From support to long-term partnerships
Antti has started as MiCROTEC’s Service Manager in Finland and is responsible for coordinating Customer Care activities in the Finnish market. With a background in forestry and wood technology, as well as experience gained at MiCROTEC in software development, technical support, commissioning, and project coordination, he combines strong technical expertise with a practical understanding of the sawmill industry. In this interview, Antti shares his views on the Finnish wood processing industry and what customers can expect from our local service in the future.
What does “excellent customer care” mean to you?
Excellent customer care means taking clear ownership of the customer's situation and keeping the customer informed throughout the process.
A fast response is important, but it is equally important to keep the customer up to date throughout the process. The customer should know what we have already investigated, what is still being looked into, and what will happen next. Even if a solution is not immediately available, it should be clear that the case is progressing.
The objective is not only to get production running again. We also want to understand why the problem occurred, prevent it from recurring, and identify opportunities to improve the customer's process over the longer term.
What makes the Finnish wood processing industry unique from your perspective?
The Finnish wood processing industry is highly automated and technically advanced. Raw material is used as efficiently as possible, and our customers know their own production processes extremely well. They also expect their technology partners to have strong process knowledge and technical expertise.
Finnish customers are also direct and practical. They value open communication, technically sound recommendations, and solutions that provide concrete and measurable benefits.
What are your priorities for supporting customers in Finland over the next year?
My three main priorities are to make our service model clearer, strengthen our local technical expertise, and further develop preventive maintenance and lifecycle planning.
The first priority is to clarify how our service organization in Finland operates and make it easier for customers to work with us. Customers should always know who is responsible for their case, what will happen next, and when they can expect the next update.
The second priority is to strengthen our local technical expertise while also deepening cooperation with MiCROTEC's international specialists. Our Finnish team should be able to handle an increasing range of tasks locally, while our customers should have access to MiCROTEC's full expertise whenever needed.
The third priority is to strengthen preventive maintenance and lifecycle planning. Together with our customers, we can identify critical components, training needs, modernization requirements, and production risks before they result in unplanned downtime.
With these priorities, we want to shift from solving individual problems toward long-term cooperation that improves the uptime and performance of measurement systems and the overall value they provide to the customer.
What are the most common challenges Finnish customers face, and how do you help solve them?
One of the key challenges is using raw material as efficiently as possible. In practice, producers need to produce more from the same amount of raw material, or even from less, while improving efficiency without compromising final product quality. This places greater emphasis on the performance of the entire production process and on accurately identifying potential bottlenecks in grading.
From a service perspective, our role is to ensure that measurement systems operate as intended and that the information they provide supports the customer's production objectives. Measurement and grading parameters need to be well managed and transparent so that production can be steered consistently in line with recovery and quality targets. If grading is not under control, production decisions can easily become dependent on the experience and knowledge of individual people rather than on consistent and repeatable criteria.
My role is to combine the customer's process knowledge with our technical expertise. Together, we aim to identify the factors limiting recovery, quality, or production efficiency and then define the right actions to improve the situation. The solution may involve maintenance, calibration, system optimization, software development, training, or longer-term modernization.
What are the trends and developments in Finland that customers should be paying attention to?
Better utilization of production data will become increasingly important. Artificial intelligence and more advanced measurement models can support quality control, grading, and optimization, but their true value is realized only when they are linked to production objectives and their performance is validated under real production conditions.
Customers should also pay attention to the lifecycle of their measurement and control systems. Many production lines combine new technology with older computers, networks, control systems, and other components. Planned modernization is usually a much more manageable option than replacing critical systems only after an unexpected failure.
At the same time, uncertain market conditions and pressures related to raw-material availability further emphasize the importance of recovery, uptime, energy efficiency, and consistent quality. Going forward, technology investments will increasingly need to deliver concrete operational and financial benefits.
What do you enjoy most about working with our customers?
I enjoy solving concrete problems together with people who know their own production processes extremely well. The best results are achieved when the customer's practical experience is combined with our expertise in measurement, optimization, software, and automation. These discussions often lead to improvements that extend beyond the original issue.
I also appreciate the long-term nature of customer relationships in Finland. Over time, you get to know how each production site operates, what its key priorities are, and how production has developed over the years. This enables us to provide even better and more proactive support.