UPM Plywood is home to many “behind-the-scenes” professionals who apply their deep knowledge, skills and experience to develop high-performance WISA® plywood flooring solutions tailored to meet the demanding needs of vehicle applications.
Among these professionals are experts like Sirkku Salmikuukka, Senior Manager for vehicle flooring end-use, who leads the commercial development of these plywood products with a strong focus on meeting customer needs. Likewise, Material and Product Development Manager Anna Koski and her team play a vital role in making sure WISA plywood products and their coating can withstand even the harshest conditions. Senior Researcher Simo Koponen, a key member of Anna’s team, plays an important role in shaping the technical solutions offered to customers.
In her role, Sirkku Salmikuukka is responsible for managing and developing UPM Plywood’s vehicle flooring portfolio to ensure that customers receive plywood that meets their specific needs. With a forward-looking approach, she focuses on evaluating megatrends and regulatory developments to keep UPM Plywood ahead of the market.
“Our goal is to make sure that UPM Plywood’s value promise for vehicle flooring end-use, ‘Engineered to accelerate your success’, remains strong. This means that its key elements – competitive product design, optimized material flows, and minimized lifecycle costs – align with market and customer needs, while continuing to deliver added value to our customers in the future,” explains Sirkku, who has more than 15 years of plywood experience in product development, production projects, sales, and product management.
Safe and functional vehicle flooring solutions
As the head of the product development team, Anna Koski ensures that the strength and other technical properties of WISA plywood and its surface materials continue to improve.
“In addition, I oversee the safety of raw materials—particularly adhesives—to make sure the plywood is safe to handle and work with, both in manufacturing and in end-use applications. We aim to develop technically sound and cost-efficient solutions for our customers, always keeping sustainability at the forefront,” says Anna, who has spent 16 years working in product development.
Anna’s role also involves ensuring that every new WISA plywood product is based on thorough, research-backed facts. All product development follows UPM’s Sustainable Product Design concept, which promotes a sustainable product lifecycle approach and ensures that every new product and service designed by UPM has a proven sustainability value proposition – meaning it contributes positively to the environment and society throughout its life cycle. The concept also guarantees that we support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Solutions for every application
With nearly 20 years of experience in product development, Senior Researcher Simo Koponen has extensive knowledge of wood structures and materials. His work focuses on developing custom solutions for clients. When Simo and the rest of his team receive a description of a trailer's structure, they can assess and model how the plywood will perform in use.
“Often, we can provide an existing WISA plywood product that fits the application perfectly. In other cases, we help optimise a specific part of the trailer, and occasionally, we develop an entirely new plywood structure. Our long-standing experience and technical expertise ensure that our products meet the promised load capacities and fulfil customer needs,” says Simo.
Sirkku, Anna, and Simo recognize that in a post-Covid world, there is a need for more face-to-face meetings to deepen connections with the customers.
“We want to strengthen collaboration with our customers by combining our expertise with theirs, and delivering the world’s best vehicle flooring solutions,” emphasises Sirkku.
“One of the best aspects of the job is being able to apply your expertise to help others solve their problems,” Simo summarises the shared sentiment.
Main image: Combined end use and technical expertise represented by Sirkku Salmikuukka, Harri Nieminen, Anna Koski and Simo Koponen.
