Steve Schommer has been with Ruud Lighting for three years, learning on the job as a maintenance mechanic. Coming from a family construction business, Steve knows his way around tools but now faces the beast known as industrial maintenance.

Fortunately, Ruud Lighting’s “old pro, young pro” maintenance staffing strategy pairs him with a 20-year veteran. Many projects are done side-by-side to broaden Steve’s knowledge and expertise.

“We cover everything inside and outside the facility with the exception of electrical, which we contract out,” Schommer said. “We run the air lines ourselves, do lubrication PMs on all the production machines, replace or repair all light fixtures and set-up and build the bays from the ground up.”

Winter is a “slow” season for maintenance projects inside the plant. Most major new projects come online in the summer months, he observed. Plus, thanks to its location just a few miles from Lake Michigan, maintenance sometimes has all it can handle just keeping the building accessible. This season has been especially “heavy” for snow removal.

Schommer is currently doing “a lot” of ergonomic projects to make assemblers (and administrative office workers) more comfortable at their workstations. Naturally, this work also supports Ruud’s LEED certification effort.

“Different sections of the building are older than others, too, so we are starting to hit the 20-year wall where we have to replace rather than repair some things,” said Schommer.

When asked what he is learning to manage these days, he answers without hesitation. “People,” he stated. “When you’re the maintenance guy in a factory of 500 people, everybody knows you and when something breaks down, you get the call. And when they call you have to be ready to help — you can’t be grumpy or view it as an interruption of your work.” As such, Steve is learning to handle tasks with grace despite being — at any given moment — “either the most popular or least popular guy in the plant,” he said and laughed.

This article appeared in the April/May 2008 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2008.

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