Technical Service Expansion - Focus on customer satisfaction

Technical Service Expansion

Focus on customer satisfaction

SMALL COMPANY RELATIONSHIPS, BIG COMPANY BACKING

At USNR, supporting our customers is a big deal. We recognize that wood processors need a strong level of service from their vendors, and this is an important consideration when choosing who to do business with. USNR has grown rapidly over the years. We want to ensure customers still receive the personalized support that we developed as a smaller company.

To this end we’ve developed regional service teams in North America that our customers in those regions will come to know well. With regional service teams we believe we will be able to provide customers faster response time, and allow us to maintain reasonable service rates, while putting known faces in your plant to assist you with scheduled, as well as critical service support. Our goal is to have USNR be your first choice for capital investments and aftermarket support by providing a level of service that is the benchmark in our industry.

To help you get to know the Regional Service Manager for your region, following is a brief profile on each. Each Regional Service Manager and their respective teams will be responsible for all service, support and startups in their regional areas. If you don’t know them already, you will soon become acquainted as they work to support your USNR systems.

Keith Epp brings over 22 years of experience to his new role as Regional Service Manager for Western Canada, based at Salmon Arm, BC.

Keith’s wealth of experience comes from employment at USNR acquisitions like Kockums Can-Car, Newnes Machine, CAE Newnes and Coe Newnes/McGehee, as well as other industry suppliers. Keith has been with USNR for the past 5 years.

Prior to his work in this industry, Keith worked as a mechanic in the aircraft industry, machinist, millwright and welder, and gained education through a variety of college and university engineering and business programs.

With such a broadly diverse background, Keith has performed roles at USNR that range from machine fitter, mechanical field service technician and outsource coordinator, to project manager, product line manager and now Regional Service Manager.

“I really want to develop the Western Canadian service team to focus on supporting our customers in a dedicated and professional manner. We’ve always tried to do that, but I believe that as a smaller team focused on one region, we can work as a more cohesive unit to that end. To accomplish this, I want to develop a strong collaboration within our USNR departments, with the end goal for each member to achieve 100% customer satisfaction,” Keith explained.

When Keith has an opportunity away from work he’s a true outdoorsman. He is currently working to develop a fishing resort near Bella Coola, up the coast of BC.

A service and installation team works to install a new dry kiln.

Milton Stahmer is the new Regional Service Manager for the US South region, based at Jacksonville, Florida.

Milton came to USNR through the Inovec acquisition, now with over 20 years of tenure. Milton has a BS in Forest Management, with a minor in Business from Northern Arizona University. He also studied a variety of technologies through individual courses that covered electricity, electronics, PLC controls, hydraulics and pneumatics, and sawmill quality control. Before starting his career at Inovec, he worked for 18 years in the wood products industry at Gulf Lumber and Southwest Forest Industries.

In his career at USNR his roles have encompassed project manager, service manager, production manager, facility manager and operations manager.

“I’m excited about helping to design a cohesive service organization to best support our customers. I want to strengthen our relationships with our customers, and expand our presence throughout the US South region,” Milton explained.

Moving from being the Operations Manager in Eugene to Jacksonville will bring new adventures for Milton and his wife. He says, “Being new to Jacksonville and Florida, we look forward to exploring the area. In addition, being on the east coast we will be closer to family and I can pursue genealogy, studying and travelling to historical areas, and pampering our Greyhound.”

A new sorter is underway courtesy of a service and installation team.

Renald Julien has taken on the role of Regional Service Manager for Eastern Canada and North Eastern US.

Renald comes to this role with a wealth of knowledge about sawmill operation and the industry, having worked at several mills and for other equipment vendors for many years, as well as formal education. He has worked for USNR for one year, starting in 2017.

In 1986 he earned a degree as a forest technologist specialized in wood processing, from the College de L’Abitibi-Témiscamingue at Rouyn- Noranda, north west of Montreal, Quebec. After graduation he went to work at several mills where he performed the roles of lumber grader, quality control, process optimization technician, and production supervisor.

