Aki Ahremaa from YIT won the Construction Quality 2016 competition

The Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT named Aki Ahremaa, general foreman from YIT, as the winner of the Construction Quality 2016 competition on Thursday evening 13 October.

Ahremaa shares his number one position with the pipe fitting team of Are, a Helsinki-based company.

The winners announced at the FinnBuild Fair were selected from eight finalists by Kimmo Tiilikainen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. Originally 44 employees or teams working at a renovation and new construction site or a plant manufacturing construction products participated in the competition.

Ahremaa has been working at YIT for almost 20 years, of which the last slightly over four years at Barkerinranta area at Raunistula, Turku, which consists of eight apartment buildings.

Homes for people

“Aki Ahremaa has shown through all of his actions that in this project people make homes for people”, Tiilikainen said about the winner.

“Employees at the site must always remember that we work for our clients. How can we meet their expectations? When you do everything as well as possible right from the very beginning, there is no need to hide afterwards,” Ahremaa says.

According to Ahremaa, a confidential relationship with clients is an important part of high-quality work. For example, clients having purchased an apartment from Barkerinranta are contacted immediately after the purchase and they are invited to the site to witness the completion of the apartment.

Planning and follow-up guarantee quality

Ahremaa has especially used two tools to ensure quality at Barkerinranta: a golden time window and the quality scorecard developed by Jere Ritari, Quality Manager at YIT.

A golden time window means that before starting the work, at least one month is devoted to making detailed schedule, cost, moisture control, regional and logistics plans.

A quality scorecard, in turn, is used to measure the quality of site management every two weeks and upon the handover of each project.

“I have found the methods to be effective. When work is planned carefully and continuously monitored, everything runs smoothly,” Ahremaa says.

Known at YIT for his use of the company’s internal social media, Ahremaa leads at sites mainly through his own example.

“Professional pride in the field is in order and colleagues need not be looked after. We also have a strong team spirit, which ensures that all employees want to do their best,” Ahremaa says.

Further information:

Hanna Malmivaara, Vice President, Communications, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 40 561 6568, hanna.malmivaara@yit.fi

Aki Ahremaa, General Foreman, YIT Construction Ltd, tel. +358 40 519 0163, aki.ahremaa@yit.fi

YIT creates better living environment by developing and constructing housing, business premises, infrastructure and entire areas. Our vision is to bring more life in sustainable cities. We want to focus on caring for customer, visionary urban development, passionate execution and inspiring leadership. Our growth engine is urban development involving partners. Our operating area covers Finland, Russia, the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In 2015, our revenue amounted to nearly EUR 1.7 billion, and we employ about 5,300 employees. Our share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.yitgroup.com