Employee Spotlight: Meet the Wiring Team

UCEC's Wiring Team

Editor’s Note: We sat down with three members of our Wiring Team recently to talk about their work which includes intricate wiring coupled with creativity. This is the third in our “team” spotlight series. You can meet the Quoting team, here.

Tell us what a typical day is like for the UCEC Wiring Team.

Justin Kastner: We get in, people get their beverage of choice (coffee or an energy drink) and we get our head around what we were doing the day before. Some projects take a while; it can take two to three weeks. It’s fun to see the progress. Our work goes from the print to Assembly to Wiring to Quality Control. We can see the entire process from start to finish.

Matt Dudzik: Today, I am about done with my panel, so I am tidying things up for a final quality check. I’m also going over my checklist sheet. We have lots of quality control. Everything is triple checked.  

Justin: We work really hard, but have fun doing it. Everyone gets along well. I enjoy the people. It’s like a second family. Without this synergy, I don’t think we would have the success we do.

What are you working on this week?

Denise Nation: Kind of a bunch of things. I’m about to start some PLC cards. I like to make everything look really pretty. Everything I do, when I look at it, I just want it to keep getting better.

Justin: I’m working on a panel for a premier packaging manufacturer. I’ve been out to the factory to see the production facility. That was exciting: to see the whole process, how it goes from a control panel in the shop to how it controls the machines.

Matt: I just finished up a PLC panel. I’m focussing on aesthetics. If you have 100 wires, it can get kind of crowded. My challenge is to organize everything so it functions correctly and looks very organized. We’re also thinking of the end user, so we install service loops to make things easier later for anyone who has to disconnect something.

Why does this job suit you?

Justin: I like knowing the work we do will service various industries for decades to come. I work on so many facets of the industry such as traffic light control, packaging, energy. It’s neat when you go to a plant and you see the panel you wired, and you’re hooking it up to machines it will control. Some machines are producing 2,400 pieces per minute. You can’t even see if it’s running, so they have to use a strobe lights.

This work suits me. I really appreciate that it’s binary. It works or it doesn’t.

Denise: I like the environment. These guys keep me laughing all day. I love the detail of the work. As an organized person, I find that the work suits me. The wiring has to be perfect.

Matt: I like that we’re a custom shop. If someone from outside the industry looks at a print, it just looks like a drawing. But there’s a technical aspect to reading the drawing. You have to have knowledge and then they come to life.

Then there are aesthetics. It takes artistry to make the flow of wires work. It’s never the same each day. When you’re done, you feel like you did something not everyone can do.

Curious minds want to know: what’s playing on everyone’s earbuds?

Denise: R&B.

Matt: Led Zeppelin.

Justin: Rock and roll. Sometimes audiobooks and podcasts.

What is something you want to learn next?

Justin: I was a field service engineer for five years. I serviced some other panels from other shops and I also serviced UCEC panels. It makes a huge difference when the wires are like a big bowl of spaghetti. UCEC doesn’t make panels like that. I want to continue to lay the groundwork and set it up right for the next guy.  

Denise: Every print is different. I’d like to work on reading prints and catching errors. Everyone is different.

Justin: I’d like to understand more of the engineering side of panel wiring. And I’d like to learn some of the more technical aspects of it such as short circuit ratings, ampacity, details like that. I’d also like to work on my leadership skills so I can create an environment that is comfortable. There’s always room for improvement.

Matt: I would like to learn computer-aided drafting and how to use those programs. I know we use them in Assembly, for the Steinhauer CNC machine, so I think that would be a good way to learn it.

More UCEC Employee Spotlights