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Together

The D-Ticket as a Jobticket from punker: More Mobility and Flexibility for our Team

At punker, we focus on the needs of our employees and at the same time want to act as sustainably as possible as a company and employer. Today, we would like to introduce an employee benefit that combines these two aspirations: The Deutschlandticket as a job ticket from punker. 🚍🚋🚊⛴

What is the D-Ticket?

The D-Ticket or Deutschlandticket is a monthly subscription that allows subscribers to travel easily on all forms of public transportation.

What are the advantages of the punker job ticket?

Thanks to the employer contribution and the NAH.SH discount, our employees can travel for 31.55 euros per month instead of the regular 49 euros around the clock in all participating public transport companies throughout Germany in 2nd class.

Our Jobticket offers more than just a way to get to work. It opens doors to a better quality of life, promotes sustainability and flexibility, and demonstrates our commitment to our employees.
Our contribution and the NAH.SH discount save our team hard cash. The Deutschlandticket offers a cost-effective and at the same time environmentally friendly way to commute to punker.

1. Cost Efficiency 💶👍🏽

Our contribution and the NAH.SH discount save our team hard cash. The Deutschlandticket offers a cost-effective and at the same time environmentally friendly way to commute to punker.

2. Environmental Friendliness 🌳🐟

Using punker’s job ticket helps reduce environmental impact. Every time our employees use it – whether for their commute to work or during their leisure time – they reduce their CO2 emissions and thus make a contribution to environmental protection.

3. Flexibility and Freedom 🤾🏽‍♀️👩🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏿

When it comes to using the Deutschlandticket, our team is not limited to commuting to work by bus and/or train. Our colleagues also use it, for example, to do their weekly grocery shopping without a car, to go to the many sports activities offered as part of our cooperation with Hansefit, or to visit friends, acquaintances and family.

If you have any questions, our HR Team will be happy to help. Become part of the punker team and experience the advantages of the Deutschlandticket for yourself!

Learn more about working with punker on our website!

Together

INTERNAL CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS: WE WANT YOUR OPINION!

Dear Colleagues,

Effective and efficient internal corporate communications is crucial to the success and growth of the entire punker Group. It enables us to exchange information, share knowledge, promote the commitment of all of us, and build a strong corporate culture. 📢💡 Over the past few weeks, we have been working intensively on this topic and would now like to take a significant step toward structured, effective internal communications. 💪🏽

What do we mean by internal corporate communications?

We define it as the exchange of information, ideas, goals and values within our organization, across all locations. It encompasses communication between management and employees, as well as dialog among employees themselves. Internal communication serves to improve collaboration, promote understanding of corporate goals, and ensure that each of us has access to the information that is relevant to him or her.

What are our objectives?

Our goal is to ensure that our internal corporate communications are transparent, motivating and engaging. We want to ensure that information is communicated promptly and clearly, that employees feel heard and valued, and that communication leads to stronger identification within the punker Group.

Your opinion counts | Employee survey

In order to assess the current status quo of our internal communications, we would like to obtain your valuable feedback in the form of an employee survey. This survey gives you the opportunity to judge the current internal communication and to share your suggestions and needs with us. Your feedback is extremely important to us, as it enables us to better understand your expectations and to optimize our internal communication measures in a targeted manner.

The results of this survey will serve as the basis for designing a new approach to our internal communications. We want to ensure that communications are more effective and targeted, and that your needs and concerns are addressed.

How to participate

Via a workplace computer

Those with access to a workplace computer can participate via the following link:

Via smartphone

Those without computer access can use their personal smartphone to scan the following QR code to participate in the survey.

We look forward to your participation and your valuable contributions!

Many thanks for your support

Together

punker Corporate Video

It’s round, it’s spinning, it’s impossible to imagine today’s world without it – the wheel. It is considered the most important invention of mankind and the key to technical development. And with it the origin of the punker fan wheels, which move air all over the world. Air for the climatisation of office buildings, the cooling of compressors, for drying our laundry, for cooking of your dinner to perfection, to keep the air clean in paint booths and so much more.

In our new corporate video, you will experience how we reinvent the wheel every day and move the world with true passion for innovation and over 60 years of experience.

We leave idleness to others. And reinvent the [fan] wheel over and over – each and every day.

