A working life devoted to Komax
“Anecdotes? I could tell you quite a few. After all, I’ve been working for Komax for 44 years. I was the first service technician and the 17th employee that Max Koch hired – when it was still Komax Electronic. Anyway, I’ll begin with an anecdote from my first day at work, on May 1, 1981. In his enthusiasm for his work, Max Koch had clearly forgotten that Labor Day is a public holiday. So I made my way to Lucerne as he had requested – only to find all the doors locked. I’m a flexible person though: I enjoyed the day off and started my job on May 2 – properly this time.”
”I always wanted to travel with my work and live abroad for a while. This opportunity arrived later, when Komax was developing the Asian market. To start with I often traveled with Max Koch, from whom I learned a lot. Sometimes he promised a little too much, it’s true, but to a certain extent that’s part and parcel of sales and marketing. I took a rather more cautious approach to forward-looking solutions, especially in Asia. One important country for building the Asian market was Japan, which I’ve visited more than 60 times – my children have gone through all my passports specially and counted the stamps.
In the early 1990s, I sold ten Komax 50/500s to Sumitomo Wiring Systems in Yokkaichi, and our service technician was due to get them up and running. Then my phone rang: The Japanese production manager had very politely declined to allow our service technician into the factory because he was refusing to wear a hard hat or safety shoes, as was usual or even required in Japanese factories. On speaking to our technician, I discovered that the equipment provided was simply much too small. So off I went, arranged for the things to be supplied in the right size, and the misunderstanding was cleared up.”
”I spent years living abroad with my family, including in Singapore and Chicago, from where I also looked after Komax customers in Asia, the USA, and Mexico. At the start of the 2000s we returned to Switzerland. Komax was committed to diversifying at the time and had already acquired its first assembly automation firms. My new job consisted of developing the wire processing systems segment. Customized special-order machines were required here, and my professional experience naturally meant that I was very familiar with our customers’ needs. Staefa Control, for example: This company on Lake Zurich was our first customer in the systems business, and it ordered a machine for the automatic processing of temperature sensors. Since we first had to develop the Lambda as the basic model, it was a while before we could deliver the machine to the customer. Over the years, first Landis & Gyr and then Siemens took over that particular business and the machine ended up being sent to Siemens in Zug. When I visited Siemens recently, our special-order machine was still in operation there. It’s just gone on and on, for more than 20 years.”