Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Continuous Learning and Improvement in the Elevator Business | Joe Bach

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Continuous Learning and Improvement in the Elevator Business | Joe Bach · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just continuing to learn.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've been here for almost 12 years now, but I can tell you there's so much more for me to learn, so many more people to meet, different organizations to get involved in in the industry.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it I think it's just continuing to take it day by day and make sure that we're providing superior customer service and continuing to get better internally.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry, to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are talking with Joe Bach, who is Vice President of Field Operations at the Minnesota Elevator, also known as MEI.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Joe is going on his 12th year with MEI and currently oversees half of the field operations business, which covers six states and seven different IUET locals.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whether working in the field or in the industry, Joe believes the elevator industry is a challenging but rewarding business that is rich with opportunities.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Joe, welcome to the show.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for having me, Matt.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we've known each other for a while.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a lot of conversations, but I'm excited to just dig in a little deeper to your career and also learn a little bit more about MEI.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious, how did you get started in the elevator industry?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's uh, you know, when I when I think about getting started in the elevator industry, I think that um I think that anybody that's worked in the industry, whether it's in the field or in the office, knows that, you know, family ties are are really strong within this trade, especially within the trade.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um and for me, it's it's not uh it's not that path.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't go that route.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have, you know, a dad or a brother or an uncle or a grandpa that was a mechanic um or wherever worked in the field.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um for me, you know, coming out of college, you know, I graduated in 2008 from uh from Minnesota State here in Mankato, and I never would have thought that uh I would end up in the elevator industry.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think really anybody would ever think that unless you've got some sort of family connection.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh graduating college, I actually worked in the the finance and the mortgage mortgage industry uh for a for a period of time.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: The uh the institution that I work for ended up uh going through a merger with another company.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and our division was was effectively closed and um wanted to stay in the finance industry, especially with mortgages.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: I had I had kind of grown to uh to like that that type of work.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um I had a position lined up here in Mankato with another company and um went through the interview process, had accepted the job.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: I had a start date and um I received a call from from uh Mark Iverson here at uh at MEI.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I had uh I had submitted uh uh an application, my resume for a sales position for our national sales department.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And Mark had called and asked if uh if I would want to uh sit down and have an interview.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember one thing that sticks out in my mind when I think about MEI in the early days, especially when I was I was looking at coming over here, was I looked at the website that we had.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the website at the time, um, in my opinion, um was was not good.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um it not a lot of information.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was hard to navigate.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously I didn't know elevators, but I thought to myself, I I said, you know what, let's just go, let's go meet with them, let's sit down, have a conversation, um, kind of see where it leads.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And really during my my initial interview, um, I started feeling more and more comfortable with the culture and kind of the, you know, what I was learning about the industry, very brief at the time.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and here I am today.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: I I I ended up starting with MEI in 2010 and I'm I'm going on 12 years with the company now.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of uh don't really know how to explain what what was the draw, it sounds like, but but ultimately it's just getting to know the people.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I I remember um, you know, I remember my my interview process and I interviewed with a panel of individuals here.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um my first supervisor at MEI, her name was Bern Beckman, she's still with us today.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um Byrne had made a comment to me that she said, once you get in this, in this line of work in the elevator industry, you're gonna look at elevators differently.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and I I asked her what she meant by that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, you know, when you when you get in an elevator, you're gonna look at the capacity, you're gonna look at who the manufacturer was, you're gonna look at what the what the ceiling's made out of, what kind of buttons, um, how do the doors operate, you know.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Man, this thing takes a long time to level, stuff like that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always remembered uh Byrne saying that to me.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And she was 100% right.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime that I get in an elevator now, um, I'm looking at those things.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you you get in an elevator with your friends and you're looking at stuff, and you always you always get the jokes and the wise cracks from your friends about, hey, what type elevator is this?