Today on The Maintainers, David & Jake welcome Dave Zapata, the general supervisor of engineering and maintenance at Chicago Heights Steel (CHS). CHS is the largest special-market mill in the United States and has been running the same type of operation since its founding in 1893.
Today on The Maintainers, David & Jake welcome Dave Zapata, the general supervisor of engineering and maintenance at Chicago Heights Steel (CHS). CHS is the largest special-market mill in the United States and has been running the same type of operation since its founding in 1893.
Dave calls his time with CHS “his longest summer job” as he joined the company straight out of high school in 1994 as a summer laborer. He instead stayed on, working his way through departments and up the ladder from engineering to mechanical to electrical.
You’ll hear all about CHS’s history and how they’ve evolved their operations over the years. Dave has been instrumental in leading the implementation of new technologies designed to make their processes safer and more efficient as they produce over 14m fence posts each year. He explains how they’ve managed to reduce downtime while maintaining a delicate balance of maintaining current equipment while replacing outdated machinery. In 2019, the company modernized its mill with a new OT network, virtual machines, and HMI systems, dramatically improving productivity. Dave also reveals exciting plans for further advancements, including new robotic lines for fence post production, underscoring CHS's commitment to staying at the forefront of manufacturing technology.
The trio also discuss Dave’s management philosophy, which centers around hands-on leadership and providing his workers with the same opportunities he had coming up at CHS. He stresses the importance of patience and practical learning for those just beginning in their careers and offers his view of the future of the workforce.
—
Guest Bio
Dave Zapata is the General Supervisor of Engineering and Maintenance at Chicago Heights Steel (CHS), the world's largest special market mill in the United States. Dave's journey with CHS began right out of high school in 1994, when he took what was initially intended to be a summer job. Over the next three decades, Dave transitioned through various roles within the company, gaining in-depth knowledge of mechanical and electrical maintenance.
Dave has been instrumental in modernizing CHS operations, focusing on increasing efficiency and safety. Notably, he spearheaded significant equipment upgrades, reducing the need for manual labor and increasing uptime. His leadership style emphasizes hands-on involvement and fostering a strong rapport with his team.
—
Guest Quote
"We went from 1959 to 2020 technology. It was a learning process. My approach is: I take the time to learn. Analyze it, make sure l have all the information. And then come up with a solution, and then implement that solution." – Dave Zapata
—
Time Stamps
00:00 Episode Start
02:00 Opening Icebreaker
03:40 Dave’s Background
04:30 Segment 01: The Maintainer Mashup
05:00 The operation at Chicago Heights Steel
06:40 Finding rail from 1893
08:40 How operations have evolved over the years
10:45 The importance of your team
11:55 Segment 02: What's in Your Toolkit?
12:35 Leading with a learner's mindset
15:15 Modernizing their manufacturing
18:30 Advice on leveling up in your career
19:50 Segment 03: The Future of Factories
20:40 Dave's recommendations for the future
22:25 Solving for a lack of workers
24:20 Ways to upskill your existing maintainers
26:00 Segment 04: Fix It Funnies
—
Links
[00:00:00] Voiceover: Maintenance required. Listen, I maintain, I maintain them myself. Maintain course, maintain speed. I gotta maintain respect.
[00:00:13] David Lee: This is the Maintainers, a Blue Cap Community podcast. My name is David Lee, director at Tractian and your host for today's show. And I'm Jake Hall, a
[00:00:21] Jake Hall: manufacturing millennial and advocate who loves manufacturing and sharing the stories about the industry. Now, on today's episode, we have a special guest.
[00:00:30] Jake Hall: We have Dave Zapata, who is the general supervisor of engineering and maintenance at Chicago Heights Steel, otherwise known as CHS, though the world's largest special market mill here in the United States. Now, Dave joined the organization straight out of high school, which I think is a great story. We're gonna dive later into this podcast, but one of the things we're gonna learn about as well is how the strong CHS management is still working in house with a lot of [00:01:00] manufacturing processes.
[00:01:01] Jake Hall: But before we dive into that, a word from our sponsor.
