Orkli receives the Trumpf Industrial Leadership Prize for the production of digital technology production. The company has its headquarters in Ordizia (Gipuzkoa) and manufactures and sells components for domestic heating, domestic hot water, heating and home appliances. Its wide range has spread almost to the world; Because it has Orkli factories in China and Brazil, it has a network of its own representatives and agents. We talked to Axler Lekuona, Orkli's Organizational Planning Technician.
You have received the Trumpf Industrial Leadership Award for the use of digital production technology. How did you get the news?
They are generally non-waiting awards. When you're on a daily basis, continuing on how to progress and improve it, you lose the notion of other business reality, as well as the notion of whether or not you're doing it. When you present yourself to this type of events, when you are located with the environment and, in a way, you appreciate when it comes to other companies, other sectors and other realities.
News like this one only causes you to revitalize your way of looking for the right one, where you can not slow down and walk, otherwise you're over to finish it.
Orkli is 36 years old. What has been the development of the company?
Orkli is a company born in 1982, after a period of production like Copreci cooperative production company, and began its activity through the manufacture of thermoelectric safety components (thermocouple and magnetic group). Already at the beginning, the heating component manufacturing activity was established as a beginner, mainly radiators valves.
The development of the company has been marked by several key events for over 36 years as an independent cooperative. A first qualitative leap was introduced in the early 80's with the beginning of the automation processes of production processes, the foundations of our production model, which has been key in the success of the project over the last decades.
What are the keys to success in Orkli?
When thinking about improving a business, the books and models of traditional management come true. Cost reduction, industrial optimization, lean processes, Kaizen, Smeg and an indefinite acronym and nomenclature that have been used to companies that continue to value inwardly and keep valuables.
In general, it focuses on the optimization of internal resources, which aims to add value to the product, thus reaching customers before the competitor. It's a traditional way, what is taught, and so on in the intuitive way, on the table.
What makes Orkli different from other companies in the same sector?
It's not easy to set a single factor. Our cooperative nature is a clear part of the matter, which involves the involvement of the member-worker in the matter. In terms of management of our business operations, customer proximity, the need to understand and meet their needs has also been a very important element in our history.
The efforts made to meet and meet the expectations of our customers have made very significant results in recent years, which has allowed us to gain a market share in the adult sectors where the service related to the product is a factor of competitiveness that has gained importance.
10 years have passed since the economic crisis has exploded. How have you lived and how did you deal with it?
The crisis of Orkli has lived in a specific way in its business, on the basis of the different sides, which has increased or reduced its influence in the company. Our high levels of sales diversification and, in particular, our limited exposure to a national market such as our businesses, have allowed us to not weaken the billing figures in a very clear way in the economic crisis.
But it is also true that businesses that are more geared towards the provision of new construction and where the weight of the Spanish market was directly or indirectly affected by the financial crisis, and specifically the explosion of real estate.
How do you see the labor market today?
I would like the current situation of the labor market to be a serious one. Our current situation combines a generational renewal of our workforce (many Orkli partners are retired today) with the need to enter into skilled labor, particularly in the industrial field. Orkli is also located in a region in Goierri, where there is a very high industrial employment rate, and we are with companies that actively compete with us, trying to gain talent in organizations.
What are businesses looking for today in their employees?
Without wanting to draw the full profile of the candidate, we would like to point out that technical competence is undoubtedly a major factor in what we are looking for in our project, the evolutionary capacity that they can show in a very changing environment. What is known today is the continuing learning ability in both technical and transversal competences, which is absolutely necessary to meet our daily responsibilities.
Proactive people are looking for examples of personal overcoming of their responsibilities, who are aware of the need for personal evolution that is currently imposed by the labor world and, by adding all the previous ones, willing to join a cooperative project such as Orkli and to be aware of the double status of its owner, The situation with specific requirements.
How should an ideal candidate be for a job?
Some of the keys have been mentioned before. An ideal candidate may wish to gather up-to-date technical knowledge, the ability and willingness to start a learning career in time, the ability to manage all the relational field in a good way, and finally to show a specific vocation for a cooperative project, thus confusing the cooperative In management dynamics, awareness of the state of the worker's owner.
What does a company need to keep their staff?
Talking retention might be a factor in many factors. Hygienic factors such as the conditions of remuneration are undoubtedly important, but in the long term we can understand people's enthusiasm and commitment, as a company, the continuous evolution of our valuables, the effort to continue our management processes (manufacture, marketing ...), what they do Orkiz an attractive company for people who seek out-of-the-art projects, where they can professionally evolve.
What would you recommend for young people entering the labor market?
Be loyally lend themselves to a job market that is full of possibilities, but also very demanding. To maintain a continuous learning mindset, to pursue a continuous evolution in a training that goes beyond technical knowledge. Provide for a labor market where the "soft skills" and the candidates who wish to improve day by day do not distinguish between those days when they are not included, but in early periods where organizations monitor their beginnings with greater strength.