2011-10-27 KONE celebrates annual People Flow Day

KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, celebrates today its annual People Flow Day. KONE’s vision is to be an expert in transporting people through buildings smoothly, efficiently and in a safe manner without waiting – what KONE describes as People Flow™. To gain deeper insight into what this vision means in practice, more than 900 KONE employees in over 30 countries around the world are set to visit 150 sites to meet with customers and building users as well as observe the buildings during a typical weekday.

“People Flow Day is designed to bring us closer to our customers as well as building users,” says Juho Malmberg, EVP, Customer Experience, KONE. “The opportunity for KONE employees to see and experience in practice what our People Flow vision is all about will bring new insight to our work.”

2011 marks the second year KONE organizes People Flow Day, the centennial jubilee year 2010 being the first.

Accessibility for everyone highlighted in 2011

On this year’s People Flow Day, KONE employees will pay special attention to the accessibility challenges of different user groups, such as wheelchair users, visually impaired people, senior citizens and families with young children.

“The focus on accessibility will provide understanding on the daily challenges of the different user groups. KONE employees will gather information on the user groups to help deepen our understanding of their needs,” adds Juho Malmberg, EVP, Customer Experience, KONE. The valuable data obtained during the day will be passed on to relevant departments within KONE with the future objective of developing new solutions that meet the present day needs of users and building owners alike. To further improve the solutions it delivers to its customers, KONE regularly conducts end-user studies to test the usability of solutions in different building environments.

What is People Flow?

This year, over half of the world's population will be living in cities and other urban areas. The concentration of people in cities increases the importance of moving them efficiently from one point to another. This is one of the main reasons why KONE’s focus is on innovative solutions to make it easier for people to move around in buildings – what KONE describes as People Flow™. People Flow means transporting people in buildings in a smooth, quick, efficient and safe manner. By positioning elevators, escalators and other transport devices such as autowalks and automatic doors, in a manner that minimizes queuing and blocking of passenger traffic, building owners can ensure that the people flow in their buildings are as efficient as possible. This is done by comprehensive traffic analysis during the early building phase in close collaboration with architects, consultants and construction companies.

KONE also ensures that a building’s People Flow runs smoothly after the installation of new equipment. Proactive maintenance and modernization solutions keep the transportation solutions running smoothly during their operational lifecycle, as to avoid any unnecessary outages.

For further information, please contact:

Anne Korkiakoski, EVP, Marketing & Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 204 75 4775

About KONE

KONE is one of the global leaders in the elevator and escalator industry. The company has been committed to understanding the needs of its customers for the past century, providing industry-leading elevators, escalators and automatic building doors as well as innovative solutions for modernization and maintenance. The company’s objective is to offer the best People Flow experience by developing and delivering solutions that enable people to move smoothly, safely, comfortably and without waiting in buildings in an increasingly urbanizing environment. In 2010, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 5 billion and approximately 33,800 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd in Finland.