Experience the innovative power of true passion. Experience innovative fan wheels, engineered in Germany.

 


 

Together

Welcome to Eckernförde – punker trainees host refugee interns

Each of the 22 punker trainees will host an intern who came to the Eckernförde area as a refugee and hope to find a new home here. Today, we welcomed the first six interns who will spend the next two weeks with us at the punker headquarters.

“Typically German”, one might say: after greeting our new interns, we started the day off with a safety briefing. Our training manager Svenja Wriedt explained the regulations  for the prevention of industrial accidents.  After this compulsory agenda item, we did a round of introductions. Each trainee and each intern introduced themselves and wrote down what is important to them at work. We realized we have great deal in common: we all agree that nice co-workers and having fun are the most important factors for feeling comfortable at work. Other key factors are accuracy and safety. The latter giving the cue for the next item on the agenda: handing out the safety shoes. Fully equipped, we started off on a tour of the plant with our production manager Markus Oberle. Our six interns took the opportunity to question Mr Oberle about our products and our assembly and production machines. They were amazed to hear that almost all of them are being designed and set up by our own employees. To give them time to digest the flood of information, we called it a day around noon. We will all meet our interns again tomorrow morning and escort them to their workplaces.

Each of us will attend to an intern during the entire two weeks of their internship at punker and function as a mentor to them. The social-integrative internship is supposed to find answers to the question “What is work like in Germany and especially in a manufacturing, medium-sized company?”.  And to help our interns find a job in their new home, of course. When looking through the internship applications, we noticed that a lot of applicants had professional qualifications or experience they could put to work at punker. Ambesajur Desale Asfaw from Eritrea is about to get his fork-lift license and looks forward to testing his driving skills in our logistics department as soon as he passes the exam. My intern Nosheirwan Omar worked as a an executive engineer in his homeland of Syria and his university degree was recognized by the chamber of engineers and architects in Schleswig-Holstein just now. Over the next two weeks he will get to know our R&D, design and quality management departments. He plans to go to graduate school in Northern Germany to get his master’s degree in engineering after passing another high standard German language course.

Our HR director Felix Hegmann accurately called this integration project a “Welcome to refugees by the small- and medium-sized enterprise in Northern Germany”. But to us, it is a lot more than that. We consider it an opportunity for all of us at punker to broaden our horizon and increase awareness for and understanding of the integration of people who came here in hopes of finding a new and safe home. We especially look forward to the personal interaction and exchange with “our” interns and hope to learn a few things, for example about the differences between everyday work life here and in their home country. To give our colleagues the opportunity to partake in this project, each trainee will write a report about the internship together with their intern which will be published in our employee magazine “aufwind” and on the punker Blog.

Together

punker welcomes nine new trainees

The Freshmen

Today on September 1, nine new trainees start their careers at punker. The training year usually starts on August 1, but we all remember how nerve-racking final exams can be. That is why we decided to grant our new colleagues one last summer vacation before life starts getting serious. So today, these well-rested clever minds start their apprenticeships at punker:

Industrial Management Assistants: Industrial Mechanics: Mechatronics Technician:
Jannik Pick (19)
Jana Grawe (20)
Christoph Jürgensen (20)
Erik Thiesen (18)
Marc Ehret (18)
Timo Schulz (19)
Eletronics Technician Technical Product Designers
Sergej Yan-Fa (21) Johanna Kemper (19)
Philip Keding (21)

A warm welcome to our new trainees!

Our freshmen’s first day at punker started exeptionally late at 10:30 am (thanks to flexible work schedules, working at punker is compatible with any kind of sleep habits, really). They were greeted by our Managing Director Dr. Bähren and a welcome committee made up of the training managers, team leaders and “old” trainees. After a round of introductions, the new trainees were equipped with their trainee binders and workwear before they started of to the trainee-operated “punker Shop” for a shopping spree.

Clothed in punker polo shirts, tshirts or longsleeves, they revealed themselves as “the new ones” during the following tour of the premises. The industrial trainees were introduced to their future departments such as manufacturing, tooling and design by their training manager Joachim Peetz, while the commerical trainees were lead through purchasing, sales, order center and accounting by their training managers Felix Hegmann and Svenja Wriedt. This way, each trainee knows where they will start work the next morning.