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, the passion for the elevators, um, it's really for me, it's a passion for not only the elevators, but just the industry in general, uh, with the types of relationships that I've made and and you know, learning from a lot of different people.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious, what was your initial response when she said that?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Was it was it kind of like, what are you talking about?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how did that get you?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, uh, obviously I'm in an interview, so um I I I kind of just said, you know, okay, but in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, like, all right, you know, I I I really have no idea what she's talking about.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she's talking about um all these different components of the elevator.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And for me at the time, um, I kind of just nodded my head and said, okay, and we moved on.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: But um absolutely, I think about that conversation that we had all the time.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, my my other question is when did you realize you had a passion for elevators and for the industry and the work you did?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um again, I think I think you know, the the learning curve in this industry is very steep.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's very steep because um of all the different makes and models and vintages.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you you never never often do you look at the same situation.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you come across the same types of elevators all the time, but um they're in different types of environments, um, different different conditions.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they've been modded, different things like that.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think, I think for me, um the passion for for elevators in general is is more so just based on, again, like I said, just the I thrive and I I I I'm stimulated by learning.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: And in this industry, learning is constant.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't think that I'll ever know um everything that a lot of our mechanics know.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: They've probably forgotten more information that I'll ever than I'll ever learn.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I think I think really it's just the variety and uh the variation day to day um with you know with what we work with.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, cool.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: How long before you from the time you started until you were like, yeah, I made the right choice?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did it take a while?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um probably more of a testament here to to MEI and the culture, but um instantly when I came to MEI, um I could I could feel uh a change in in the type of culture.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously um coming from finance industry and and and banking and mortgages, um, the culture is very different.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And when I came to MEI and you know, we're talking about uh continuous improvement and you know, we're trying to do the right thing for the customer and and really help educate our customers and and help them navigate through you know the roadmap of success for you know the type of equipment that they have or the type of equipment they're looking for.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for me, um, I fell in love with that.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, it it really didn't take long, to be honest with you, Matt.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say has really contributed to your success?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you talked about the this leak steep learning curve.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there's obviously a lot to do to you know to get in and yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um my success here at MEI, you know, I I it's it's been learning from a lot of different people.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um when I started at MEI, I started as a national sales rep, international sales side of the company.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I was quoting um, I was quoting elevator packages and components to our our national sales customers, other elevator contractors that would install our product.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and from there I went uh I made a a quick change into field operations after about six months.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so I started working out in the field more with mechanics and doing surveys for uh for new elevators, for modernizations, for repairs.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and really, I, you know, I was a kid, you know, a couple of years out of college, and I was going and looking at this equipment, really not knowing what I was looking at, and um, you know, jumping on tops of elevators and riding with our mechanics and looking at equipment, doing surveys, stuff like that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I I learned so much from the mechanics that I worked with, um, from different sales reps and project managers, um, our engineering team, so many people here have helped me.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not only that, but uh, you know, for me as I guess for me in general as a person, um never wanting to get complacent or or lose the edge per se.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I said, I I'm stimulated by learning and and by challenge, you know, getting challenged.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And um obviously here, you know, there's so much to learn in this trade.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what kind of keeps me going is just wanting to continuously learn and and um never get comfortable.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any particular mentors that you felt like, wow, that person really made an impact?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, um that's uh that is a tough question for me to answer.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, for me to for me to pinpoint one, two, or three individuals here, um, it'd be super, super hard to come up with those names.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many different people that come to mind when you ask me that question.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um again, for me, it's just it's it's a lot of the mechanics that I learned from.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um our mechanics here at MEI and with a lot of elevator companies, I mean, they're the face of the company.