[00:01:05] Voiceover: This podcast is brought to you by Tractian. Tractian Offers streamlined hardware and software solutions designed to make maintenance more reliable and profitable. Their AI powered condition monitoring and asset management solution predicts machine failures and eliminates unplanned downtime, generating an average of 38% more productivity for clients worldwide.
[00:01:30] Voiceover: It's artificial intelligence quarterbacking your maintenance. Well,
[00:01:34] Jake Hall: Dave thanks for joining us today. How are you doing? Uh, good, thank you. You know, it's great to have you here. I, I, I, I wanna dive more into how you guys started the industry coming right out of high school and how you've been able to move throughout the different parts of the organization.
[00:01:50] Jake Hall: But before we dive into the work side of that, let's talk about, you know, your away time when you're getting r and r, when you're on vacation, when you're getting those breaks, what do you like [00:02:00] to do?
[00:02:01] Dave Zapata: I like to travel, I like to see different places. Always try to, you know, try to find a new location to visit.
[00:02:09] Dave Zapata: So I do enjoy traveling, so that's, that's what I like to do in my downtime.
[00:02:13] Jake Hall: So what would you say are like the top three places that are unknown to most people that you would recommend them to come and visit?
[00:02:23] Dave Zapata: Um, maybe not unknown, but I will definitely recommend if anybody likes. History and architecture to visit.
[00:02:30] Dave Zapata: Italy is one of the most beautiful countries that I have been to. Uh, so definitely it's, it's a place to go. It was in my bucket list for a long time, so we were able to, uh, you know, with my wife, uh, make some trips there. So, yeah, we actually just got back recently from Italy. Um, again, so fantastic. Nice.
[00:02:51] Dave Zapata: Nice. Where specifically did you go? So we were actually all over the place. Um, we first, uh, it was a week of, uh, work, uh, in the northern part of [00:03:00] Italy. And then, um, then we visited Venice, um, Rome pizza. Nice. Pompeii. So we were all over, all over the place. Yeah. Awesome. What, what was the best food you had there while in Italy?
[00:03:13] Dave Zapata: Uh, tell you what. Everything was great.
[00:03:18] Jake Hall: Yeah. So they was making me jokes. Now it's difficult to pick
[00:03:21] Dave Zapata: something in specific because everything we tried was definitely, definitely, uh, good. So yeah.
[00:03:28] David Lee: Awesome. Sounds like a fun trip. So, transitioning over, can you tell us a little bit about your background in how you got started in the industry?
[00:03:36] Dave Zapata: Well, as, as, uh, it was mentioned a little bit ago, I started here at the company right outta high school. I. It was supposed to be a summer job. A friend of mine from church, uh, was working here. Um, and so he said, Hey, you know, do you need a summer job? So basically it started working as a labor over the summer.
[00:03:58] Dave Zapata: Um, and what I tell everybody [00:04:00] is basically it is been the longest summer of my life, um, because that was, uh, the summer of 19, uh, 94. Um. So, yeah, it's, it's been a while. Uh, but yeah, it's been a very rewarding, uh, uh, experience. Awesome.
[00:04:15] David Lee: Well, now that we know a little bit more about you, it's time for us to dive into our first segment, the Maintainer mashup, where we'll deep dive into equipment management and teams to find out how we can make maintenance more reliable,
[00:04:28] Voiceover: maintenance required.
[00:04:30] Voiceover: Listen, I maintain, maintain the myself, Dan Hane course, maintain speed. I gotta maintain respect,
[00:04:39] David Lee: so. Can we hear a little bit about Chicago Height steel, and how your team operates and for the audience? As a reminder, CHS has been around since 1893 and is primarily a recycling facility, leveraging rail steel from train tracks and rolling them into fence posts, stop signs, mile markers, and all types of things that we use in [00:05:00] society today.
[00:05:01] David Lee: So tell us a little bit about, about, uh, Chicago Heights Steel and how you all operate.
[00:05:05] Dave Zapata: Well, as you mentioned, we basically are, uh, uh. Rail recycling facility. Uh, we get a rail that comes to us and, uh, you know, pulled out of the ground, no longer able to be used on mainline service. Uh, we break it, reheat it, and re-roll it.
