EPSE’s brief visit to Kazakhstan

The role of piloting as part of EPSE’s client process holds a key position when it comes to providing the comprehensive solution. Executing the pilot gives valuable data e.g., for calculation of CAPEX and OPEX expenses of implementing the EPSE Method at the customer’s site.

A customer piloting in Kazakhstan that was to be carried out in summer 2022 had to be rescheduled for spring of 2023 for reasons independent of EPSE. Due to the current world situation and climate reasons concerning logistics, it was agreed upon by both committed parties that it would not be a profitable option to arrange back-and-forth transportation for the Mobile EPSE™ piloting equipment that had been sent to the destination earlier. EPSE’s Site Manager Jukka-Pekka Varis and Project Engineer Anna Kivimäki, who has orientated herself to the Mobile EPSE™ equipment, travelled to the customer’s site on October 18th-22th 2022 to prepare the equipment for winter conditions to wait for next spring’s piloting. 

The business trip was the first for Kivimäki who begun working at EPSE last spring, and seeing the customer’s conditions in practice was an eye-opening experience. The trip allowed to better understand the big picture of the situation: when projects are planned to the other side of the world from one’s own working station and all the information is mostly based on the data provided by the customer, seeing the customer site and meeting their representants face to face efficiently realize the customer’s problem and EPSE’s role in solving it. Also, seeing the objective concretize all the planning and preparation work in a rewarding way.

Careful planning and preparation for different risks plays an exceptionally important part in successfully executing a project. Kivimäki thinks that the trip also proved that clinging to overly detailed plans is not wise while one takes into consideration all the moving parts of the project. While collaborating with clients with different cultural backgrounds, in a completely unfamiliar environment and in a tight schedule, all plans and goals must be distinctly agreed upon with the client but one must also be able to be flexible as needed. Often the language barrier and cultural divergence bring their own challenges to the mix.

For the case of this business trip the time window for executing the maintenance work was very brief and the trip was executed with short notice. During the visit, EPSE’s personnel were dependent on the client’s collaboration regarding e.g., the transportation, interpretation and accommodation but all the objectives set for the trip were executed smoothly without issues.

EPSE’s client destinations can be located in exotic feeling places – especially for people who have not seen the world a lot. However, even Kazakhstan that had felt like a distant and foreign country for Kivimäki, proved to be a beautiful country with a rich cultural backround and definitely a place where one would get on well for the duration of a longer business trip.

“When I come back to Kazakhstan next spring as part of EPSE’s Piloting Team I can prepare for the trip with an ease of mind. Also I will pack hiking clothes since our translator from the trip warmly recommended hiking trips for the beautiful mountains of Kazakhstan”, Kivimäki notes.


The text is written by Anna Kivimäki.