THE INTERVIEW
Emergency Intake Gantry Crane.
OCH: What do you dislike about this business? SR: Time spent away from family. For example, when we did the truck plants project that was a very busy period for us and involved lots of travel. Those periods are very challenging because in the US there's a couple of holidays that are used for shutdowns. So, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Easter time, 4th of July, Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Those were the periods when we were very solicited and where we were not able to be at home with our family.
At the same time, it was also very rewarding because that's where I got all my experience. Learning on the job so that when you encounter problems onsite you understand the reality of the situation. I always tell my designers, you have three priorities in this order: site, shop and project.
OCH: What makes your company unique? SR: Our technical capabilities; being able to design equipment that meets very difficult technical challenges. And being able to exchange technical information with our customers. For example, when we did a big project with the US hydro client, the engineers were fairly green in crane design, so
we had to educate them on some detailed and sophisticated specifications. Sometimes they write things without really knowing what's behind it, so that was a difficult and long process that we were finally able to achieve with them, being able to help them understand the reason behind the selection of certain components and how we design the structure for strength and stability. Being able to share our technical expertise with the customer is much more rewarding than having a spec where they say you can do whatever you want.
OCH: What is your view on the future of the overhead cranes business? SR: What we are trying to achieve now within the group is to set predictive maintenance components. Mainly a computer that would read the parameters coming from the electronic components on the crane and be able to say there's a degradation on that component. That's going to be the challenge on future pieces of equipment, to be able to detect if there's any possible degradation and address these so customers can preventively maintain their equipment instead of repairing it once it breaks.
Top 5 tips for success 1. Always be frank with yourself. Know your limits. Know when to ask questions. If you don't know, don't be afraid of not knowing.
2. Be stubborn. Don't be afraid of redoing something that you know is not what you would like it to be.
3. Be Curious, always try to be aware of what information is available and how you can improve yourself.
4. Be a good listener. Know what is going on around you. Be able to listen to others and read between the lines.
5. Enjoy life because work is also a big part of your life. So you have to enjoy what you're doing and be happy in the work you're doing.
44 | Spring 2024 |
www.ochmagazine.com
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