[00:05:22] Dave Zapata: We don't melt it, we just reheat it and re-roll it. Um, and then, uh, like you said, we make, uh, different products out of the, uh, rail steel. Now that, that is the beginning of our process. Uh, after that we do a Sun Valley added. Uh. We put the holes on the signpost to be able to mount, you know, the signs, the stop signs or whatnot.
[00:05:42] Dave Zapata: We paint some of the products, we, uh, put flats and, and paint them, uh, the, the signposts, or sorry, the fence posts that you see on farm fields all over the United States. And then we, you know, again, ship it to our either, uh, distributors or warehousing, you know, [00:06:00] facilities for, you know, private sale after that.
[00:06:03] Dave Zapata: Our products are mainly used here in the us. Okay. But we ha are a high volume. I mean, we make about 14 to 15 million fence posts a year. Uh, and that volume has been since I worked here and as I, as far as I can tell, uh, for a very long time. So where do those fence posts go? I have no idea. Um, but we've been making them, you know, year in and year out.
[00:06:32] Jake Hall: Dave, when we look, when we look at the product, what is the average life of like a railroad track for, I guess is my first question. When we're looking at that, trains are going across it, what is the average life of that product? So it,
[00:06:42] Dave Zapata: it's, um, it's a little bit difficult to, um, give exact number because it, it all depends on the amount of traffic on that main mainline.
[00:06:51] Dave Zapata: Um, yeah, we have had lines pulled out that we have, uh, I, some of them I save some pieces of rail that have. [00:07:00] 18 hundreds date on them. Okay. Wow. Wow. I'm actually in search of one from 1893 for obviously, for obvious reasons. Uh, but we have rail from 1880s, uh, you know, 18, uh, uh, nineties, early 19 hundreds, you know, 1920s.
[00:07:17] Dave Zapata: So some rail has been in service for a long, long time. All the pieces of rail we get is from the, you know, nineties. Um, yeah. So it's, it's, it's very, um. Uh, dynamic. It all depends on the amount of traffic that each, uh, ma each, uh, rail line will have.
[00:07:33] Jake Hall: So does a rail like have like a, a serial marker or a date st.
[00:07:37] Jake Hall: Pretty stamped into it somewhere? Is that how you know that, uh, the dates of above? Correct. They
[00:07:40] Dave Zapata: have a manufacturer and a date stamped on the side of the rail. So you can track back two a, uh, a specific batch of rail from a manufacturer. Yes.
[00:07:51] Jake Hall: So you mentioned someone from the nineties, which I think is great, right?
[00:07:54] Jake Hall: Because you started, you said it started in 94, correct. There. So, so, so a, a company could have [00:08:00] installed that railroad tie the day, the day you started working at the company. And then fast forward to last week, they ripped up that railroad tie, put a new one in that got shipped to your company, and now you're recycling it.
[00:08:13] Jake Hall: So walk us through, first of all, the process of. What's changed in the area. Right. So you've been there for 35 years now, I think you mentioned, or has it been 35 years? 30 years going on 31 30. Okay. So you've been there for 30 years. That's right, yeah. 1994. You know what, what processes have changed and what is the same when it comes to, I would say upcycling, you know, these
[00:08:39] Dave Zapata: products to give '
[00:08:39] Jake Hall: em
[00:08:39] Dave Zapata: a second life.
[00:08:40] Dave Zapata: So there's actually been quite a bit of change in the facility in the 30 years I've been here. Uh. I, I can say that I have, um, you know, I had a hand on a, a good portion of those changes. Uh, for example, uh, up to 2004 when we did, uh, some equipment [00:09:00] upgrade in the, in the mill, the process was still manual.
[00:09:03] Dave Zapata: Guys were still using tongs and grabbing a hot piece of steel right next to them, pulling out of the stand and feeding the next stand over. Uh, so we had about. You know, 40 guys on the floor because they could only work there for 10 minutes, uh, because of the conditions. And they then somebody else had to take their place and they rotated 10 minutes working, 10 minutes resting.
