Anne Rissanen, Manager of Chapter PLM Development at Konecranes Global with experience in product development and research in engineering. In this interview, she talks about her degree, the way it has provided her with a multitude of skills, and the future of PLM in the wake of AI and sustainability initiatives.

Interviewed by Alexia Lecerf

You currently serve as Manager, Chapter Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Development at Konecranes Global Oy. Could you describe your main responsibilities in leading the PLM and design tools development team? What do you find most exciting and most challenging about managing product lifecycle and design systems across international teams in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and India?

The position I hold is mostly related to people management, so basic leadership, team development and supporting daily activities for what the team needs. On top of that, I'm taking care of our vendor management on PLM and CAD (Computer-Aided Design) development area, meaning the contacting part and when we get a new pool of people starting, I'm onboarding them. One big part of my time in autumn is budgeting; I help my colleagues with next year planning in people management point of view and putting costs together. During the year I am following the cost of how we're doing and how in line we are with budget.

I'm not alone in any of these topics and have very good colleagues with whom we work together the plans for the teams. As I don’t have background in IT technical topics, I rely on them in those and give my contribution and support on people perspective.

When working with international teams, from a practical point of view, different time zones need to be always taken care of. You need to have understanding of different cultures and sometimes be patient to gain also the silent knowledge, whether it is human behaviour or HR practices.

Your career path has evolved from R&D and product development to leadership roles overseeing global teams and large-scale design tool ecosystems. Looking back, what were some of the pivotal projects or transitions that most shaped your approach to leadership, collaboration, and innovation?

I had good experiences in the beginning of my career that helped me understand what working in an international company entails. These were good learning experiences, understanding cross-functional organisations, especially with multi-cultural teams. I have been lucky to have good managers who have supported when needed and given excellent examples of how good leadership is built.

A bigger project that developed my career was taking part in the development of new structural design software. It was a big learning curve, given that I didn’t have an IT background and I am specialised in civil engineering. There are similarities between them in software development and structural design, but combining those two to do structural design software was interesting. Also taking part in planning phase for product configurator was huge learning point and gave me overview how the process goes from customer request to production.

Innovations are crucial part of the successful company and innovations don’t need to be groundbreaking to be useful. I see that those come up often among the daily work. The most important for innovations is to have psychologically safe place to do them: open and supportive environment.

Innovation works best in an environment where ideas can flow freely. I’ve learned that creativity grows best when it is nurtured, not mandated.

You hold a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Tampere University of Technology and a Master of Engineering in Technology Management. How have these two disciplines—technical depth and managerial perspective—complemented each other in your current role?

The Master of Science, overall, gave me a very good base for working in different roles from structural design, R&D throughout to environmental topics and software development. It is engineering, and it shapes your mind to be an engineer, but it also shapes your mind to think and question things around you. It also supports innovation and allows you to conduct some research for alternative ways in which things could be executed.

Master of Engineering gave me a strong base in technological leadership. It was a very intensive one-year training, but it fulfilled the need to understand better leadership topics and update myself with recent knowledge. These degrees cast a wide net for what you can do in the future. Every experience I’ve had has been a stepping stone toward the next challenge, growth comes from embracing each opportunity. I see that you need to be open to developing yourself and gain skills to be successful in today's working life.

As someone with extensive international collaboration experience, how do you leverage your multilingual skills and cross-cultural background in your daily work with globally distributed teams?

In Finland, we have great opportunities to learn different languages -  it is mandatory to learn Swedish and some other language among it. This has become a mandatory survival tool, giving us a good base to understand other languages and cultures. For international work in international companies, you learn by doing but understanding the language and culture is essential. I was lucky to be working in international company already in the beginning of my career, where I got to know how it works from the inside.

The fields of PLM, design automation, and industrial engineering are rapidly evolving with the integration of AI, sustainability initiatives, and digital transformation. Which emerging technologies or industry trends do you believe will have the biggest impact on PLM and design tool development in the coming years? Are there any innovations or debates you find particularly promising or controversial?

AI is already here, and it has the power to reduce repetitive work. But using it effectively means understanding its purpose and making sure it is applied correctly. Technology works best when guided by thoughtful human judgement.

For example, I have a colleague now who has tried AI tool to write description for completed development . He got  a lot of  content regarding the topic when using AI, but you need to know what you are doing to be able to filter through the relevant information from this content.

Going forward, I see us using our own closed AI tools in the companies, into which we can safely input confidential or internal data, while respecting user rights and sharing across the company. Additionally, it is important to have training on how to use these AI tools: good prompting skills, understanding of data management and new features.

From a sustainability perspective, we always want to improve our systems. To understand the full lifecycle of product and its environmental footprint, you need the data first. From this perspective, the PLM system is very crucial. For example, when the designer is creating plans, they could use carbon footprint as one selection parameter among technical features. When we have the design, we can calculate of total footprint of the product. This could also include maintenance services to keep the product as usable as long as possible. The lifespan of product does not end when it is out of use, but continues as recycled and parts can be used as part of future products. These are all things we need to keep in consideration.

Finally, outside of your work in engineering and leadership, what passion or talent do you have that your colleagues might be surprised to learn about?

Someone might be surprised to know that I like to do things with my hands. This comes from the fact that most of the topics I touch on are more or less abstract. I think that projects like sewing allow me to see the progress I am making!