It involves making the equipment work perfectly and to get the right properties for the products, to make them cost efficient with good yield. Production of stainless steel is hi-tech, and highly automated. Good knowledge within areas such as metallurgy, mechanics, automation etc. is essential for a world-leading producer. 

In Outokumpu R&D people play an important role for instance through CTC-groups (Core Technology Competence) for cross-fertilization of knowledge between business units and product units. CTC-groups give synergy benefits by spreading best practices and make more efficient research work across the group possible with less people.