Employee spotlight with Tom Mitchell, Divisional Director (UK)

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Tom Mitchell has been promoted to Divisional Director (UK) at Logi-tek. Tom manages the UK team and holds overall responsibility for the bidding process, market expansion, learning & development, and forecasting.

We found out a bit more about Tom and his career journey, which has led to this new position.

Tom, Congratulations on your promotion; it’s been a rewarding five years for you at Logi-tek; describe your journey in 3 words?

• Passionate
• Encouraging (no idea is too small, anything is possible)
• Innovative

Tell us three facts about yourself?

1. I am very Client-focused – the client needs to walk away with the VERY best version of what they requested. I use the analogy: “If I was building a new house and employed the best specialists from around the world, it needs to be the best house I ever lived in.
2. I am very family-oriented and love spending weekends and spare time with loved ones.
3. I am passionate about internal development and focusing on innovation.

Tell us a bit about your journey into Commissioning?

I started my career as an engineering lead in the public sector. Transitioning into the private sector, I discovered my passion for adding value to a project. I enjoyed making a difference in the industry and not just meeting tight deadlines and financial incentives.

I moved into Project management, where I worked with both the client and the main contractor. Seeing their respective visions and differentiators taught me to see the bigger picture.

On joining the commissioning management team, I was exposed to aspects of the role I loved, especially getting in the detail. I was also learning more from working alongside people immersed in design, delivery, management and closeout. These were the influencers that spoke transparently with all levels of leadership on the project.

What have been some of your proudest and most rewarding moments working at Logi-tek?

I believe individuals and structure are critical to our success as a company, so these moments will always involve people.

I have aided in developing our bidding and interviewing process; I am proud to see the project base and the team grow as a result.

Building the UK team and innovating with unique, passionate engineers/managers is very rewarding.

However, the most rewarding part of my role is identifying strengths in individuals, inspiring them to use their best assets across projects, and seeing the fantastic output.

How would you like to see Commissioning change in the next 5 years?

Commissioning is a fundamental aspect of the industry, it’s becoming more than just MEPH-focused. Commissioning managers have huge, varied backgrounds. They are Project Managers, Technical Service Managers and Designers. They can all be utilised further to add even more value to projects.

I would also like to see the boundaries of engineering pushed further and commissioning management redefined.

Technology will become an enormous part of our industry and, in line with sustainability and building greener; master systems integrations will be built into packages. Our Net Zero CX platform has been developed to support this.

Lastly, I would like Commissioning Management to become a recognised qualification. It is an ‘envelope’ understanding of many disciplines and combinations of different elements that reach across an entire project.

The potential knowledge share amongst commissioning managers is vast. Therefore, the base qualification could be a combination of factors from some widely understood and known university degrees.

Tom’s promotion is important at Logi-tek, we spoke with the leadership team to obtain their thoughts on Tom and his role at Logi-tek.

Can you describe Tom in one sentence:

Tom is highly Committed, Enthusiastic, and Energetic.

We asked, Remi Portes, Operations Director EMEA about Tom’s leadership qualities;

“Tom has been my trusted right-hand man since we started working together and I am so proud to see where he is now. With Tom, there is always some sort of “Beauty” in what he does. He knows how to bring people together and to share his passion for commissioning. Tom is a driven individual that always wanted to do more and had leadership at heart. Tom is a natural manager, able to focus on his team’s strengths to overcome any weaknesses. Well done Tom, you really deserved your promotion, and no doubt you will excel.”

Chris Dodd, Commercial Director EMEA, discussed Tom’s Key strengths;

“Tom has an impressive ability to juggle competing demands without letting anything drop. He supports colleagues at all levels and consistently goes the extra mile to ensure that his projects succeed. I’m excited by what 2021 has to offer for all of us and am sure Tom has a big part to play in our success.”

Kevin Fletcher, Managing Director EMEA, endorsed that Tom will help to shape the business going forwards.

“Tom’s promotion is recognition of the leadership role that he has taken regarding UK operations. As a business, we continue to grow and thrive in the UK and Tom’s role is central to this”

#employeespotlight #divisionaldirector #promotion #commissioningmanagement #technicalprojectmanagement #engineering #commissioning #projectmanagement

Offloading with Rugby League Cares.

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We have teamed up with Rugby League Cares who are delivering three virtual Offload ‘fixtures’ to our staff during April and May as part of our commitment to safeguarding their mental health.

Offload is a clinically designed mental wellbeing initiative that equips participants with the tools and techniques needed to build and maintain a winning mindset. Presented by a team of former professional sportsmen who share their experiences of tackling challenging situations in their own lives, Offload has had a transformational impact on the lives of thousands of men since its launch four years ago.

The issues covered include coping with stress, building resilience, and how to acquire a positive mindset.

Chris Dod, Commercial Director EMEA commented, “One of the core objectives for Logi-tek is to ensure that, in delivering the highest quality of services to our clients, our team are aware of potential mental health challenges arising in any working environment. COVID-19 has focussed many people on the need to be ever more mindful of mental health and the Offload programme delivered by Rugby League Cares allow us to encourage the team to look out for themselves, one another and the people with whom we work each day.”

