Joe Driver and Chris Kuhlmann, Champion’s Corporate Application Engineers, traveled to each region to give a technology update presentation about Champion’s ongoing projects, new vendors, and the company’s new Operational Technology (OT) and Cybersecurity offerings.
During the presentation, Driver and Kuhlmann discussed Champion’s effort to standardize our hardware and software offerings and network design solutions by developing minimum requirements and documentation standards (2:50). On the cybersecurity front, Kuhlmann discussed Champion’s cybersecurity offerings, including assessments, design, and maintenance of industrial control networks. They also touched upon Champion’s internal cybersecurity protocols (5:04).
Joe discussed Champion’s new partnerships with several organizations and the unique benefits that our company receives from each one (14:10).
Scott Thompson, Org Manager for the Sabine Region, recently competed in and successfully finished the 2019 IRONMAN North American Championship, an arduous race in which almost 14% of the 2362 other fiercely athletic participants did not complete.
The race consisted of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bicycle ride and a 26.22 mile marathon run. Scott pushed his body for 2/3rds of a day as he completed the IRONMAN in 16 Hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds – an amount of exercise that makes most people sweat just thinking about. Please congratulate Scott (who will forever be his own harshest critic) on this awesome achievement!!
Ana Pen, wife of Houston’s automation engineer Wilson Santamaria, has published a children’s book, Loving Air on Earth. It is the tale of Paige and a little bird named Robin who befriend a sick cloud. The story inspires children to help our environment in keeping our air clean and how each one of us can help.
Congratulations to Ana on this noble accomplishment! And for those wondering, Pen is not a pen name. Click here if you would like to preview and/or purchase Ana’s book. We’re certain that Wilson won’t mind you helping his family retire a little earlier 🙂
Brian Kolkebeck – February 2019 Automation Engineer II Salt Lake City, UT
Brian Kolkebeck joined the Salt Lake Office as an Automation Engineer II. Brian grew up in Sandy, Utah, after spending the first five years on his life on an Air Force base in Arizona.
Electrical Engineering is a family tradition; both his father and grandpa have Electrical Engineering degrees. Brian earned his degree at Villanova University in Pennsylvania before joining the Air Force as a developmental engineer, working with Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles.
After leaving the Air Force after six years of service, Brian was introduced into automation engineering by a co-worker who had been programming PLCs with Proctor and Gamble for 15+ years. After learning about the industry, Brian says he was hooked, “I love that automation is logical, but still has a personal touch. It is challenging and rewarding.”
Brian says he chose a career with Champion because he appreciates the various industries, systems, and challenges that Champion’s customer base offers: “I have spent eight years working in the same locations on the same systems, and I was ready for a change. Champion offers this change as well as the opportunity to work with a great team of fellow professionals.”
Brian and his wife have two children and have been married for 13 years.
Welcome to the team, Brian! We’re glad to have you with us.
James Carlin – April 2019 Designer II Baton Rouge, LA
James Carlin joined Champion as a Designer II. He’ll start out in the Baton Rouge office and transition to Salt Lake City in a few months.
He grew up in Denham Springs, LA where he played high school basketball and was a batboy for three Los Angeles Dodgers games.
After spending some time in the electrical field, James sought a career in automation because he found that his interests gravitated more toward controls and instrumentation. Before joining Champion, he worked for a controls/electrical engineering firm that was also part of the project at Westlake-Geismar, where he designed and installed controls/electrical/instrumentation for a new PVC and VCM unit.
He decided to join Champion because of the company’s environment and culture. He says, “Every Champion employee I have talked to appeared to enjoy working at Champion, so felt it would be a great career transition.”
The opportunity to relocate to the Salt Lake City office was a big plus. James enjoys outdoor recreational activities like mountain biking, road cycling, and backpacking. Utah will be the perfect place for all three!
Welcome to the team, James! We’re glad to have you with us.
Champion would also like to Welcome the following New Hires who have also recently joined the team.
Julio Delgado joined Champion’s Salt Lake City Office in November 2018 as a Manufacturing Technician I. Welcome to the team, Julio! We’re glad to have you with us.
Jeff Brodnanjoined Champion’s Denver Office in January 2019 as an Automation Engineer II. Welcome to the team, Jeff! We’re glad to have you with us.
Casey O’Neilljoined Champion’s Baton Rouge Automation Office in February 2019 as an Office Administrator II. Welcome to the team, Casey! We’re glad to have you with us.
