Reijo Lehtola

"This is such a fascinating job," answers Reijo Lehtola when asked why he just don’t enjoy his life as a pensioner.

When he reached retirement age at the end of 2015, Reijo immediately signed a part time contract with Planneri. 

"I have also worked as a trainer at Rauma and Turku shipyards. There is demand as machine design is not taught anywhere. These skills are acquired on the job," says Reijo.

Reijo is called a guru of the industry. He is probably the right man to open up what competence means in these jobs.

"System know-how is the thing. Consider, for example, a ship's diesel engine. I can explain in a minute how the fuel goes from the ground to the engine. Every pipe, branch and valve. And also explain why it all works like that. You have to know how to take into account all interfaces, rules and so on," says Reijo.

Planneri's CEO Ilkka Rantanen summarizes the same in other words: an experienced ship designer works on clean paper, sees the whole and knows how to implement it.