Riding the crest of the technology wave means learning something new all the time

Artificial intelligence plays a significant role in Finnos's scanners. AI technology enables, for example, identifying wood species, finding defects and identifying individual logs, so that the same individual log can be tracked at different stages of production.

"At the core of Finnos's products is making production more efficient and improving the raw material recovery rate. Artificial intelligence is used for these, and there is plenty of interesting development to do," says product manager Tapio Leppälampi.

Leppälampi leads Finnos's AI team, which has broad expertise in areas such as neural network computing, machine vision, mathematical models, artificial intelligence and learning systems. Tapio's typical working day includes a daily meeting with the team, where they check where everyone is with their tasks, whether anyone needs help or whether they are progressing smoothly on their own.

The team lives in a world of continuous development. You have to stay at the cutting edge, constantly absorb new things, plan for the future and go through data so that there is a sufficient basis for developing things further. The team receives data from the tests run by customers, which is monitored.

"Our task is to plan for the future and develop a better AI world, in other words, in practice, how data will be used in the products going forward."

AI is continuous problem-solving

Tapio Leppälampi has worked at Finnos since 2021. In reality his history goes back further, because from 2009 onwards Leppälampi worked at a company that is now part of Finnos. In between, Leppälampi made a short excursion elsewhere but returned to Finnos. When we ask what motivates him in his work, we get a long answer from Tapio.

"A pleasant work community, teamwork and people's broad expertise are motivating factors for me. Best of all, at the crest of the technology wave you keep learning new things all the time. AI is continuous problem-solving, and seeing the solutions in practice is fun. There is no shortage of problems to solve, because new scanners have arrived and they produce new kinds of data, which gives us plenty to chew on," Tapio describes.

Many things at the various stages of the sawmill industry's processes were developed by humans, for example when it comes to sorting rules. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to rethink established models and strive to improve the recovery rate of the material.

Ideas put forward with a low threshold

Tapio Leppälampi considers Finnos's work culture relaxed and values the can-do spirit. He also considers it important that the company offers good opportunities to develop your own skills, that working hours are flexible and that part of the work can perfectly well be done remotely.

Innovativeness is also a sign of a developing work community.
"You can put ideas forward with a low threshold, and you also get to implement them. I can recommend Finnos as a workplace to others too. There are varied tasks on offer here and opportunities to advance your career," Leppälampi says.