05.10.2022

This year, we’re making business more human and introducing you to some of our hard-working, knowledgeable, employees from the various departments at MULTIVAC UK.

I have worked for MULTIVAC UK for around seven years and in my role I lead a team of multi-skilled engineers that perform return to service remedial works on all MULTIVAC machines. We also overhaul customer owned equipment to bring them back to OEM standards, so that they are working like they did when new. This can be anything from a full machine to an individual component level i.e. motors, pumps, seal bars, labeller rollers etc. We also support customer trials, breakdowns at the Swindon office site, retrofits required on new machines and any other machine works that may be required but not supported by the field service team.

Every day is different! No matter what plan we make as a team, on the day there will be any number of enquiries that need to be completed. The team may need assistance on the machine, I may need to search for equipment that should be inspected for use on another site, customers may have lead time questions and recently chasing parts and deliveries is a common occurrence.

I enjoy the varied tasks that my role requires me to accomplish. On any day I will need to use my electrical/electronic experience, my mechanical maintenance experience, and my project management experience. Sometimes on just one job alone. This means there is no chance that I could ever be bored with my job!

Our customers are under huge pressures to fulfil their production throughputs, and with this can sometimes mean that machine maintenance can be overruled in order to meet tight deadlines. In the workshop we are at the ‘sharp end‘ which means that when something comes to us, it’s gone wrong already. Having said that, our team does try when possible to educate the customers on better maintenance and care for the machines they have purchased. We accomplish this by re-supplying the user manual and making it clear that the service intervals and procedures in these documents will save them money and time in the long run.

The time delay in getting certain spares is causing an issue for some of our customers. Although this is a problem that can’t be helped, it can result in leaving a customer without an integral piece of kit. MULTIVAC aims to help customers with this issue by holding a number of spare parts in stock and holds up to £2m worth of spare parts in stock!

A large number of return to service machines are in our pipeline and the team are making progress on getting our backlog finished. We have a machine with us now that requires a new die set as well as an inline printer installed. A T_300 traysealing packaging machine is also in our workshop under overhaul after operational damage which has required the full removal of the lower vacuum mould, change of the chains, and a rework of the vacuum and gassing system. Lastly, with our upcoming showroom and warehouse renovations, there is a significant amount of building works we are supporting by moving machines, relocating spares, and general work needed to make room for the construction teams.

For now, it’s trying to finish renovating my house. This is not a hobby of mine and I would much prefer someone else do it! I do some 3D printing but have gone down the rabbit hole of trying to teach myself CAD modeling and drawing. My main enjoyment is video games, board games, and family games night with my extended family. I am also an avid miniature painter but due to the renovations in my home, I’ve had to moth ball my hobby area. This is a constant source of angst for me, because if I can’t hide in my hobby room, this means I should be doing jobs around the house – or so my wife says!

While stationed in Iraq, I received an award for repairing an aircraft that was, unbeknownst to me, transporting the Iraqi Minister of Defence to a high level meeting.

For more information on any of our materials and packaging solutions, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.