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're the lifeblood of our success, you know, for for field operations account managers, you know, they keep the recommendations coming in.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: So absolutely um a lot of mechanics have helped me along the way.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our leadership team here has been has been absolutely pivotal too throughout the years.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, I I can remember when I was new to the company, and certain members of our leadership team would uh would kind of pull me into their office and and show me information and talk about org structure, talk about strategy, um, give me a little bit more insight on you know what they thought, where the company was headed, things like that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I'd like to think that maybe they saw some potential in me and and took me under their wing.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I really appreciate that.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a lot of individuals here at MEI that have helped me out.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I I do want to talk a little bit about MEI.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've been a little fascinated because I know as as I've talked to people around the country, you know, at times they'll say, Oh, yeah, I know MEI and they make good, you know, equipment.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: But then if I say, you know, they also run you know branches and do service, and they're like, What?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do they, you know, they they didn't understand that.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious, how did a MEI get started?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then what was it that uh I guess led them into both having service branches and manufacturing?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so MEI got started.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um MEI was started back in 1971 by John Robness.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um John is our our our founder, our CEO.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and prior to that, um, John worked for John worked for Otis.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: He started with Otis Elevator in the Twin Cities in 1962.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: John worked for Otis for about two and a half years.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And after Otis, he had some some uh he uh he had some brief stints with Westinghouse, uh with Lagerclick Lagerquist along the way.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually he ended up with a company called RR Elevator, which he worked for for about uh for about six years.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: John did service with RR Elevator um out of the Twin Cities, and part of John's service route was um every month he would dip down in kind of southeast Minnesota, he would touch Rochester, Winona, and then he would swing over to Mankato.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And when John was when John was thinking about starting a family and kind of getting the family started, he really wanted to raise the family um out in the country.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, and anybody knows that where MEI is located, our headquarters, you know, we're out we're out in the country, kind of out in the middle of the cornfields out here.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a unique location.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh in 1971, John decided to to pack the family up and and move down to Mankato.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he sold his house in the cities and and took the cash and rented a farmhouse down here at the site where our headquarters is still located.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um and started really knocking on doors and and and doing service and and acquiring service contracts and kind of getting it set up uh from that point on.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, John, when John left RR, he did have a great relationship with them and uh and still did some, he did some installations down here around the Mankato area as well for R.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So starting with service, starting out of a farmhouse in the middle of the country, um, how did how did you get or you mei get into you know the custom engineered solutions that you provide today?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: When did the, I guess, you know, manufacturing become part of that picture?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, really um manufacturing kind of got really hot and heavy um in the early 90s.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but as far as the actual start, um, it was it was around 1974.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, John always had a knack for for building.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, in 1974 started getting more involved in, you know, remodels and doing some a little bit larger elevator repairs along with the service business that he had.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: So he would buy steel locally, um, you know, and had a facility on the farm site, you know, where he could drill holes and weld and and you know, really looked at existing elevator designs and and was interested in in you know getting that going uh himself.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, John's brother Earl was actually with Westinghouse at the time.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and um knew that John was kind of dabbling in the manufacturing side of things, had it had an interest in doing that.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and with Westinghouse, um Earl had some opportunities where they had some some POH elevators purchased out of house, and and he flipped a few opportunities to to John and said, Hey, why don't you take a look at some of these and see if you know, see if you might be interested in helping us out or building a package or building these piece parts for us.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so John ended up doing that.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and his first one of his first projects was a little freight elevator that uh that he worked on that was actually down in down in Iowa.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and over time, Earl and John continued to have this partnership for these, you know, these types of elevators that Westinghouse wasn't going to supply.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, John wasn't really marketing the the manufacturing side of MEI at the time back there in the mid-70s.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um Earl was, you know, Earl was coming to him and and Earl eventually kind of communicated and got the word out to different regional people with Westinghouse that, hey, you know, John, John's got this capability to do this.