Cargotec, the parent company of Kalmar, has appointed Lasse Eriksson as its first vice president of digitalisation.
Eriksson spent over five years at Konecranes’ research department, most recently leading the company’s technology research team and taking responsibility for managing an industrial internet research and development programme.
In June 2015, Kalmar’s director for offering development Jari Hämäläinen wrote a blog which argued that digitalisation improved companies’ maintenance operations and the speed of their spare parts deliveries. For example, he said, reporting that used to require minutes or hours on paper can be accomplished in seconds or done automatically.
“Digitalisation is likely to break the boundaries between [mobile] tools and services,” he said, “maintenance planning and dispatching, standard work procedures, spare part catalogues, digital service manuals and a network of other experts are only a few clicks away.”
Prior to working at Konecranes, Eriksson researched wireless automation and wireless sensor systems at Aalto University in Finland and, before that, he spent 11 years studying at Helsinki University of Technology.
In his new role, he will report to Cargotec chief information officer (CIO) Soili Mäkinen who said: “Lasse will have a critical role in leading Cargotec’s digitalisation initiatives and supporting our businesses in building their digital capabilities further.”