Investment: Autowall, Robotic wall production line for production of exterior walls.

Start of business: 1994

Time for investment: 2019

Country: Estonia

Reference: Kodumaja Element OÜ, CEO Marti Mets

Kodumaja is a group of companies that produce and mainly build multi-story apartment buildings. Kodumaja is the name of a group of companies that specialize in the construction of high-quality timber frame housing. They use an effective and future-oriented construction method that ensures and conforms to the construction requirements and standards in their strategic markets. Kodumaja has been focused on its main area of activity since 1995. Over 96% of our housing has been built in the Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. The remaining 4% can be found in the Estonian market. 2014 – 2015 Kodumaja built, in Bergen (Norway), the world's tallest wooden apartment building (14 floors, 52,8 m high)

What was the background for the investment?

In general, due to the situation of the labor market. The main focus is to decrease the cost of labor. Labor cost is constantly increasing therefore we need to make our production more effective to stay competitive in the market. We export a large part of our turnover and need our products to be competitive on the domestic market despite higher comparable transportation costs.

Describe the relation with Randek.

"We have had a long relationship with Randek the first contact was made in 1998 and we have been discussing different investment options for years."

Why did you choose Randek as a supplier?

"We made a thorough review of different options and the ZeroLabor Robotic System is very impressive as we wanted as high automation level as possible the decision was easy. We also like the people at Randek which also is a significant factor to consider when making this kind of investment."

Why do you think the ZeroLabor is an impressive system?

"Today we need to have many quality checks in production to eliminate human errors. As ZeroLabor is a highly automated system we can remove manual operations and quality checks which will increase our productivity dramatically. In general, it is difficult to find workers in the labor market, we need to hire people outside Estonia which is demanding. To have workers not speaking the same language is also challenging. We also struggle with a high turnover of workers making the cost of training and introduction a significant cost to consider. We also like the fact that the system is future-proofed as tools and functions can be added in the future if needed. Thus, the system is flexible if we decide to change the building system, etc."

What will you produce in the ZeroLabor Robotic System?

"We produce modules (volumetric units) and the ZeroLabor Robotic System will produce the wall panels. We have a rather complex building system and for some customers, we produce a wall that has 4 layers of sheets on one side of the wall. Here the flexibility and great handling of sheets come very handy of the ZeroLabor Robotic System."