HANZA Tarkon, established in Tartu Estonia in 1907, is today one of Europe’s leading “box building” and fine mechanics subcontracting companies, with a strong position especially within the telecom industry. HANZA Tarkon’s strategy over the last few years has been to advance in the supply chain echelon from being a tier-2 supplier of components to become a tier-1 supplier of complete modules to major global OEM’s (original equipment manufacturers). HANZA Tarkon is of course aware of the implications that such a strategic shift has on the new responsibilities attached to this role.



HANZA Tarkon is with the help of PipeChain building a platform and changing processes to meet the stringent demands for flexibility and short lead times expected by their customers today. Earlier this year HANZA Tarkon successfully started-up a fully automated real-time VMI (vendor managed inventory) process with Ericsson (Borås, Sweden) and as a result they have together reduced administration, lead times and safety stocks. For HANZA Tarkon this relationship implies having a real time visibility of their customers’ demands, a knowledge which allows HANZA Tarkon greater flexibility when making decisions on production planning. It is this new visibility that HANZA Tarkon believes they must now share with their (tier-2) suppliers in order to generate similar gains and benefits in the whole supply chain.

HANZA Tarkon has now chosen a number of strategic suppliers that will form part of their fully integrated supply chain. Together they will form part of an extended real time collaborative process in such a way that allows HANZA Tarkon to give a prompt and secure ATP (available to promise) commitment to their customers and then together live up to this promise with impeccable accuracy. In order to enable this collaboration process and speed up the roll out, HANZA Tarkon is facilitating the PipeChain WebPurchase module to their suppliers. HANZA Tarkon chose two important suppliers in Sweden to go live with the new working procedure last week; Maskinfjädrar (manufacturing springs in Gothenburg) and ProfilGruppen (manufacturing aluminum profiles in Åseda).

Laas Kask, Supply Chain Manager at HANZA Tarkon in Tartu, explains that it is imperative that the whole supply chain is demand driven. “Securing the link with our customers was the first step, but if we should be agile in responding to the ups and downs of the market then our whole supply chain must show the same level of agility and flexibility. Our suppliers must know at all times what is expected of them and we must rely on their responsiveness. This type of relationship cannot be achieved just by signing a paper – it takes a long time to build the understanding and trust and we recognize this as a long term strategic investment”.