint. European steel production, regulated by the EU, represents the low-emission end, and SSAB’s carbon dioxide emissions, for example, are even lower than the EU average, by 7 per cent.1) Steel produced in China, on the other hand, represents the high-emission end.
– To curb emissions, another aspect we can influence, is the origin of the raw material. R-taso acquires its raw materials from European suppliers, who have the smallest carbon footprint in the world. Much of the raw material we use comes from SSAB’s Raahe plant, an environmental pioneer. Choosing steel produced domestically or in the EU is a responsible choice, not only environmentally but also socially, Mr Törmänen says.
Find out more about our carbon footprint
Download full Press Release 16 July 2020
1) SSAB Group, Sustainability Expedition, https://www.ssab.com/company/sustainability
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