[00:09:26] Dave Zapata: Uh, so now we have the same operation with only five guys because we changed the equipment and automated the system to remove those guys from that area that was hot. And, you know, and, and to a point, very dangerous. So.
[00:09:41] Jake Hall: Yeah. Dirty, dangerous, hot People didn't like working there, especially when you look at a younger generation.
[00:09:47] Jake Hall: They, they say, geez, I don't want to go and work in a factory that I'm sweating and, and possibly getting hit in the head and getting injured all day long. Correct. They'd much rather work in an industry that has technology doing a lot of the, the difficult tasks for that. [00:10:00] Correct.
[00:10:00] Dave Zapata: And then that's really been the driving force, uh, especially over the last 15 years, uh, workforce that is, um, aging.
[00:10:10] Dave Zapata: Experience going away and a new generation that is not encouraged to look at trades, right? They're encouraged to go to college and nothing wrong with college, but I think that they are promoting a four year college degree. So much more than a professional in the trades. What you can do just as well, um, without all the debt
[00:10:36] David Lee: and so.
[00:10:37] David Lee: Producing 14 to 15 million fence posts a year. You all have roughly, uh, 50 onsite employees. If not, if I'm not mistaken, how do you manage the onsite staff and what does that look like?
[00:10:47] Dave Zapata: All right, so we have about 15, uh, staff on the maintenance side of things. The plant overall has about, uh, we fluctuate between two 50 and 300 depending on our volume of orders.[00:11:00]
[00:11:00] Dave Zapata: Uh, but yeah, so, so on the maintenance side of things, electrical and mechanical. Uh, we have about 50 guys and managing that team, uh, requires obviously surrounding yourself with a group of individuals that are like-minded, uh, that like to work, work with their hands. Uh, they don't mind getting dirty. Uh, they don't mind, you know, some days working long hours.
[00:11:28] Dave Zapata: Uh, so having a team of individuals that are very like-minded in that aspect, it's crucial in my opinion. Uh, and the other thing is, you know, I think it's also important to be able to show them that, uh, you are willing to go in there and do, you know, be with them doing the work.
[00:11:47] David Lee: So we've heard about how CHS operates, so let's talk more about how you excel in our second segment.
[00:11:55] David Lee: What's in your toolkit?
[00:11:58] Voiceover: We're gonna fix it. Get the [00:12:00] tool. Pick the one right tool, the right tool for the right job.
[00:12:08] David Lee: With this being, this role being the longest summer job ever, uh, can you go. Into how your career path has really impacted how you manage with the new generation and things coming in here. Uh, you, you seem to be keen on identifying the difference there with experience going away.
[00:12:28] David Lee: So how has your progress impacted the way that you actually manage these, uh, this change in generation here?
[00:12:35] Dave Zapata: So I try to, uh. Do or treat the, the guys that work for me the same way or the, the same level of opportunity that I was given, uh, my approach is basically I take the time to learn a task or, or a need, analyze it, you know, get, make sure I have all the information, and then come up with a solution and then implement that [00:13:00] solution.
[00:13:00] Dave Zapata: Uh, so. What I tried to do, you know, in my own career, I spent some time, four years as a laborer on the floor, you know, working on the machines, working on the production line, uh, learning how all that happened. Uh, then I had the opportunity to move up to engineering. Uh, and then, uh, at that level I was learning more of, okay, you know, how do we.
[00:13:27] Dave Zapata: Help the guys in the production line be more effective, more efficient. How can we, you know, um, make their job a little bit easier and less, you know, uh, labor intensive. Then I was given the, the task of, uh, overseeing the mechanical maintenance side of things. So I gave it the same approach. Okay, now how can we make sure we keep the equipment running, you know, for those guys?
[00:13:49] Dave Zapata: So, um, we are like a lot of manufacturers based on incentive, right? So if we produce more, the guys make more money. So how can we make sure that we [00:14:00] stay competitive by allowing those guys to make more with the same amount of time that we have, but allowing 'em to produce a little bit more so they can take a little more home.
