I worked as a Product Engineer in the Engineered Specials group of Fisher Controls in Marshalltown, Iowa. As a Product Engineer, I supported the full life cycle for many of Fisher’s sliding stem product lines. This includes quoting special designs, helping with manufacturing problems, and supporting our installed base out in the field. The scope of these responsibilities is broad. This includes going to the manufacturing floor to help make rework decisions, investigating warranty claims and service requests, meeting with customers to help solve their problems, and more. Basically we will answer any and all questions about our products from internal or external parties. As Fisher has offices globally and Marshalltown is the global headquarters, I worked daily with colleagues in Mexico, France, United Arab Emirates, China, Japan, Malaysia and more.

A Fisher CAV4 cutaway rendering

I supported some of Fisher’s specialty product lines including the 461, the CAV4, and many cryogenic products. Some of these products were designed as far back as the 1940s which presents many unique challenges for providing support to our customers.

Additionally, as part of our Engineered Specials Group, I worked on engineering special orders, which often contain unique material, temperature, pressure, or other requirements.

During my time at Fisher, I have used my software development background to improve our engineering tools, particularly with Microsoft PowerApps and Sharepoint. Along with an intern, we developed a pseudo-ticketing system with Microsoft PowerApps to track conversations between engineering and sales to provide more traceability for engineering quotes. This tool is used by over 250 people around the world. I’ve also developed a number of engineering calculators using PowerApps to make looking up data in large standards documents easier and more convenient for engineers.

Me in front of the street sign