 Keijo Kröger |
This week, Forkliftaction.com News speaks to Mr Keijo Kröger, Oy Meclift Ltd's director of engineering, about his career so far. Kröger has had 35 years of experience in the materials handling industry.
Q. Give a brief description of your career path leading to your current position.After graduating from Tampere University of Technology in 1971, I started to work as product development engineer for the materials handling division of Valmet in Tampere which today is a part of Kalmar. At the beginning of 1977, I became responsible for the development of the whole product range. The division developed at that time straddle carriers, fork lift trucks, variable reach trucks, RTG cranes and wheel loaders. I worked for Valmet MHE Division until Oy Meclift Ltd was founded in the year 1993.
Q. Give a brief history of your position with your current company and share with us what you like about your work.I enjoy Meclift's innovative and agile atmosphere which quickly reacts to the new and fast changing needs of materials handling equipment. Present work in this company gives me good opportunities to combine innovation and my 35 years of experience with materials handling equipment. The success of Meclift machines gives me a lot of job satisfaction.
Q. What is the most amazing (challenging/enjoyable/time-consuming) project you have ever worked on?In 1973, as a young engineer I received a job as project leader to develop a new 3-high stacking straddle carrier to replace the earlier 2-high stacker. The prototype of this new Valmet 3-high stacker became ready in 1977. This product has been very successful and a market leader since the early 1980s. Of course product development has continued and the name of the products has been changed (first to Sisu and later to Kalmar). The new Meclift side reach stacker will be the next big step in the future development in container handling.
Q. During your career, what notable changes have you witnessed in the materials handling industry?Huge increase in container handling and the application of electronics (both in machines and in operations) are the most notable changes.