Meet the team- Andrew Williams
Position: Engineering Manager
Likes: Golf and Walking
How long have you been working with BAW? Since 1988, so 34 years this January.
What is your favourite thing about working for BAW? It was originally, and still is, run as a family type business. Everybody knows everybody, we've got a long standing workforce. We’re close knit, we all get on and are good with each other.
How did you get to this position? What has been your journey? When I started with BAW back in 1988 I was a Tool Maker working on the shop floor. An opportunity arose when we took work off a company that went bust, and I used to work for that company, so I knew that type of work and I had the opportunity to go into designing tools for an automotive company. I did that for a few years, then progressed onto a Shop Floor Supervisor and I then followed a role engineering manager along his path. So I was a Tool Maker, a Shop Floor Supervisor, then a sort of Shop Floor Manager, and now Engineering Manager.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in this industry? I would say you’ve always got to start at an apprentice level. When you’re an apprentice listen to what all your peers tell you and take it all in, that is the main objective because that’s where you start.
How would your colleagues describe you? Grumpy! No, hardworking. Grumpy but hardworking and prepared to put the time in whenever needed.
What’s one thing your career with BAW has taught you? I would say the person who taught me the most is the person I’ve followed through my career, who is Phillip...who is sitting out there. He has taught me the most, and he is still teaching me.
Can you tell us about a positive customer/ client experience? The positive customer experiences are when we get good feedback after we’ve done a project and we’ve produced it on time and we get just a simple email saying thank you for what we’ve done.
Can you tell us about one job you’ve worked on that stood out for you? Originally it would have to be BorgWarner, the first fully automated assembly line we did which was for a gearbox transfer line.. I worked on that quite a lot. And that was a very good experience because we had to use all our knowledge and technologies to get that job.
How has the industry changed since you’ve been working here? The industry has changed drastically, because when I first started, as a typical example, BAW had one CNC machine and 20/30+ manual machines. Now we’ve gone through the stages of technology developments and we now have one or two manual machines, and 30-40 CNC machines, so that’s been the biggest development, the use of CNC machines.
How do you see the industry changing in the next 10 years? It’s obviously going to continue with the CNC development, but I think more 3D printing. That will become a major part of the industry; the use of 3D printing is progressing all the time and it’s only a matter of time before they get the steel 3D printing a lot more developed.