More than 10,000 Finnish John Deere forest machines in 10 years

The 10th anniversary of John Deere brand in CTL forest machines was celebrated with customers at the customer event in Joensuu, Finland, on the 24th of April. The John Deere brand replaced Timberjack and was first presented to customers at the ELMIA exhibition in Jönköping, Sweden, in 2005. 

Rauma-Repola established Joensuu factory in 1972 to manufacture forest machines, excavators, road graders and rollers as well as sieves and feeders for crushers. Over 25,000 forest machines have since been manufactured at the factory and over 10,000 of them with the John Deere brand.

Our Joensuu factory is the world’s largest manufacturer of cut-to-length forest machines. The total area of the factory is approximately 25,000 m². The domestic content of the machines is 80% and approximately 90% of production is exported.  John Deere employs more than 700 people in Finland – approximately 400 of them at the Joensuu factory. The factory recruited 60 new employees last year and its subcontractors employ an additional 1,000 people in Finland.

As production volumes and customers’ quality expectations have increased, development of production processes has become increasingly important. During the last decade, John Deere has invested over 30 million Euros in the Joensuu factory. A new 2,000m² office building was completed in 2011, a new 1,500m² assembly hall was constructed in 2012 and frame and boom manufacturing were further automated. At the same time, harvester and forwarder assembly lines were transformed for continuous flow-line manufacturing. The significant investments reflect John Deere’s commitment to CTL forest machine competence.

The most recent renewals and expansions have increased the factory production volume to eight machines per day. Thanks to high production capacity and advanced manufacturing processes, deliveries are fast and accurate. A contributing factor is the subcontractors’ Green Park business park adjacent to the Joensuu factory. The majority of businesses in the 12,000 m² business park are Finnish subcontractors to John Deere. The park was established in co-operation with the local Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment; the JOSEK Oy Joensuu Regional Development Company and the City of Joensuu.

Joensuu factory operates in close co-operation with other John Deere factories.  John Deere is the only major company that manufactures both cut-to-length and full-tree logging machinery worldwide. Full-tree logging machines comprise approximately two thirds of the forest machine market with production volumes ranging from 6,000 to 8,000 machines per year during the last few years. John Deere is the leading supplier of both CTL and FT harvesting technologies. Outside Europe, John Deere also delivers machinery for construction as well as timber handling.