The service technicians on our support team play a unique role in our customer relationships. They have a blend of useful experience – not only do they work directly with customers onsite with installations, maintenance, and emergency service, but they also help at the front end of projects with machine start-up and run-off testing. They follow a machine through its life, and because of this, they are a reliable resource when it comes to optimal maintenance of your machine.
JJ is one of these technicians who has progressed into his current role after starting with us as an electrician. With his hands-on experience in our shop, he’s seen what it takes to start-up and wire a machine, and now has ample experience installing and servicing these machines once they’re in a customer’s production facility.
Learn more about JJ and his role by watching this video:
JJ’s career started in serving our country. He earned an engineering technologies degree and served in the Army as a generator technician. This skillset boded well for his role as an electrician, and he quickly progressed to a service technician due to his tenacity and charisma. If you’ve met JJ, you know he’s a fun-loving person to have working alongside you. JJ enjoys the role too, as he’s able to be more hands-on and involved with helping customers.
Service techs like JJ work closely with our engineers during R&D projects for new machines as well. Most recently, he played a part in launching the LCN1250 Lamination System with Merge Table. JJ explains how he and the engineers collaborate: “We work together to ensure any bugs are worked out. One thing I do is make sure manuals align to how the machine operates so that when it gets to a customer, it’s basically flawless.” His in-depth involvement with C³ machines puts him in a unique position to understand both the mechanical and electrical aspects of the machine. He doesn’t just know how they work, but also why they’re designed the way they are due to this close alignment with the engineers.
When a customer purchases a machine, they’ll likely meet JJ at the time of installation. He and a setup crew will be onsite to install and start-up the new machine and train operators. This is one of JJ’s favorite parts of his role, he says, “I get to travel and see many different places; interact with a lot of different people. I don’t just do the same things in the shop every day, I get to help customers in a variety of ways.” Onsite he works to make the installation process run smoothly and get customers up and running so they are comfortable with the machine before he leaves.
When JJ and the team of service techs aren’t onsite with customers, they’re back at C³ working on the shop floor with new machinery or helping customers with service requests remotely. When customers reach out to the support team for emergency services, they hop on a plane to help. Of course, most customers probably don’t want to see JJ onsite for services because that means there is a serious issue, so JJ has some advice for those who want to reduce downtime as best as possible.
Whether JJ is out for a machine installation or a service call, his ultimate goal is to make sure customers’ machines are running as efficiently as possible. In order to make the most of a machine investment, he offers these top tips for customers:
- Set aside enough time for training. “It’s important that operators read the operations manual and get a lot of hands-on experience during training, then repeat those tasks regularly.”
- Keep up with preventative maintenance. “If you look at the last page in our maintenance manual, it goes over an entire preventative maintenance schedule. I think following that is the best thing customers can do to keep that machine in tip-top shape.”
- Have critical spares on hand. “I would keep the majority of critical parts on-hand due to the lead times associated with ordering those parts on demand. You don’t want to have to wait to get a part, you want it fixed right away.”
We take pride in the competence of our service technician team in their ability to service customers in an effective and efficient manner. It’s our mission that customers are well taken care of in critical maintenance moments so they can continue production. Now is a great time to re-evaluate your preventative maintenance schedule and spare parts inventory. Learn more about the importance of preventative maintenance in Issue 4 of Eng*nuity.