Technician makes meaningful impact on production
posted on Friday, January 8, 2016
When I’m at a site, I find myself checking and re-checking for things that the manager might have missed... things that the common eye wouldn’t see,” said Matt, a maintenance tech for Iowa Select Farms. “It’s taking that extra 30 minutes to walk around the site to identify areas where we can do some preventative maintenance in hopes of avoiding bigger issues from happening down the road.”
Matt, who supports the eastern Iowa finishing region, is a member of a 50-person team charged with making repairs and maintaining the farms so the animals always have their feed, water, temperature and air flow needs met. “If any of these areas are in jeopardy, it’s a huge concern for all of us and we fix it immediately,” said Matt. “Our contribution to producing a billion pounds of pork this year is keeping the barns comfortable and the equipment working the way it should, something that makes a huge impact on production performance.”
Seasonality can oftentimes plays a big role on the team’s workload. “We keep a very close eye on fans, but even more so in the summer months.” Fans provide airflow and keep the barn cool, and can run non-stop for days, months and even years. Maintenance techs like Matt keep them in good shape so the animals are comfortable no matter what the temperature outside.
On the weekends, maintenance techs share an on-call rotation to make sure every manager has someone nearby in the event of an emergency. “If we get a call from a manager reporting that they need help, we’re out to the site to support them and fix the problem. Even though we don’t technically provide direct care to the pigs, we care as much about the animals as they do.” #billionpounds
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