Rugby League Cares’ Community and Welfare Manager Keith Senior, the ex-Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain international centre, said: “It’s been a pleasure to deliver Offload fixtures to Logi-tek staff, who have all been very receptive to the tips and advice we’ve shared so far. It’s fantastic that a progressive company such as Logi-tek recognises both the importance of protecting the mental fitness of its staff and the success of Offload and Rugby League Cares.”

Offload was recently hailed as a “model of best practice” for engaging with people on issues around mental wellbeing in a report produced by academics at Edge Hill University. The programme is currently being delivered at nine professional Rugby League clubs across the north of England, as well as a handful of leading companies including the Environment Agency, SSE, the Co-operative and Logi-tek.

For more information on Offload please visit www.rugbyleaghuecares.org/offload

If you are interested in how Offload can make your employees healthier, happier and more productive, email their Health Project Manager, Wendy Barr – wendy.barr@rlcares.org.uk

#commissioningmanagement #technicalprojectmanagement #socialvalue #engineering #commissioning #projectmanagement #charity #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness

Introducing remote witnessing platform, Net Zero Cx

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The future of Carbon Neutral Commissioning is right here.

Downing tools on a mission-critical construction project is not an option, even in a pandemic. 

Well-established commissioning businesses like ours have had to be creative and innovative to provide ongoing support to our Clients’ projects whilst enabling our employees to operate safely at work. We developed Net Zero Cx to do just that, providing off-site, around the clock, commissioning. 

Our initial pilot on the platform produced excellent results. Working collaboratively with clients, we implemented further refinements, which enhanced the effectiveness of the platform. We now regularly provide this versatile solution for clients, with regular 360° reviews. 

Five facts about Net Zero Cx:

Fact 01: Distance is no longer an obstacle; Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Net Zero Cx removes distance as an obstacle and replaces it with the guarantee that you are always just a few clicks away from a project. 

Fact 02: Enhances training, development, and compliance; Net Zero Cx helps to future proof businesses.  Video files gathered during witnessing activity can be saved, shared, and stored securely and used for future training, development, and compliance.

Fact 03: Reduces out of hours commissioning costs; Time zone collaboration allows us to collaborate with our colleagues from Commtech Asia (APAC), to attend out of hours witnessing activity on a project in Europe. This will significantly reduce costs as the APAC team will witness during normal working hours.  
 
Fact 04: Enhances specialist support; Net Zero Cx makes global collaboration across multiple teams easier. Our project teams can tap into knowledge pools from colleagues across our organisation, immensely benefitting a project.

Fact 05: Reduces the impact on the Environment; We recognise the importance of Carbon Neutrality. By utilising Net Zero Cx we will significantly reduce our carbon footprint of the project with the added benefit of large cost savings due to a reduction in the need for expenses such as flights, hotels, hire cars, insurance, travel expenses.​

Key fact: ​
Using Net Zero Cx on a project is a proactive way to reduce resource numbers on a project and thereby greatly assisting in helping the project to be more Covid secure. 

We talked to Richard Lee Smith, Commissioning Manager at Logi-tek, who has been using the platform to find out more:

So what is Net Zero Cx, and what problem does it solve?
Net Zero Cx is a platform that enables remote witnessing on projects. A series of mobile, static and Wi-Fi enabled cameras are set up on-site with a two-way communication system. A live stream of the testing process is then broadcast live, directly to the Client, MEP consultants, and other members of the project team.   

During the sessions, the viewer can interact directly with the Commissioning Engineers and ask any questions. All sessions are fully recorded and provided to the Client at the point of handover, giving a compliant training tool for their wider business.

It solves several problems:

– Travel times and out-of-hours commissioning costs reduce for clients; they can view the process from anywhere in the world, even when in quarantine.
– Less travel means lower emissions and a sustainable, carbon-neutral initiative. 
– Visibility is increased for clients, as they can watch, rewind and interact directly with the engineers at the crucial stages of the project.
– Improved compliance, clients can use the recordings for internal training sessions. 

What about set up times? 
The average setup time is a few hours, 2-3, dependent on how many cameras are needed and the size of the site. The platform is also flexible, and we can add more cameras if required.

How easy is it to use? 
Our clients have found it very straightforward to use. 
Once they are set up and logged in – they are good to go. There are self-explanatory screen prompts along the way, the test section is explained clearly and of course, our team is there to guide and support throughout. 
  
What feedback have you received from your clients? 
Clients like the platform. Some clients were sceptical at first, but when they experienced the image quality and the ability to manipulate cameras, they were convinced. The Client can quickly go back and view any test at any time.  

Client quote: 
“Going into the remote witnessing, I was sceptical of the ability to feel that I was part of the testing and concerned that I would be unable to follow along with the process. I found it to be very user-friendly, with the ability to move the camera and zoom in to what I wanted to see, which is a massive positive. I would totally recommend using this again on future projects with Logi-tek as it gives complete transparency to all stakeholders.”

It’s allowed us to operate in a business as usual way during pandemic lockdowns and through the current quarantine laws that are in place.

So what’s in it for the Commissioning Engineers? 
We see this as an integral part of the future commissioning solution. Engineers will always be needed on site. We do not see Net Zero Cx as a platform to replace people but only to add value and enhance the commissioning process.

If you are interested in our commissioning services using Net Zero CX, please contact admin@logi-tek.co.uk