Hi Wycher, you joined Brunel seven years ago as a maintenance specialist. Tell us, what did you study to become a maintenance engineer?
I completed a bachelor's degree in construction management in 2007, but unfortunately, due to the construction crisis in the Netherlands at that time, many of the major construction firms were not hiring. As a result, I had to seek employment in other fields, and that's how I began my career in mechanical engineering and maintenance. Although it was not the path I had originally planned, it ultimately led to a positive outcome.
For some people, the term specialist may still be unclear. Would you mind explaining what a Brunel specialist does?
Sure! as the name suggests, a specialist is someone with specialised knowledge or expertise in a particular field. When you're hired as a specialist at Brunel, you have the opportunity to apply your expertise by working on diverse projects. Brunel collaborates with numerous prominent clients across multiple industries, and as a specialist, you provide support to these clients for a specific period and work on-site at their premises.
During your time at Brunel, you completed various projects and collaborated with clients from the energy and food production industries. Could you provide additional information about these projects?
In my first project, I worked as a maintenance planner, providing support in developing maintenance schedules and coordinating with technicians to ensure the timely completion of maintenance tasks on the Dutch natural gas infrastructure. During my second project, I worked at the first LNG import terminal in the Netherlands and helped to establish a more structured maintenance organization. After that, I worked as a maintenance engineer at two power plants- one powered by biomass and one by natural gas. With my fourth client, I worked on integrating a biogas plant into an asset management system, trained junior engineers, and provided guidance on improving compliance, managing risk, and increasing efficiency. In my fifth project, I transformed the maintenance structure of the client by overhauling their maintenance procedures and eliminating waste. Currently, in my project at a global coffee and tea company, I am serving as an advisor in addition to my engineering duties. Not only am I standardizing their use of the asset management system, but I am also completely transforming their maintenance organization by implementing new procedures, providing training and coaching to their team leaders, maintenance engineers, and maintenance planners.
