Dispatch from an engineering colleague in Austria
Hans-Jürgen Wappel is a team leader in project engineering at Bühler in Leobendorf in Austria and has been with the company for 26 years. His curiosity brought him into engineering, and he says he is the most satisfied when he sees the project he is working on come to life on the shop floor.
Julia Lyubova, November 30, 2021
Hans-Jürgen grew up in Eastern Austria and went to a college close to Vienna where he studied automotive engineering. He joined Bühler in mechanical engineering Leobendorf, Austria in January 1995. He had an opportunity to join a subsidiary company in Richmond, Virginia and spent almost 6 years working in the US. He returned to Leobendorf in 2002 in project management. He now works in process engineering handling Nestle key account on the technical part in terms of wafer and he heads the mechanical engineering downstream C2C (Customer to Customer) process.
He supports sales and handles customer requirements, but Jürgen says his job really involves creating, transferring from a piece of paper to the actual equipment. The favorite part of his job as an engineer is seeing a picture coming to life. “There is an idea, you put it on paper and then you see it on the shop floor, running, and producing something. From an idea to the actual final piece of equipment that has been signed off by a customer, that’s a very interesting part and can be very satisfying to see things finally fully working.”
From an idea to the actual final piece of equipment that has been signed off by a customer, that’s a very interesting part and it can be very satisfying to see things fully working.
Hans-Jürgen Wappel,
Team Leader Project Engineering at Bühler Leobendorf
It’s Jürgen’s dream job. He says his natural curiosity brought him into the field of engineering. “It’s my curiosity of how machines work. I was always curious about the machines. It started when I was really young, and it’s still in my mind today,” Jürgen adds.
Thanks to this natural curiosity Jürgen also holds a private pilot license. He doesn’t fly as much as he used to but says it’s one of his favorite things to do. He still remembers his first solo flight. Jürgen had to train hard for this flight and says it was an intense moment. “You are there by yourself. You accelerate the plane on the runway and once you’re airborne, there is no stopping anymore. From that moment onwards, it’s up to your skills only to bring that plane and yourself back on the runway in one piece. It’s quite a stressful, intense moment.”
Luckily, Jürgen doesn’t have too many similar stressful situations at work as he has the full support of his colleagues. He believes teamwork is essential in engineering. “I’m convinced of that we all, together, work for one common goal which is to make a customer want to be a repeat customer. When it comes to engineering, I think it’s important to prepare accordingly. There are requirements and special quality requests by customers and all that needs to be put into it to steel,” Jürgen explains. “And I think that’s the challenging thing of engineering. Nonetheless, with the support and the know-how of all the colleagues around the world, in combination with being curious about technical things that makes it worthwhile.”
I’m convinced of that we all, together, work for one common goal which is to make a customer want to be a repeat customer.
Hans-Jürgen Wappel,
Team Leader Project Engineering at Bühler Leobendorf
But like with any profession, engineering is not without its challenges. Jürgen explains that the typical challenges are staying within tight project and engineering timelines, and fulfilling cost targets, while often being confronted with challenging requirements arising from different hygienic or safety standards applicable at customer sites due to their sometimes-unique standards.
“Presenting a solution to achieve the contractually agreed high machine efficiencies while being confronted with different or difficult batter, crème recipes or raw materials’ can also be demanding,” Jügen explains. But he is always up for a challenge.
When it comes to his typical day at work, Jürgen handles capacity planning with his colleagues. He also often answers technical questions from different departments and deals with any technical issues, if there are any. And when it comes to process engineering, he learns about the customer specifications, and creates layouts and quotes.
For Jürgen engineering is a deeply satisfying and interesting career. He says that he wouldn’t do anything else for a job and he’s in the right place, doing what he wants and loves to do.
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