[00:14:10] Dave Zapata: Uh, so uptime has been, you know, a crucial part of, of my job once I took over the, uh, mechanical side of things. And then again, learning from that experience. Um. Later on, I, I was asked to manage the electrical, uh, maintenance side of things. So we gave it the same approach and basically decided, okay, let's analyze where we having the problems, which was, you know, uh, obsoleted equipment.
[00:14:39] Dave Zapata: Uh, and then we did another electrical upgrade in, in, uh, 2019. Uh, and that was a very major, um, electrical automation. Upgrade that we did. Okay. Uh, that has allowed us to, again, increase our uptime in the mill and increase our, our throughput, uh, maintaining the same number of guys. [00:15:00]
[00:15:00] Jake Hall: Dave, was that like a, like A-P-L-C-M-C-C modernization where you had like an old panel that had like a one, a lot of one 10 inside, or like a PLC five and you, you upgraded it.
[00:15:09] Jake Hall: What, what did that modernization look like? Correct. So we had
[00:15:12] Dave Zapata: PLCs from 1959. Wow. Okay. We had, uh, we had a rectifier and, uh, what do we call it? A DC board. Uh, if you've ever been to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and you see that board with a big switches that turn on and off and, and contactors that are about, you know, the size of, of a head.
[00:15:35] Dave Zapata: We were using those up till to 2019. Okay. In an area of the plant. Uh, so we went from 1959 technology to, you know, 2020 technology. Um, and it, it was a little bit of a learning process. You know, I'm from a mechanical background, uh, and I was asked to take over the electrical side. So there was a quite a bit of learning that I [00:16:00] had to do, you know, on that side.
[00:16:02] Dave Zapata: To be able to know what our de physicians were and where we needed to make improvements.
[00:16:08] Jake Hall: So did that upgrade or that monetization give you guys better visibility? Did you rule out, like, did you put in HMI screens or any type of a SCADA system along with that process to give you real time visibility on, on what's happening with the equipment?
[00:16:20] Dave Zapata: Correct. Uh, so we basically modernized our, our system and connected the whole Barill. Uh. We have four networks on our bar mill that run the whole operation, uh, virtual machines, HMI, new operator stations, uh, and everything now is connected in, in such a way that I can remotely connect in my office and see if the mill is running, if they have any problems, uh, troubleshooting from right from there, you know, what, what parts of the mill or are having issues with sensors.
[00:16:59] Dave Zapata: All that [00:17:00] kind of stuff. Um, you know, I can log in remotely from this computer and, you know, check how the mill is doing. Yeah. Real realtime,
[00:17:07] Jake Hall: realtime information. You deployed ba Yeah. Basically you guys created a whole to a, a brand new OT network in that 19 nine, uh, 2019, you know, modernization. And that just, that must have just skyrocketed your productivity and reduced your downtime by, by going through that modernization.
[00:17:25] Dave Zapata: Correct? Correct. And then the main goal was obviously. Uh, upgrading the old equipment. We had equipment, uh, again, from 1959 that we couldn't find a single person around that knew how to work on that equipment. Uh, so we, we were kind of figuring things out on our own, but it was getting more and more difficult, you know, parts were getting extremely, you know, difficult to get.
[00:17:52] Dave Zapata: So yeah, it was, it was definitely one of those instances in which we had to upgrade the equipment. Or, or gradually [00:18:00] phase longer and longer periods of downtime.
[00:18:03] David Lee: Yeah. And it's, it's pretty imp impressive and inspiring to see kind of your progress where you've implemented these different projects and you've, you've headed up different, uh, departments and things of that nature.
[00:18:14] David Lee: Uh, so for someone who wants to essentially model after your path and level up like that, what would you give them as advice to kind of follow in your footsteps going from. A summer internship to this thriving career. One
[00:18:29] Dave Zapata: thing that I will definitely recommend with many, you know, especially anybody getting into the field now, a little bit of patience.