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's really kind of how the really kind of how it got started back in the early days.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um like I said, in the 90s, um, you know, the the the late 80s, early 90s when the construction mod was really starting to pick up.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's when MEI kind of migrated back into the twin cities and started attacking some of those opportunities.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and today, um, you know, today we're at around 300 employees and you know, we're manufacturing about 500 elevator packages per year.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously the the manufacturing side is big, but then you you've also got uh remind me, I know you've you've mentioned that you know, multiple states that you're doing, you know, the the service repair, the uh mod, you've you've got uh your teams going, remind me that what those states are.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we've we're involved, we've got offices in six different states.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um we are in obviously Minnesota.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and with Minnesota, you know, we cover the eastern Dakotas, western Wisconsin, northern, northern Iowa.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we're in Minnesota, we're in the state of Michigan.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have an operation, our newest operation is down in in St.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Louis.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was an organic startup that we started back in 2017.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're also um down in the Kansas City Springfield areas, out in out in Colorado, around Denver, um, and then the state of Wisconsin itself, too.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: So um currently we're we're around 9,000 units on service.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh every one of those markets that we're in, you know, we we kind of cover all the field operations, uh business units as far as service repair, construction, modernization.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um so sorry, I was uh I was told by by one of your uh I I guess just a not a not a colleague necessarily, but another gentleman in the uh elevator industry about the Barclay Center in New York and in Brooklyn, I guess, specifically.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um I didn't know it at the time that that MEI actually made the elevators that are lifting and um semi-trucks, entire trucks or or buses.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um did you get a chance to work on that?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what what do you know about the that project?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, um when I when I think about probably some more of our more notable projects, I mean that that one is is probably uh top three, if not the number one, um project that that I've been around for.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I didn't necessarily work on that project.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: We were kind of in the midst of that project when I first started at MEI, but it was a it was a uh a high profile job for us and and heard about it a lot.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh yeah, the Barclays Center job, um it's uh two 80,000-pound semi-lifts um in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn where the nets play.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um we started that project back in June of 2010 and really worked on that uh throughout, you know, 2010, 2011, 2012, and then kind of did some support um, you know, after it was installed and during the installation.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um the uh kind of the kind of the whole premise with those elevators is you know, where the you've got team buses coming in for NBA games, there's obviously different events, concerts, circuses, different, you know, different events that are held at the Barclays Center.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um you're in downtown Brooklyn, parking is an issue, especially for semis and team buses.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we worked on uh worked on that project with Otis.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And really what it is is um when a team bus approaches the center, um, we built an elevator that they can essentially drive onto uh from ground level.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's uh it's about 30 some feet of travel.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: It lowers the bus, lowers the semis down to the event level, uh to the arena level.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the buses are able to pull out onto a turntable.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the players get off, they go play the game, the event happens, they they shower, get back on the buses, and it actually can spin the bus around so they're able to pull back onto the elevators, raise the um, raise the buses or the semis up, and they're able to pull off uh, you know, onto the street level and leave.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: So there's two of them in there um to kind of you know help control the flow of traffic.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, they're uh they're they're enormous cars.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've got a few pictures around MEI.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um they were too big to actually set up in our plant, and so we set them up outside during the summer.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um there's some pictures around MEI of all of our employees that are headquartered in Mankato here standing on the platform, and there's there's still room on both sides of the group.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: So uh very unique, very unique jobs.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um one fun fact, you know, that I always remember from from hearing about that job is the specification actually called for the elevators to be able to um move elephants.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, yeah.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of a kind of a neat uh a neat project to work on, and and definitely there's a lot of a lot of uh information you can find about those projects on the internet.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, they interviewed some NBA players about it, and uh guys like Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade had some pretty neat comments.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely a fun project to be part of.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I mean I was wondering about the specification.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how do you how do you even go and you know create that without a pretty creative mind, but also knowing that whoever you give it to is going to come through.