Renald also worked for another equipment manufacturer as Sawmill Process Specialist where he developed training material and training programs for customers. In that role he built a team of Wood Process Specialists to support customers’ training activities, to work with software engineers to develop features to meet customer needs, to test performances of each optimization system and upgrade, to assist project managers to scope projects, to perform acceptance tests with customers to close capital projects, and to provide technical assistance to the customers after projects were closed.

In 2006-07 he went back to school and acquired a certificate in project management at HEC University of Montreal. Upon completion, Renald took on several roles at a hardwood sawmill as optimization technician, project manager, electrical supervisor, maintenance supervisor, operations manager, and maintenance manager.

Renald’s plans for his new role at USNR include the following. “I want to contribute to advancing USNR’s presence with sawmills in our region, bringing professional assistance and technical support at a high level, to help customers meet their performance targets. I look forward to working with my team to build a strong unit that will inspire each member to achieve their career aspirations.

Renald’s life away from work includes hunting, fishing, and ATV and snowmobile riding. He also enjoys home renovations, and social activities with friends.

Tom Chambers is the new Regional Service Manager for the US West region, based at Eugene, Oregon.

Tom’s career at USNR, like Milton’s, came through the Inovec acquisition, and he has been employed with USNR since 1999.

Tom’s tenure at USNR has been in the Technical Service field throughout his 19+ years, first as Field Service Engineer and then Field Service Manager. Tom gained his technical background through the US Navy, as a Navy Electronics Technician for 9 years before starting with Inovec.

Tom says, “I really want to focus on customer relations. I plan to increase contact with our customers through enhanced phone support, onsite service visits and training our customers to get the most value from their installed equipment. Putting greater focus on cross training our team members will allow our service engineers to grow their knowledge base. In turn, this will provide customers the opportunity to have multiple machines serviced by a single engineer, increasing the efficiency and cost of our support services.”

Another role that is close to Tom’s heart, is his role as father to 3 children. Much of his off-work time is devoted to their schooling and sports.

Jason Corkle is the Corporate Service Manager for USNR. He is based at Salmon Arm, BC.

Jason’s tenure in the wood processing world began while he was still in high school, working at a local mill part-time. After high school he continued full-time, working his way through most of the processes in both green and dry operations. His last job at the mill was as a certified lumber grader.

Choosing to improve his education, he took a Robotics and Automation course at BC Institute of Technology, then worked at a lithium ion battery plant for a time.

Jason started his career at USNR with the Newnes organization, in 1998. He was initially hired as an optimization field service technician, and spent 5 years in that role. He moved on to managing optimization upgrades, and then to managing the company’s 7/24 service support group. These roles were performed throughout the company’s transition from Newnes, to CAE Newnes, and to Coe Newnes/McGehee prior to the USNR acquisition in 2008. At the time of the acquisition, Jason was in charge of the entire service team including equipment for both solid wood and engineered wood processing sectors.

In 2008 when USNR took over the company’s operations, Jason accepted the role of manager for customer service based from the Salmon Arm division. In 2016 he took on the role he holds today, Corporate Service Manager over all sectors.

Jason explains the reason for setting up the regional teams within the USNR service network. “We created regional teams to better support our customers. USNR has grown dramatically over the past decade, and one of the biggest struggles we’ve had is customers are sometimes confused about who they should contact when they need service, and where that support will come from.” He continued, “Our goal is to develop a small company feel within a larger organization, for customers. We want to foster closer relationships between customers and the team members in their region, and offer them support that resides in the same time zone they are in.”

Jason described some other benefits customers will enjoy from this organizational change. “Having regional teams will mean we can deploy service technicians that will arrive much sooner than before, and customers will not have to incur as much in the way travel costs, so we will be able to keep costs lower. Another goal is to cross train our team members on all the equipment USNR manufactures, so each team will be able to service the broad range of equipment we offer.”

When he has time off work Jason is an active dad to his 16-year-old son, and enjoys dirt biking and hiking, among other outdoor activities.