Byrne Insider - Dastagir Abdul

BYRNE INTERVIEW DASTAGIR ABDUL SALAM Supervisor – Hydraulic & AWP

1. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN WITH BYRNE?

2. TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROLE ?

I am from Mumbai in India where I studied in Industrial Technical Training in college. I worked in this field in India for 2 years and then came to Dubai 9 years ago where I worked in various roles before joining the Byrne family. I have been with Byrne for 5 and a half years now and look forward to many more years ahead.

I am a mechanical technician by trade and at Byrne I work with Powered Access machines. I joined in the role of Powered Access Technician. In this role, I was responsible for repairing and maintaining the AWP and lifting fleet including all fork lifts, scissor lifts and boom lifts. After 5 years I was promoted to a supervisor role, so now I manage a dedicated team of technicians and I am responsible for checking all machines both before and

after they are hired out. Our role is to ensure the machine is safe and ready to go on hire following a tried and trusted checklist which included a visual check, Hydraulics check and engine check.

My role also involves site visits to deal any issues that arise or breakdowns of our machines. This can be anything from an events to a construction site anywhere in the UAE.

3. WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES IN YOUR ROLE AND HOW DO YOU OVERCOME THEM? One of the main challenges is the unforeseen situations such as breakdowns which can happen at any time when dealing with mechanical plant and for us this is has to happen to Byrne standard which means be ready 24/7.

Another challenge these days can be parts availability. While we maintain a healthy stock of fastmoving parts it is impossible to cater to every part requirement. Finding suppliers of certain parts can be difficult at times but thankfully we have a healthy and broad supply chain which helps us minimize delays to our end users. However It’s even more of an issue when you consider that 50% of our machines are battery powered and it can take time to source and receive the replacement batteries, sometimes up to two months, so planning and preparing is critically important.

4. WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE IN YOUR NEW ROLE? I hope to continue to improve the efficiency of my department, keep driving preventative maintenance practices so that we minimize breakdowns over time. We have to ensure that we have sufficient resources and time to cover all of our fleet on active hire, including machines on long term hire or in remote locations. In our experience there can be more problems with electric machines which end up being more costly than diesel, however this can be improved and costs controlled with more checking and preventative maintenance. Now that we have improved efficiency with more people checking regularly there has been a significant decrease in the number of issues and downtime.

WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB? I would have to say it’s the people I work with as well as the opportunities to grow and learn in the job. I enjoy the sociable aspect of the job as we have a Byrne cricket team that I play in every Sunday in Sharjah. I also enjoy the diversity and the different challenges that come my way as it gives me great satisfaction when I find a solution or solve a problem to enhance the operations of my department and the business.