We didn’t want them to be overwhelmed on their first day, so we let them call it a day at 2:30 pm – which is half an hour before core time ends, by the way.

The first months as a trainee at punker

The trainee binder they received on their first day includes a personal training schedule for the first year of training at punker. Until christmas, the commercial trainees Jana, Jannik and Christoph will tour departments which aren’t really part of their training: manufacturing, R&D, the warehouse and quality management. This way they will gain a an impressions of what punker acutally does and it will help them get a better understanding of how their work contributes to the big picture. When they get back from christmas vacation, they will start working in the commercial departments such as purchasing, sales & marketing, order center and accounting for periods of 3 to 4 months each. The industrial trainees spend the first 4 weeks at the training workshop of the nearby Lürssen shipyard, where they learn the basics of the craft before they start off in the respective departments at punker. The on-the-job training is complemented by vocational schooling – while the commerical trainees spent periods of 4 to 6 weeks in school, the commercial trainees have one or two school days per week.

 

Quality Together

Knowledge Management – A Team Effort

Why is the resource “knowledge” still posing problems for today’s organizations when for milleniums, humans have been successfully practicing knowledge management?  Data, information and knowledge have been preserved in mankind through many generations – even in times when paper was not yet available, when tales where still passed on at the fireplace or simply from parents to their children or from master to apprentice. The quality of these methods surely is debatable. Similar to playing “Chinese Whispers”, story telling or cave art surely caused a lot of information to fall by the wayside. But after all, we always find a way to preserve knowledge and to make it accessible and practicable for the next generation.

So where is the problem?

A common problem is the lack of awareness of the knowledge that is or should be existent within the organization, or what would have to be done to generate it. Existing knowledge is stored in different storage locations in an uncoordinated and unclear manner, making it close to impossible to retrieve. Storage processes and the generation of knowledge are unreproducable and responsibilities only moderately assigned. Against the trends towards “leaner” organizations and modern eletronic possibilities, we are, to this day, still wasting about 25 percent of our labor time on the procurement and conservation of information. An yet, when we leave the organization, we take the lion’s share of know how with us, and it is lost to the rest of the organization.

What can be done about it?

At punker, the path is clear: Documents and information that up until today were hidden deep down in conventional binders, folders and directories will from now on be integrated into a clearly structured, easily understandable knowledge and information management system that is interdivisional and accessible to all staff. Away from old structures towards an interactive source of information in the creation of which all employees are more than welcome to actively participate. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to find required information so that we have more time for utilizing and multiplying this knowledge. All punker production facilities and sales offices worldwide will be tied together with multiple language options. This way, processes can be optimized in real time via direct feedback without delay and the progress of internal projects can be documented “online”, facilitating internal communication tremendously.

During the next few weeks, we will be laying the groundwork for such an “enterprise wiki” at punker. After that, it is up to all of us to feed the system with the information required to face future challenges that accompany demographical change and globalization.

We will keep you posted on this knowledge- and value-adding project on this blog.

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY

 

Quality Together

Customer Survey 2016

In Spring 2016, we conducted a comprehensive customer survey. Our customers’ honest opinion is invaluable for us to further optimize our products and services. It shows us how satisfied they are with our product range and reveals starting points for further increasing customer satisfaction.

How was the survey conducted?

While punker used to conduct customer surveys by sending out paper questionnaires by mail, we this year decided to do an online survey for the first time. Many of our customers valued the previous personal correspondance. However, an online survey offers a lot of advantages regarding the flexibility, handling and design and not least it is by far more resource-saving. We opted for the online tool SurveyMonkey, which we liked a lot. It lets you design surveys fast and conveniently, the survey can be distributed by differents means (automatically generated Email, sending out a link via Email, embedding the survey on a website or social media-channel) and offers extensive options for analyzing results.  We decided to send out a link to the survey via personalized Email to a previously defined group of addressees.

Who was questioned?

We have contacted 1,577 addressees from sales, engineering and qualtity management departments worldwide and devided these into two cohorts – A- and B-customers as well as C-customers. This way we would be able to analyze wether the different customer segments perceived or rated the quality of our products and services differently. The survey has been conducted anonymously in order to get honest feedback.

What was being analyzed?