[00:18:38] Dave Zapata: Yeah. Um, you know, we have unfortunately a generation that is, uh, very, uh, used to because of the internet and the ability to get information and everything. On the spot, uh, that they wanna get everything right there and, you know, on that, on the, you know, quickly. Right. They don't wanna wait. I [00:19:00] was actually talking to, uh, one of my sons telling him that in order to be able to move up, you have to put that time on the company and build that tenure to be able to say, Hey, you know, I, I can do these.
[00:19:13] Dave Zapata: Yeah. So that is really the, the biggest thing that I will say to, to anybody that is, uh. Starting have a little bit of patience and put the effort, you know, into the work. Um, don't, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. That's really the, the other thing, you know, don't be afraid to, to step in there and don't just learn the book side of things.
[00:19:36] Dave Zapata: Learn you know how it actually works. Put your hands on on the, on things.
[00:19:40] Jake Hall: And I, I think that's a great, good words. I think that's a great transition when we're talking about a third segment, which is the future of factories, uh, we cover a lot of the trends that are happening and really what's happening in the future.
[00:19:52] Voiceover: Meet the future to our futures. What future? The factory. My factory, everybody's factory. I love your [00:20:00] factory. My factory, my
[00:20:02] Jake Hall: walls. When we look at. Dave, the innovations that we're seeing come from the modernization of the workplace. Where, where do you think, you know, from starting out 30 years ago, back in 1994 to now, where you are now, in 2024, you saw new management, you've solved new processes, you've seen old workforces leave and brand new workforces come in to the industry.
[00:20:27] Jake Hall: Where do you think people should be focusing the most when it comes to. Their organization to get the most, I guess, bang outta their buck. When it comes to investment into time,
[00:20:39] Dave Zapata: I think we, we have to focus on two things. One is stay, you know, current with, with equipment and machinery. Uh, and, and that's a difficult one obviously 'cause it's an expensive part, right?
[00:20:52] Dave Zapata: Uh, it's difficult to constantly be upgrading and changing the equipment, but I think it's important to have a certain level [00:21:00] of, of, uh, you know. Being current with your equipment, because obviously once your equipment is obsolete, is it, it's even more difficult to do a major upgrade. Um, and that's a little bit of what we experience on the other side, things have changed.
[00:21:17] Dave Zapata: Uh, we are not, you know, people are not the same way. So we are learning that we have to treat, you know, uh, people a different way. We have to, you know. Ba do a good balance of, of work and personal time. And that's kind of what we're trying to approach it as well going are the days of, you know, working six, seven days a week.
[00:21:40] Dave Zapata: And we used to do that, you know, I, I used to work seven days a week for, you know, years when I started working. A lot of people don't want to do that anymore. So now we're trying to focus on, okay, you know, we work hard for a period of time. We'll let you guys take some time off and. You know, get some some rest and then come back and let's hit it hard again.[00:22:00]
[00:22:00] Dave Zapata: Awesome.
[00:22:01] David Lee: And so obviously, you know, there's been a lot of changes and there's a lot of changes too come that we see coming down the pipeline. So my next question I wanna hear from your perspective, looking down range as time goes, what do you view as the biggest kind of challenges that we're gonna face in the industry when it comes to manufacturing?
[00:22:19] David Lee: And I wanna hear your perspective on, on that, like hurdles and things of that nature. I.
[00:22:23] Dave Zapata: My personal opinion on that, uh, we touched a little bit already on that, is gonna be a workforce that is willing to get their hands dirty. Unfortunately, uh, talking to many, you know, individuals from industry, different industries, um, we are hearing the same thing from, from everybody.
[00:22:44] Dave Zapata: We can find people who want to work and want to get their hands dirty. You know, everybody wants to make money. Um, sitting in an office, and that I think is gonna be our biggest challenge from the manufacturing point of view. [00:23:00] Um, you know, one thing I have been telling, you know, everybody who is willing to listen is the dangers of, you know, uh, offshoring, right?
[00:23:10] Dave Zapata: Sending manufacturing to another place because it's a little cheaper. Uh, but what happens when you close a factory floor, right? You close it, you lose the expertise, you lose the, you lose the experience. Uh, and then if you decide, well, I wanna bring manufacturing back home, uh, you just can't go back and flip the switch and start producing again because you need the people with experience now.