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what impressed me is that right came through and and uh it's working.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you mentioned that's one of the top tell me about maybe one other high profile or or maybe one of the crazier projects.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: you've seen come through.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, um another one that another one that comes to mind for me that I was actually involved in, we have a we have a college in Minnesota that we that's a service customer of ours.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh the College of St.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Benedict's it's in central Minnesota.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um they have a stage lift in their performing arts center.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um so the stage lift is um roughly 45 feet wide and it's about a it's a uh it's a half moon shape.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: And this half moon shape actually there's two sections that raise and lower.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So St.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Ben's called us up um we went up there and took a look at the existing stage and they were having some issues with the hydraulic jacks settling on that project on that on that existing stage.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: So what it would do is it'd create a lip in the middle of the stage and so you've got people walking or moving furniture you you you're having you know events or plays and people can trip over it.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: So um they called us up and we we had a team of individuals that went up there and took a look at that project and um what we did is we ended up we ended up building some shoring and we shored that stage up and had a team of elevator mechanics go in and remove the hydraulic jacks and um there was four jacks on the on the main section and two jacks on the smaller section.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we took all the jacks out and um our plan was to go back in with hydraulic jacks.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: But one of our mechanics that uh that actually does service up on in that area of the state um had another performing arts uh theater on his service route and uh knew that that that stage lift had screw jacks in it.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: So he recommended that we go with screw jacks.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so we ended up uh we ended up putting a screw jack system in to raise and lower both sections of that stage.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that I remember from that project is after we had torn out the hydraulic jacks um we had gotten just a ton of rain that summer and it was it was raining every single week and uh we actually had rainwater come up through the holes and that pit of that stage flooded we must have had you know we must have had two to three feet of water in that pit.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was a it was a very complicated project a lot of moving parts um you know and obviously MEI you know our niche is is is custom stuff but we don't do stage lifts every single day either so um it was a learning experience for everybody but it it turned out great um and uh the college has a has a great product a great stage lift that's gonna last for years awesome awesome thank you uh so i'm curious what what makes me i different from other other elevator companies i'm obvious obviously it's not uh you know as big as some of the the majors but how would you answer that one you know um probably you know probably an answer that you'd get from a lot of people but uh it's 100% true i think i really think it's our people that we've got um we have a tremendous amount of talent here both in the field with our mechanics the experience that they have um to you know inside with our our our plant the things that those guys are able to do in the plant our engineering horsepower we have is is um is mind blowing here the things that we're able to do um I like to think that MEI can do a lot of things that other companies maybe um aren't willing to do don't want to do or simply can't do um whether it's odd shapes and sizes it's round glass cars it's uh heavy freight cars uh certain types of applications like that um and then as far as you know the field operations side of the business goes that the you know the one constant that remains with us is um we do what we say we're gonna do um and do we make mistakes absolutely but um you know when we tell a customer that you know we're gonna be there to do service every single month or every single quarter um it's important to us to make sure that our guys show up um that the customers see us on site that they see us doing service that you know we're we're putting our customers first so um really just the people and and some of the values that we have and and a just a desire to continuously get better every day.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Cool cool and you talked a little bit at the beginning about the culture um how would you describe it I mean I've you like I say you've you've referenced it a little bit but how would you yeah you know um MEI is a family owned company um you know we're we're an Aesop um the Romnus family owns 70% of the company and the 30 the uh the employees own 30.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: um we are growing we're evolving um and we know we have to change with with times and evolve and and continue to um to get better and get sharper but the one uh the one thing that hasn't changed is you know we still have um you know we still have that that family feel um the culture here hasn't changed so much that um it's not a place that you want to come to every day um with the people we have and the relationships we have here it's it's uh it's fantastic you know some of the things that that I think are unique with MBI and the culture is I can leave my office um probably right now and there's there's a we're in the middle of our annual beanbag tournament here at the office so we got beanbags flying our out in the lunchroom um I think we're finishing up a cribbage tournament so there's just a lot of unique things that uh MEI does for the employees.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know and when we talk about culture you know our our culture in general and everything we do is is based off of continuous improvement.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: We have a continuous improvement program here that's been around since I've been at MEI.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what we do is you know we ask our employees for a certain number of of personal for team improvements every single year.