Andrew Logie is celebrating 25 years working at Heinrich Georg UK Limited, one of the UK’s leading custom-built process line machinery and test rig manufacturers.
Andrew joined Georg as a shop floor machinist when the company was originally based in Bilston. His father also worked at Georg as a welder. Andrew has experienced all areas of the business and is now Operations Manager at their UK headquarters at Dunstall Hill Estate in Wolverhampton.Andrew is responsible for operational management of the company’s projects and liaises with both clients and colleagues regarding logistics and engineering issues. His most notable project was managing the move of 100+ test rigs for Moog Aerospace when they transferred their operations to the i54 technology business park near Wolverhampton.
Over the last 25 years Andrew has seen a shift in UK manufacturing. He explains: “We’re working in an age where traditional maintenance teams are few and far between and with a decline in the number of people entering the engineering sector, the skills and knowledge that was traditionally held within a company is being lost as staff retire with no-one bridging the gap.”
One of Andrew’s biggest challenges is managing client expectations for the production and engineering of replacement parts when a machine has broken down. With bearings, gearboxes and motors no longer manufactured in the UK, plus the ramifications of Brexit, the timescale to obtain replacement parts will be even longer.
Whilst Georg manufacture bespoke parts for both Georg and OEM machines, it is time consuming work recreating a replacement part and fully testing it – time a firm doesn’t have when their machine has broken down. Georg offer additional support to clients through Line Risk Assessments to identify which parts are strategically critical as well as Remote Monitoring of machines to help identify potential defects before they occur.
What does Andrew loves most about his job? “That there’s always something different to do; I’m never doing the same thing twice!”