[00:23:34] Dave Zapata: You don't have them anymore. You lo once you lose that experience, it takes years to get back to that same level of, uh, productivity. So I think it's important that we, that we protect that and we try to encourage. The next generation to look for careers in the trades and manufacturing to be able to pass [00:24:00] this knowledge down the line and be able to keep, you know, our country being the powerhouse that it used to be before with manufacturing.
[00:24:09] Dave Zapata: Yeah, I love that.
[00:24:11] David Lee: How have you all in your company been able to retain some of this knowledge and transfer that over? Do you have specific techniques like exit interviews or anything of that nature that you all have been implementing?
[00:24:21] Dave Zapata: Uh, not necessarily. I, I take a very, I, I try to take a very hands-on approach.
[00:24:28] Dave Zapata: Basically. I do spend a lot of time with my guys, uh, on the floor during breakdowns. I'll be down there with them. Uh, if they need some help, I'll be running the equipment with them. So I try to build a relationship with all of my guys, uh, you know, from my supervisors to the guy that just got hired, you know, last week, and, and try to see how they operate, how they work, and try to, you know, basically see where they are best fitted.[00:25:00]
[00:25:00] Dave Zapata: Uh, usually when I interview somebody to hire, I, I tell 'em. You are gonna be working all over the plant for the first few months, because I wanna see where are you best suited for? Are you gonna be a good welder for me? Are you gonna be an electrician, a pie fitter, you know, a machinist? I really wanna know where your best, you know, uh, aptitudes are, and then we try to ex, you know, exploit those.
[00:25:25] Dave Zapata: Try to, you know, make sure that you get everything you can to be the best at that particular, you know, uh, opportunity that you have. Uh, so that, that's kind of what we try to do. We try to make sure that everybody is, is fitted for what they like to do the most,
[00:25:43] David Lee: right? It's like one of those things where you ask someone, uh, you know, what feels light versus what feels heavy, right?
[00:25:50] David Lee: So you can kind of get an idea of what they actually like. And usually our, our desires are correlating to our skill sets in some way, shape, form, or fashion, right? So. Before we say goodbye to [00:26:00] Dave, let's jump into our final segment. Fix it. Funny's fixes in.
[00:26:04] Voiceover: He's making a really funny noise. I'm gonna fix it.
[00:26:07] Voiceover: Make it funny. Would be great if you could make it funny. Your fate is fixed.
[00:26:11] Jake Hall: Makes it funny. Make sure it's funny.
[00:26:14] David Lee: At the start of the episode, Jake asked you. Where you would escape for a much needed vacation. So now we'd like to know, do you have any sort of work hacks, creature comforts, whether it be insoles, whether it be cliff bars, Snickers, Gatorade, things that you use to make your life better and make you more productive.
[00:26:33] Dave Zapata: Oh, that's interesting. Um, so yeah, I mean, personally I, you know, I don't have any specific hack. Uh, but one thing I will say is I do like technology. I do like to use the tools available to, you know, to me and, uh, my coworkers. Uh, so one thing that I like to do, we had actually developed, uh, apps in house. [00:27:00] Um, so we, I, I always try to find a way to eliminate paperwork, right?
[00:27:07] Dave Zapata: So if the guys don't. Are not filling the inspection forms in the morning because again, you have to fill out a form and do all that writing with the, we build an app in-house that the guy now just goes in there and is a check mark to say yes, you know, good, bad, good, bad, good, bad, and digitally sign it.
[00:27:25] Dave Zapata: And now we have an inspection form that no longer has to be sent to HR scanned file and all that stuff. It's done. So I guess that would be my, my thing, I always try to look at how we can. Do things in such a way that the guys are willing to do 'em. You know, try, try to, uh, remove that man. This is too much work, even though it's not, but you know, the, the, the mentality of, Hey, hey, this is a lot of work to do these, try to remove that from, from that, uh, you know, from the aspect of everyday stuff.
