Reading Between the Lines
One of the UCEC job carts loaded up and ready to go. Photo by Paula Zangari.
By Paula Zangari
Reading prints and schematics is a part of my daily job. Sometimes, they surprise you.
Paula Zangari
Recently, I had a new job come in, and like I usually do, I double-checked the Bill of Material against the schematics to make sure what we purchased had actually arrived. This new project needed a certain number of fuse blocks, so I flipped through the Bill of Material to make sure we had accounted for all of the fuse blocks. As my finger traced one section, I realized that the drawings were missing a terminal strip. This meant we would need five more fuse blocks, fuses, an end barrier and an end anchor. I called the customer to verify this was correct, and we changed our orders immediately.
As parts for jobs come in to the UCEC warehouse, they are loaded on the job cart. As part of my job, I make sure Zach Fothergill and Garrod Massey have what they need. In the worst of cases, the missing part could have a time lead. Without the items, work grinds to a halt.
You have to read the schematic and see what the fuse is, what amperage, that sort of thing. It’s all a process of double checking and reading between the lines. I carefully go over the schematics and the part numbers. Everything has to match.
The thing about UCEC is: everyone shares their knowledge. I learned to read schematics from Garrod and Bob. I share what I’ve learned from them with my team so they can help with the quoting process.
If we don’t look out for each other this way, jobs can slow down while we’re waiting for a part. That’s not acceptable; we need to make sure our Fabrication and Wiring teams have what they need. When they have what they need and the job starts and finishes on time, our customers win.
Paula is an Operations Support Manager at UCEC.