drover,
I don't know everything they do in the Sako/Tikka factory, because when I toured it, with several other writers, a year ago the Finns only revealed a few details. In fact they didn't allow us to take ANY photos in ANY part of the factory except the meeting room, which had never happened before on any of the factory tours I've taken in several countries. The others always allowed photos in at least some part of the actual production facility.
But a few things were revealed, some inadvertently. For one thing, it was as clean as any shooting-product factory I've ever visited, as clean as any optics factory, and cleaner than some. They also use more most advanced robotic machinery than any other factory I've visited, often just to move parts precisely from one station to another.
They also claim to lap the heavy-contour Sako/Tikka barrels to an astonishingly small variation in bore diameter. (I'm not going to look it up right now, but have the number somewhere in my notes.) The entire barrel-making process is done in-house, including stress-relieving--but aside from a quick look inside the door of the hammer-forging room, when the workers were all on break, they didn't really reveal much.
Sorry I can't provide more details than that, but based on what little I do know the Tikkas shoot so well due to meticulous manufacturing and attention to detail, using the latest advances in machinery.