[00:27:58] David Lee: Yeah. And I think as a leader, [00:28:00] uh, the, your team seeing that you all are trying to remove as much friction as possible from their lives, uh, from a work perspective, I think that that gives you another level of, uh, rapport with them. Right. So that's, that's really good. With respects to technology, are you all, uh, working on anything implementing, like AI or any more newer, uh, cutting edge technologies that you're implementing there?
[00:28:22] David Lee: So.
[00:28:23] Dave Zapata: It's funny that you asked it because, uh, I've been working on updating our fence post line, uh, but it's been kept on the wraps. Um, so you kind of are the first ones that are hearing about it. Okay. Nice. Exclusively as matter of fact, the first guys, yes, I was in Italy for that specific purpose. I was, uh, inspecting the equipment that will be arriving here in about a month.
[00:28:48] Dave Zapata: Actually no, in about three weeks. Okay. We are gonna be installing new robot line. Um, so we are gonna be replacing, again, some of the labor intensive part of the operation, [00:29:00] uh, with robotics. What, what robot brands are you guys going with? So we are going with this European brand is, uh, Kamau. Okay. Yeah. We have been working, um, with these, um, integrator from Italy.
[00:29:15] Dave Zapata: Uh, and we team up with them in 2019 for the upgrade of the mill. Uh, their specialty is, uh, is a mill equipment, uh, automation, um, but they also have, you know, mechanical equipment and stuff like that. So, uh, we have been working with them since 2019 and it's been an ongoing process. We did something at the end of 20 19, 20 20 during Covid, uh, 2021.
[00:29:40] Dave Zapata: So it was like a multi-phase upgrade of our mill. Um, and now we are moving into a different part of the facility with them to upgrade some of our, you know, other operations. Great. So
[00:29:51] Jake Hall: great. So, you know, if we look at a day, if you weren't in this industry, coming right out of high school, starting, you know, I've been in the industry for 35 [00:30:00] years and you were to, to, to say, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna step aside and do something completely different, what would you get into?
[00:30:06] Dave Zapata: So I guess one thing that I wanted to do, uh, I wanted to join, uh, the Air Force, so I guess, you know, I would, I would've loved to fly.
[00:30:14] Jake Hall: Yeah.
[00:30:14] Dave Zapata: So that, that's probably one thing I would've loved to do, become a pilot and, you know, fly all over the world. So, yes. There
[00:30:21] Jake Hall: you go. That, that, that's a good pick right there.
[00:30:23] David Lee: Yeah. Makes sense. With the travel bug, right. Being able to fly around the world. Yes, yes, absolutely. He
[00:30:29] Jake Hall: can get, he just can get there a lot quicker and on his own. That's right. That's right. Yeah.
[00:30:34] David Lee: Yeah. And speaking of, uh, travel and things like that, uh, are you looking at any sort of content, whether it be around travel or even if it's content around our industry, what type of, uh, things would you be ingesting right now, whether that's podcasts, uh, Netflix series, YouTube channels, et cetera?
[00:30:53] Dave Zapata: Uh, I'll be honest with you, I don't have a whole lot of time for doing much of, uh, much of anything [00:31:00] else. Uh. I, I do a little bit of research online, uh, especially if I'm gonna go visit a new place. I, I do, I'll do a little bit of, you know, uh, Google quite a bit actually, uh, of, of trying to find as much as I can find about, uh, the place I'm gonna visit, you know, what their modes of transportation, you know, places to visit, you know, all that kind of stuff that hopefully makes the experience, you know, much more pleasant once you are, once you're there.
[00:31:30] David Lee: Well, thanks again for coming to the show, Dave. It has been wonderful to have a chat with you. This has been The Maintainers, a Blue Cap Community podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcast as we are on most major platforms, so you will be notified the next time an episode goes live.
[00:31:50] Voiceover: This podcast is brought to you by Tractian. Tractian offers streamlined hardware and software solutions designed to make maintenance more reliable and profitable. [00:32:00] Their AI powered condition monitoring and asset management solution predicts machine failures and unplanned downtime, allowing clients to save an average of $10 million every trimester.
[00:32:11] Voiceover: Its artificial intelligence quarterbacking your maintenance.