Right before starting my job as a gear metrologist, many people advised me that “gear people” are very special because they all have a distinct way their gear works and are very particular about their needs. There is no doubt that gears represent a special branch of our industry, but having only taught 3D software, I felt it was a nice challenge to learn all there was to know about gears. Little did I know that I would fit right into this industry.
Previously in my career, I was in charge of training and applications support for several different products. Every day was a great learning experience because there was a myriad of new challenges I could tackle. I was not directly involved with gears yet, but I still developed my analytical and customer relationship skills that any engineer should foster. It was a fantastic stepping stone for the role that awaited me.
Enter Wenzel America. Here, I’ve become an integral part of our growing organization. Cheesy pun warning: I’m a bigger cog in this machine because this is a smaller machine. Fast forward a year and I work at a great family-owned company where I lead the gear applications and sales support because I am the gear metrologist at Wenzel America. This gives me a unique opportunity to tailor our product development and support to our customer needs, which is truly my favorite part. For example, I am able to expand our training program as I see fit, based on direct feedback from the customers I train. I also have direct access to the software developers in Germany which allows us to use the same approach to advancing our product. I have even been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to contribute to the industry overall by publishing articles in magazines relating to these ideas here.
As I meet future Ph.D’s, gear lab managers, quality engineers, and CEOs of companies, I can learn moer about how they see the gear industry growing and changing. This type of feedback also directly informs our decisions regarding products, support, and training.
So why is this unique you ask? Wearing many hats, and keeping personal dialog with our customers affords me the opportunity to connect customer needs with resources and tools inside our organization in near real time. The challenge will be maintaining this level of service and transparency, as Wenzel America grows alongside the gear industry and our customers. But this is a challenge we readily accept, in order to provide the best customer experience we can.
Stay tuned for a rundown of what you might’ve missed at the 2017 Gear Expo! And as always, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @GearMarks!