It all starts with quality, timeliness and openness
”My wife being an architect, I’m used to acting fast,” Ilkka Saarimaa discloses. That surely needs an explanation. ”It’s because I’m a leisure-time amateur carpenter and whatever I want to build in our house needs to happen fast – before the true professional understanding of space and materials takes over,” Ilkka chuckles. So things look like continuing to develop fast at ATA Gears with Ilkka on board as the new Sales Director as of August 18, 2025.
‘Systematac’ – the customer-driven way of doing things
”It all starts with quality, timeliness and openness,” Ilkka Saarimaa sums up his focus and continues: ”To achieve these, we need to fully understand what each customer finds to be significant and what produces value. And we need to use our experience and skills to solve problems and help the customer’s life with product designs, manufacturing and assembly, not forgetting after sales. Our framework of customer management must be systematic, professional and proactive. And be like that every day.”
In his career so far, Ilkka has held numerous positions ranging from maintenance to technical sales, project management to product administration, channel customers to key customers. With a strong background in the production machinery, material flows and automation investments of engineering workshops, Ilkka is firm believer in lifelong learning.
”I believe it is my main job and first duty to develop this systematicity in our customer service, the way our organization takes care of our customers in the best possible way. And this applies to both old and new customers, that they are in good hands – just as they deserve to be. Achieving that entails consistency and timeliness. Although we are in a great position with our really experienced staff and several long-time customers, there’s always room for improvement.”
An engineering landmark
In his own words, Ilkka Saarimaa was for a long time keen to get to work in an engineering workshop. ”I have worked with a great number of machine shops around the world and learned that the level of manufacturing engineering skills in Finland is very high, especially in the high mix low volume production. And in this category, ATA Gears definitely excels. Of course, I am very happy now to be part of the ATA team and operation offering the benefits of those skills all over the world.”
“In the greater Tampere area ATA Gears is a landmark in engineering that you already become aware of during your studies at the technical university,” Ilkka Saarimaa declares. “My own closer prior knowledge of ATA’s operation is on the machining side, how ATA’s world-famous products are manufactured. This is because Fastems, the company I worked for earlier, supplied ATA with factory automation. So I knew that ATA does things meticulously.”
Nurturing long customer relationships
Ilkka Saarimaa explains the nature of ATA Gears’ business as he has come to understand it: ”Most of ATA’s customers are leading companies in their respective fields. The bevel and cylindrical gears are an essential part of these customers’ product deliveries, which creates a solid demand for ATA’s products. This is very similar to the many class-leading manufacturers and resellers with whom I worked a lot in my former job. I believe that gives me a good background for taking care of ATA’s long customer relationships and managing the network of representatives.”
Keeping up the good work and also breaking new ground
Due to geopolitics, earlier days of slow demand and public funding in several sectors, the situation today looks pretty good in certain fields of heavy industry. ATA Gears’ special knowhow and experience in, for example, marine, mining and some other branches are well known and appreciated. Ilkka Saarimaa knows and underlines that this position is something that needs to be earned again and again. “We need to be goal-oriented, eager to develop – and also invest in research with an uncertain outcome – and to continue to work hard. That’s the only way we can retain the leading position in our field. And we are investigating new customer segments, too. I believe this can offer a big benefit for everybody when we can make use of the best practices over industry boundaries.”
A private, amateur carpenter
As noted, in his private time Ilkka Saarimaa enjoys working with his hands: tables, flower boxes, entire summer kitchen including its floor and fences and many other pieces of furniture have been created with Ilkka’s skillful hands. ”A great counterbalance to the mental exercises at work,” Ilkka says.