Avram Neal Automation Engineer III| Salt Lake City, UT 10 Years in May
Q: Who has been your favorite customer (company / individual) and why? A: I really enjoy working for Andeavor Logistics. The people I work with over there are very personable and charismatic, and the work can be very challenging (in a good way!)
Q: What company / office sponsored event did you enjoy most and why? A: Anytime we go golfing. It’s such a relaxing sport, and allows for a lot of time to have conversations between colleagues.
Q: When were you proudest to be a part of the Champion team? A: Definitely when we finished the UNEV project. It is so awesome to know that the pipeline is running on our code.
Q: What is something that you’d like to see Champion do in the next 15 years? A: I think I’d like to see Champion branch out from doing service work, and look at creating in-house products.
Q: In your opinion, what is the #1 improvement you’ve seen take place since you’ve started? A:I’d have to say it’s the way roles are more defined. That and I love the work that’s been done on making all of our needed software easily accessible from SharePoint. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve wasted in the past sifting through hundreds of Siemens disc.
5 Year Service Award
Angel Theriot Technical Writer| Baton Rouge, LA 5 Years in April
Q:What is your favorite lunch routine? A:It used to be going to Mr. Taco with everone on Fridays, but seems to be closed now. Looks like we’ll have to find another go-to Friday lunch place!
Q:What projects were particularly interesting, exciting, or challenging that you would like to reflect on? A:I work on nearly every project that passes through the Baton Rouge automation office, so there are so many to choose from! But overall, I appreciated the projects that provided the opportunity for me to grow as a technical writer – these projects were complex and had non-standard documentation, various levels of review and revision, and higher customer expectations.
Q:What company / office sponsored event did you enjoy most and why? A:Champion’s Christmas party in 2014 was really fun. I loved the live band on Friday night, and everyone had a great time on Saturday night.
Q:What is something that you’d like to see Champion do in the next 15 years? A:So many things! I’d like to see us develop some kind of customer portal where we’d publish customer-facing documents, a place where they could see the status and progress of their projects or proposals for increased visibility and insight into our project execution methodology. Maybe each customer could see their project history with Champion, too, if that’s something our customers would find useful.
Q:Describe a memory from your first years at Champion. A:During my first few weeks here, the Baton Rouge offices got together for a crawfish boil in the parking lot. William Sulzer’s brother and dad boiled the crawfish, and it was ridiculously spicy! But it was a great insight into how the company shows appreciation for its employees on a regular basis.
Q:How are the dynamics at Champion different than when you first started? How are they the same? A:When I joined Champion, I came from an organization that lacked good leadership, and we didn’t really have a strategy for growth or a vision for the company and where it was going. So when I joined the Baton Rouge team, I was happy to learn that the leadership in the organization was focused and committed to growing the company while doing it in a “smart, sustainable way.” I’ve seen that growth first-hand. Especially notable in Champion’s transition from “disconnected silos” toward the unified structure we’re beginning to see today.
5 Year Service Award
Dona Wallgren Office Administrator II| Salt Lake City, UT 5 Years in April
1 Year Service Award
Josh Moss Software Developer| Baton Rouge, LA 1 Year in March
Q:What is your favorite lunch routine? A:There are many great place to eat around here at Headquarters. I usually pick something up and bring it back to the office to eat with my coworkers. It’s nice to be able to get away from my desk for a moment and spend time enjoying lunch while catching up with everyone.
Q:What projects were particularly interesting, exciting, or challenging that you would like to reflect on? A:My favorite project so far has been the AOP tool. I like it because I am getting to expand my knowledge and experience on familiar .NET technologies. I also liked working on the Pricesheet tool. It was my first project, so it was challenging, but it taught me a lot about Champion’s business.
Q:What company / office sponsored event did you enjoy most and why? A:I really enjoyed the ASSIST summer outing to Sullivan’s. It was nice to be able to spend time with coworker’s and my steak was amazing.
Q:What would you like to be working on here at Champion in the future? A:I want to continue creating and updating tools that are useful to Champion members. I also think it would be great if I could use my skillset to help our clients with IT related solutions.
Q:Who’s been most influential on your role (mentor), and how / why? A:Michael Moles has been a great mentor to me since he joined back in October. His software development experience has really helped me to learn and excel at my job. He is initiating many changes to our systems programming team that I know will greatly benefit us now and in the long run.
