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by Jeff Hopkins, on 9/10/12 3:00 AM
From college to the factory to the field, he's been trained to help you
Industrial sites across the nation have had to grapple with a growing problem. As an older generation of workers retires, they take a lot of knowledge with them. At the same time, tight budgets make it harder to replace all those people, and it's getting harder to find people with the training and desire to do the work.
Retaining regulator knowledge
"Swagelok is trying to partner with customers and try to retain some of that knowledge," says Eric Kayla, a field engineer with special expertise in regulators. Swagelok has worked with some of the older employees for their entire careers. Now people like Eric are helping to transfer that knowledge to a younger generation.
Later this year, Eric will present a webinar on the theory and operations of regulators -- basically, what they do and how they do it. Expect a presentation of about 40 minutes, with some additional time for questions and answers. As we get closer to the webinar date, we'll email registrants details and alert you in this blog. In the meantime, we thought you should get to know Eric.
He joined Swagelok 17 years ago, fresh out of the University of Akron with a brand new bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. In his last year of school, he and Swagelok found each other, and he went to work at the Solon, Ohio, headquarters. Eric started as a laboratory engineer, working on high-purity fittings and pipe fittings. Then he switched over to new-product development. Eventually he also put in some time in assembly engineering and assembly supervising.
In the meantime, he was also going back to school in the evenings, earning a master's degree in engineering at his alma mater.
After a decade in the factory, though, Eric wanted to get closer to the customer. He moved to San Diego and became a field engineer in 2005.
"I've been really fortunate with Swagelok. They definitely make opportunities available for people," he says.
Helping customers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
Today Eric travels the West in three countries. In the United States, his territory includes everything from the Pacific Coast inland to New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. He handles Alaska and Hawaii too. In Canada, his territory is Manitoba and west. And to the south, he handles Mexico's Baja Peninsula. He spends at least half his life on the road, meeting customers and discussing their needs.
"It's never the same thing week after week," he says. "We can be involved with customers who have an existing system and want some troubleshooting, we have customers looking to build new systems who want some consulting, and we do a lot of training."
When customers need help, their local Swagelok Account Manager can schedule the time with Eric.
While he is well versed on the entire Swagelok product line, Eric has a particular interest in regulators. He notes that fittings have been part of Swagelok for the company's entire 65-year history. Valves have been in the catalog almost as long. But regulators are a comparatively new line, having been a Swagelok offering for "only" about a decade.
Customers already have their hands full with their own jobs, so no one expects them to be regulator experts. Eric is comfortable working with customers who have a lot, a little or no experience at all with regulators.
The webinar now in the planning stages will help introduce people to regulators, and Eric promises it won't be a sales pitch in disguise.
"Ultimately we are trying to become a technical partner for our customers," he says. "Hopefully we can get to the point where they look at us less as a supplier and more as a partner who can help them run their business better."
Additional resources
View events:
Browse catalogs:
- Technical information on pressure-reducing regulator flow curves
- Tank blanketing pressure regulators available
- Pre-engineered subsystems available
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