As for the Light & Sound division at CIS, Schiller admits that 2020 hasn’t exactly been friendly to the events and entertainment sector. “And on top of that, not too many people actually want to get into theatrical rigging because all these guys seem to march to the beat of a different drummer than the heavy industry that I’m familiar with,” he said. “And a lot of these folks do stand beneath the suspended load—every day—but it’s part of what they do. Tere’s really no other way to do it. But they really use some rigging, and we help out when and where we can.”
LESSONS LEARNED Te CIS workforce comprises around 25 employees, but all of the engineering staff is contractual at this time, said Schiller. “I’ve led the engineers I’ve worked with for about thirty years—it’s a passion of mine. I’m the liaison between them and the customer, and it’s really my vision that makes these things happen. I love working with unique applications; the opportunities are endless. I’ve never been in favor of the reactive approach; I want to solve the problem before it becomes one.” With that in mind, CIS provides a service tied to
their products made up of a traveling crew with the sole purpose of inspecting and maintaining equipment. “A lot of these facilities don’t have the expertise in the way of workforce to maintain and/or inspect on a monthly basis,” Schiller stated, “so we’ve got a crew that travels nationally, inspecting the rigging that we’ve sold them.” Similarly, safety training is a key focus at CIS. “My father did a tremendous amount of overhead crane
No-Touch® Equipment!
operator training and below-the-hook rigger training,” said Schiller. “We’re currently looking at a comprehensive contract with an automotive customer right now, to include everything in the way of training—forklifts, over- head cranes, lockout/tagout—whatever training is needed.” Upkeep being what it is, CIS has, over time, looked in
the mirror and made some internal decisions that have both stabilized and positioned the company for long-term growth. “One of the greatest lessons we learned was when
Testing rigging components in the shop
we brought in a professional CFO,” explained Schiller. “Without bringing in outside talent, we just couldn’t grow like we wanted. And as recently as about eight months ago, we were still putting sales orders together by hand. So, we finally implemented some sales software, and that’s been very beneficial, as you can imagine. And probably the next biggest thing for us—as recently as about two months ago—everything, with the exception of my engineering, is now in the cloud. Next up is finishing out the build of our library for all of our engineering—so everyone knows where it is and what’s what, instead of just me.” As for the future, Schiller has his sights set on yet another innovation. “At so many of these giant steel plants around the country, they maintain a lot of their own equipment. Tey often have a warehouse of commodity-style rigging they keep on board. We’ve launched a campaign to gather information on what these folks might have—the commodity stuff—what they keep in stock that we can replenish on a weekly or monthly basis. It’s all about recognizing opportunity, and working to solve problems for people.” y
— To find out more, visit
www.cisrigging.com. WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2020 31
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