1 Year Service Award
Michael Schuler Automation Engineer I| Baton Rouge, LA 1 Year in March
Q:What is your favorite lunch routine? A:Drive-thru Chick-Fil-A. It’s close to the office, it’s delicious, and it’s under $8.
Q:What company / office sponsored event did you enjoy most and why? A:The summer beach trip. If was fun to be around all of my coworkers in a non-work setting. Also, it was on the beach.
Q:What is your favorite Champion work-related memory? A:One of my first callouts I ever did alone was at 1:00am to go troubleshoot an operator station that lost connection with a PLC in the field. I was pretty nervous about how I was going to fix this on my own. When I arrived on site, maintenance was working in the area and said they may know the problem and to give them 30 minutes before I did anything. After 30 minutes, they called over the radio and asked if we now had communication with the PLC. Operations responded saying they had previously cut the power due to some electrical work they were doing, and they had just finished their work and restored power. While I wasn’t the one to fix the issue on this callout, it increased my confidence about going on callouts by myself and made me realize that I shouldn’t be nervous.
Q:Why did you decide to join Champion? A:I took a PLC class in college and loved it. A couple of my classmates were interns at Champion and told me Champion was a local company that did PLC work and that they loved working there. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to work at Champion.
Q:Who’s been most influential on your role (mentor), and how / why? A:Pat Tharp. He is always pushing me to new places and giving me opportunities to grow and develop as an engineer, and he always has my back if I need help in any way.
1 Year Service Award
Jordan Buller Office Administrator I| Lake Charles, LA 1 Year in April
Q:What is your favorite lunch routine? A:I guess I don’t have a specific lunch routine, but I really enjoy when Tiffany, Whitney and I can find time to step away and just have lunch together.
Q:What projects were particularly interesting, exciting, or challenging that you would like to reflect on? A:As of right now, I would have to say that the Gray Oak project would be the most interesting and challenging project. It is just a massive project and pretty much keeps everyone on their toes, even on the admin end of it.
Q:What company / office sponsored event did you enjoy most and why? A:The Lake Charles office participated in the Phillips 66 – United Way kickball tournament last year and it was really fun, and everyone had a great time! We participated again this year on April 6th. Go One Kick Wonders!!
Q:Why did you decide to join Champion? A:I had actually babysat for Tiffany years ago when I was in high school/college, and it just so happened that Kelli was leaving the week that I started applying for new jobs. It was perfect timing!
Q:Who’s been most influential on your role (mentor), and how / why? A:I would have to say Tiffany. I think her drive and leadership skills are something that I really aspire to follow, and I hope to one day be as knowledgeable as she is in everything.
1 Year Service Award
Sarah Chaix Office Administrator I| Baton Rouge, LA 1 Year in March
As the spring and summer weather heats up, OSHA and Safety department campaigns aim to keep people safe at work and at home.
Many people are exposed to heat on the job, in both indoor and outdoor heat environments. Operations involving high air temperatures, radiant heat sources (e.g., sunlight, hot exhaust), high humidity, direct physical contact with hot objects, or strenuous physical activities have a high potential for causing heat-related illness.
Indoor workplaces with hot conditions may include iron and steel foundries, brick-firing and ceramic plants, glass products facilities, electrical utilities (particularly boiler rooms), bakeries, chemical plants, material handling and distribution warehouses, and many other environments.
Outdoor workplaces with work in hot weather and direct sun, such as farm work, construction, oil and gas well operations, landscaping, emergency response operations, and hazardous waste site activities, also increase the risk of heat-related illness in exposed workers.
Every year, thousands of workers become sick from occupational heat exposure, and some are fatally injured. These illnesses and fatalities are preventable.
Why is heat a hazard to workers?
When a person works in a hot environment, the body must get rid of excess heat to maintain a stable internal temperature. It does this mainly through circulating blood to the skin and through sweating.
When the air temperature is close to or warmer than normal body temperature, cooling of the body becomes more difficult. Blood circulated to the skin cannot lose its heat. Sweating then becomes the main way the body cools off. But sweating is effective only if the humidity level is low enough to allow evaporation, and if the fluids and salts that are lost are adequately replaced.
If the body cannot get rid of excess heat, it will store it. When this happens, the body’s core temperature rises and the heart rate increases. As the body continues to store heat, the person begins to lose concentration and has difficulty focusing on a task, may become irritable or sick, and often loses the desire to drink. The next stage is most often fainting and even death if the person is not cooled down.