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: We encourage them to do random acts of kindness uh volunteer their not only their time but um any extra money that they're able to give so um we have recognition trips for people that meet these improvement uh meet these improvement uh goals so just uh a lot of a lot of other things besides elevators um that make this a a great place to work that's cool and i and I did notice a uh a little video on your website about uh giving to the community and you know it sounds like you were kind of describing that that the company actually encourages and and promotes that within absolutely yep absolutely um in the last couple of years here we've we've um really put a a greater focus on the community outreach and um you know we have a we have uh a learn give do um um campaign per se that uh you know that all of our employees are getting involved in you know we have um insight trips that uh our employees take twice per year we're involved with uh the Christian Appalachian project down in Kentucky so every every year uh we send two groups of employees um a couple groups in the spring and a couple groups in the fall down to Kentucky and we help the the folks down there um you know remodel their houses or fix issues um obviously there's there's different situations all over the world but uh and we're involved in many different types of organizations that help get back um but yeah that's that's one thing that comes to mind when I think of that.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I always like to um I guess ask a question you know it's a careers podcast.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious what what are some of the challenges you see with with staffing?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are there um any particular jobs that you have a hard time finding talent for um you know staffing in general that that is a tough one and I think that's one that that a lot of you know a lot of companies deal with um especially today um you know the elevator elevator trade the uh the industry is very competitive um you know not only with mechanics um um out in the field but uh you know just finding individuals that you know kind of want to take that leap um and and learn about elevators you know um one area that that comes to mind is you know I I keep talking about the the learning curve with um learning all the different aspects to the trade um hiring account managers you know um sales is sales but sales in the elevator industry is a little different um you know you you need to know what you're talking about it's important that you understand the equipment it's important that you're able to to put it in terms for our customers to understand um you know not not all of our customers are experts on elevator equipment and and I remember when I came to the trade I didn't know what a door give was you know so trying to explain that on a daily basis to our customers um can be a bit of a challenge but um certainly you know certainly sales positions um comes to mind uh especially with field operations so that's probably one of them for me cool yeah yeah so as we as we wrap up I got just a couple more questions for you and my one of my questions is you you talked about growth and the way that the MEI is continuing to invest in employees but what would you say the future looks like for you and and for MEI?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know for for MEI in general for us really it's all about taking care of our customers um you know I I I'd like to tell you that we have some grandiose three, five, 10 year plan, but we we we really don't um we want to continue to take care of our customers uh make sure that they're happy obviously the lights wouldn't be on right now and the doors wouldn't be open if we didn't have customers.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's continuing to provide that great service uh making sure that we educate them provide a roadmap for their success um you know with field operations customers service customers and again a national sales um you know for me in general I think it's just continuing to learn um you know I've I've been here for almost 12 years now but I can tell you there's so much more for me to learn so many more people to meet um different organizations to get involved in in the industry um so it I think it's just continuing to to take it day by day and make sure that we're providing superior customer service and continuing to get better internally.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool thank you and if there's one thing you feel like you've learned in those 12 years that you'd like to share with listeners, what would it be?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: What's that magic bullet, if you will magic bullet um you know um being a being a younger um a younger person in the industry you know I I think one thing that I would say to you know to anybody that is you know coming out of college or looking for a career to get into I I would definitely look at the the elevator industry whether it's the trade um or or just being you know involved in the business side of it.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know as we move forward here a significant number of our mechanics nationwide are going to be retiring and there's opportunities to to get involved in a trade that uh is rewarding and and challenging um but then internally too you know um you know elevators like I said the elevators aren't going anywhere we're gonna have to continue going up um there's only so much land out there so um definitely it's it's a it's a unique trade and it's something that I don't think a lot of a lot of kids coming out of school or thinking about going to college think of.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I would I would encourage people to to take a look at the elevator industry.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then again for me um kind of the common theme for me in my career is is continuous growth uh personal growth and development and really never losing that edge always challenging yourself and learning to be uncomfortable and and uh getting better very cool very cool so last question I'll ask then if if there was one thing that you would love to see more of in the elevator industry what would it be um you know I I think um that's a great question Matt um you know one thing that one thing that we struggle with a little bit here and and you know it's it's it's ever evolving is um you know we struggle with um proprietary equipment we struggle with proprietary equipment from the OEMs learning how to work on that equipment the diagnostics different things like that um it would be great if um you know there was a there was a an avenue to get uh more in tune on that we rely heavily on our mechanics across the company um heavily on the knowledge a lot of our mechanics came from other from other companies and they bring that knowledge over but uh definitely a way to to become more in tune with that and and be able to uh to work on that equipment uh to better serve our customers very cool joe thank you so much it's been a blast talking with you I've enjoyed it very much yay thanks a lot thanks for having me I appreciate it thank you and have a great day you too bye bye thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast sponsored by the All Red Group a leader in elevator industry recruiting you can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net please subscribe and until next time stay safe