Michael Jennings - Maintenance Supervisor - 25 Years

Michael Jennings working on the installation of Project 2020

The one constant in the maintenance field at Almondco is keeping up to date with the latest world leading technology.

Maintenance Supervisor, Michael Jennings, recently marked 25 years of keeping the company’s machines running.

He is a Sheet Metal Work Welder by trade but the days of sticking two bits of stainless steel together have been replaced with tweaking infrared lasers and adjusting robotic arms.

Michael completed his apprenticeship with JMA Engineering, then known as Colbert Fabrications at the time.

About 10 or 12 years after getting qualified, the business laid off several staff and he went to work with the Berri Co-op in the maintenance field.

After 18 months, he was approached to work for Brown Machinery, a US firm which leased and maintained orange juicing machinery to local producers including Berri Ltd and Nippy’s.

A role with Almondco presented and Michael made the move to the Renmark facility.

He was the entire maintenance team for the first fifth portion of his 25-year tenure.

“For the first five or six years, I was the only maintenance bloke here, so I would just write up the list of jobs and tell myself to go and do it,” Michael said.

The technological advancements and site expansions have transformed both the Renmark site and the maintenance field.

Those changes are just part of the territory now.

“Especially in my trade, you just sort of flow along with whatever comes,” Michael said.

“The processing machinery is simple, the flakers, the silverer’s & other blanching machinery, but the sorting machines aren’t, they’re all IT based, with other electronic components.”

That said, while the sorting technology has become more complex, the support on hand has also improved.

“Earlier on, it was different because your support was in Brisbane, or America, or Belgium, whereas now, we’ve basically got a lot of knowledge virtually next door,” Michael said.

“If there is enough of the same brand machinery in the area, these companies will have a technician based in the region for technical support.”

Almondco is currently installing new sorting machines, with more technological challenges for the maintenance team.

Nimbus, one of two new machines, uses Biometric Signature Identification (BSI) cameras along with red & infrared lasers, and blue lasers.

Genius utilises three cameras and a single set of lasers.

“I’ve never seen this technology before, and I don’t know what is in the BSI machine,” but will be learning lots at the install & commissioning stages Michael said.

He works and learns best talking through the problems with the experts.

“I’m not good at reading a manual, as it won’t sink in, but if I can see it and feel it, I can generally pick it up and work it out,” Michael said.

“I usually hang around when the technicians come here, I watch and listen, and then you see how things work, you find out what’s connected to what.”

Still, despite the challenges of keeping machines running as long and efficiently as possible,

Almondco’s maintenance team has a terrific track record.

“It’s only been in the last few years where we’ve lost half a day, or a day,” Michael said.

“The most we lost earlier on was only three hours, but we’ve got so much more infrastructure and technologically advanced machines now.

“We’ve been really lucky we haven’t had any major incidents and when we do have an error, the technicians in Melbourne are pretty good, they can usually talk you through it over the phone.”

Five years ago, Almondco was processing in the range of 1500 tonnes a month, which was a record pack out for a month in this period.

“Now, we need pack 2350 tonnes a month otherwise you don’t get the almonds out the door before the new season almonds start arriving,” Michael said.

“The original Almondco building was designed & built to process 18,000 tonnes a year, this year we’ve put through 28,000 tonnes, so that has been the biggest thing, is the longer hours and pressure on machinery to keep running & get product out the door.”

Michael said he learned a lot from fellow employees over the years, including Dave Rogerson, who had excellent organisational skills & knowledge of the fledgling Almond industry at a time when the new factory was just starting out.

He also passed on credit to current group Project Manager, Craig Haskard.

“When Craig arrived in 2007, it was a time when Almondco was really starting to blossom.

“We changed from paper-based recording to computer generated recording and this is where I learned IT based ordering and requisition, job requests and PM systems.

“Also, this was the start of all the electronic sorting and automatic packing, so it was a huge learning curve in how it all ran & in maintaining the machinery.

“Craig was also very good at teaching machinery problem solving and repairs with his background as a Maintenance Fitter.

“Matt Farmer added to all this and had some other good teachings with his engineering background.”

There’s probably more who have helped him along the way but to be frank, he couldn’t remember them all.

“This place just keeps getting bigger, and more employees, it’s just nowhere near the same as when there were 20 people working here,” he said.

“I can remember people I worked with when I started but through the middle stages when things started to expand, there are people I worked with then who come up and say ‘g’day I worked at Almondco’ and I struggle to remember the faces.

“We’ve had so many people through too, school kids in their gap years, so those I have problems remembering but others I started with, I remember clearly.

“That’s probably just old age too.”

His approach to the job is relatively pragmatic.

“A lot of maintenance is actually ‘suck and see’,” Michael laughed.

“There have been thousands of times when you’re repairing a machine, you ring someone, muck around with it and suddenly the error disappears, and the machine runs again.

“Someone will ask me ‘what did you do to fix it’, and I would reply ‘not telling’, because I had no idea what I had done to fix it.

“The hardest thing is, because you have so many diverse machines but no real major issues with them, you struggle to remember how you fixed similar issues that have arisen previously but a lot of the time, there is online support and you just dial them up and ask your questions.”

While there have been discussions to head to the city in recent times, Michael said he had opted to stay in the region.

“I’ve enjoyed it here, it’s a reasonable job, it’s in the Riverland, and I’m pretty loyal sort of person” he said