Excessive exposure to heat can cause a range of heat-related illnesses, from heat rash and heat cramps to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat stroke can result in death and requires immediate medical attention.
Exposure to heat can also increase the risk of injuries because of sweaty palms, fogged-up safety glasses, dizziness, and burns from hot surfaces or steam.
Who could be affected by heat?
Workers exposed to hot indoor environments or hot and humid conditions outdoors are at risk of heat-related illness, especially those doing heavy work tasks or using bulky or non-breathable protective clothing and equipment. Some workers might be at greater risk than others if they have not built up a tolerance to hot conditions, or if they have certain health conditions. The table below shows some environmental and job-specific factors that increase the risk of heat-related illness.
Factors That Put Workers at Greater Risk
Environmental:
High temperature and humidity
Radiant heat sources
Contact with hot objects
Direct sun exposure (with no shade)
Limited air movement (no breeze, wind or ventilation)
Job-Specific:
Physical Exertion
Use of bulky or non-breathable protective clothing and equipment
Workers who are suddenly exposed to working in a hot environment face additional, but generally avoidable hazards to their safety and health. New workers and those returning from time away are especially vulnerable. That’s why it is important to prepare for the heat: educate workers about the dangers of heat and acclimatize workers by gradually increasing the workload or providing more frequent breaks to help new workers and those returning to a job after time away build up a tolerance for hot conditions.
No controls are in place to reduce the impacts of equipment that radiates heat
Protective clothing or gear is worn
Work is strenuous
The heat index, which takes both temperature and humidity into account, is a useful tool for outdoor workers and employers (see Using the Heat Index: A Guide for Employers).
Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) is the most accurate tool to measure heat hazards for outdoor workers. It takes temperature, humidity, wind speed, and radiant heat into account. The OSHA Technical Manual Heat Stress Chapter provides WBGT information and calculations, and the National Weather Service provides a prototype WBGT location tool and work/rest recommendations.
How can heat-related illness be prevented?
Heat-related illnesses can be prevented. Important ways to reduce heat exposure and the risk of heat-related illness include engineering controls, such as air conditioning and ventilation, that make the work environment cooler, and work practices such as work/rest cycles, drinking water often, and providing an opportunity for workers to build up a level of tolerance to working in the heat. Employers should include these prevention steps in worksite training and plans. Also, it’s important to know and look out for the symptoms of heat-related illness in yourself and others during hot weather. Plan for an emergency and know what to do — acting quickly can save lives!
NIOSH and OSHA recently teamed up to update a heat safety mobile app that uses temperature and humidity to measure heat index values while offering projected heat indices throughout the workday:
CSIA’s Annual Executive Conference is CSIA’s highlight of the year, when several hundred members and industry partners meet to network, hear outstanding speakers, share best practices, learn about new products and services, and have fun. John Hargroder and Mike Moles will be there to represent Champion.
May 11
Saturday
Denver Office Company Event at Unser Karting
The Denver Office will be heading out to Unser Karting for some indoor karting activities.
May 12
Sunday
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate mothers and mother figures, including grandmothers, stepmothers, etc. Many people give gifts, cards, flowers, candy, a nice meal or other treats to show them appreciation.
May 18
Saturday
8th Annual ISA Lafayette Section Sporting Clay Shootout
Champion will be a sponsor at this years event. We will also have a team participating. Wish them luck!
May 27
Monday
Memorial Day
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in military service for the United States.
June 3-7
Monday – Friday
Rockwell Automation TechED
This week long event in Orlando, Florida offers over 180 unique sessions including thought provoking keynote presentations, expert-led technical sessions and interactive hands-on labs and demonstrations.
June 16
Sunday
Father’s Day
Father’s Day is a time to celebrate our fathers and father figures, including grandfather, stepfathers, etc. This Father’s Day treat your Father to a celebration that he will always remember.
June 17-20
Monday – Thursday
Siemens Automation Summit
The Siemens Automation Summit – a users conference is a great opportunity for Champion to stay up to date with latest Siemens products. Trainings, curriculum, user presentations, product roadmaps, feedback sessions and more, will be offered for all areas of industrial automation, including discrete, process, motion, and drives.
July 4
Tuesday
Independence Day
The Fourth of July is a national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Ana Pen, wife of Houston’s automation engineer Wilson Santamaria, has published a children’s book, Loving Air on Earth. It is the tale of Paige and a little bird named Robin who befriend a sick cloud. The story inspires children to help our environment in keeping our air clean and how each one of us can help.