We asked our customers to rate punker in various areas that are key drivers of customer satisfaction:

  • Product range – i.e. quality, depth and width of our product line and innovative character of our fan wheels
  • Order fulfillment – i.e. delivery times, packaging / labeling, prder processing
  • Our employees – Evaluation of our staff in Sales, Order Center, Engineering and Quality Management
  • Informational resources – i.e.  technical product informationen, puncat Software for the selection of fan wheels, Website www.punker.com and www.punker-usa.com, punker Blog, Newsletter

What have we learned?

  • 97% of participants are satisfied or extremely satisfied with the quality of our products.
  • 98% of participants think our employess from Sales, Order Center, Engineering and Quality Management possess excellent professional competence.
  • Some few participants see room for improvement when it comes to our technical information, such as data sheets, drawings or the selection sofware puncat.
  • 69% of participants don’t know the punker Blog yet – but those who do like it very much.
  • The ratings of our C-customers do not differ from those of our A- and B-customers.
  • Our customers abroad rate us similarly as our German customers.

What happens next?

We are using our customers’ honest feedback as an opportunity to further improve our products and services:

  • We are currently reviewing and revising our product data sheets and customer drawings.
  • We are working on improving our reachability and reducing response times for customer requests.
  • Our puncat selection software is being overhauled – a new web-based application will be released late Summer 2016.
  • We will conduct the next customer survey in Spring 2017 to find out whether our efforts bear fruits.

We thank everyone who participated in this year’s customer survey!

Partners Together

connECKt with punker

punker supports the students’ company connECKt, which advocates the integration of refugees into German society. The cookbooks “Grenzenloses Backen” (Baking without Borders) and “Grenzenloses Kochen” (Cooking without Borders) are now available at the punker Shop.

punker and the  Jungmann School in Eckernförde have been working together for many years to provide students insights into working life at a medium-sized local business. When the school’s 11th grade students founded the student company “connECKt”, they contacted punker to discuss how we could support them in running their business. connECKt.

In December 2015, just in time for Christmas, connECKt published their first cookbook “Grenzenloses Backen”. The recipes where gathered during regular cooking events with refugees from the Eckernförde region. Yogurt Cookies, Arabic Clove-and-Almond Biscuits, Chestnut Pie and sweet cake can be easily reproduced at home. The cookbook also includes tantalizing stories from distant cultures and the experiences refugees made on their long and often strenuous journey to Germany.

In April, 2016, the second cookbook “Grenzenloses Kochen” was published.  On 121 pages, recipes for appetizers, main courses and desserts can be found, supplemented by facts about the country of origin. Icons indicate the level of difficulty and whether the recipe is vegetarian or gluten free. New stories and pictures taken at the cooking events make this a diverting read.

The students took care of the research, layout and distribution of both books independently – with financial support from local sponsors. The 50-page baking book is being sold for 6,90 Euro and the 121-page cook book for 15,90 Euro at local businesses such as book stores, delis or farmer’s and fish markets.

We are happy to support this inspiring project by selling the books to our employees through our in-house “punker Shop”. The punker Shop is organized by our trainees and sells apparel and other articles like USB-Power Banks from the punker collection.

We look forward to working with connECKt and will keep you updated on this great students’ project.

 

 

 

 

Markets Together

Photo Shoot at punker LLC

We were all excited to hear the news that we were going to have the opportunity to participate in a professional photo shoot. We realized immediately that this was a great chance to show the punker Hickory facility and the amazing team we have here.

From the beginning Frederike Walter (punker’s marketing manager from Eckernförde) had worked relentlessly on making the new punker-usa.com website perfect and decided that it couldn’t be perfect without showcasing the people that make it all happen and where it takes place. Frederike and I looked into finding a local photographer that specializes in manufacturing and industrial photography. I met with 3 photographers from our area and decided on Michael LoBiondo.

Preparation for the photo shoot began immediately after securing the photographers. Our first task was to decide on what type of shots we needed. We wanted to stay consistent with our punker brand and “mimic” some shots from the punker image brochure.

As an example…

The combined group shot

The combined group shot

This shot included the following employees:

  • Annette Whitmire – Cross Flow
  • Ryan Kilkelly – Managing Director
  • Adam Harrelson – Welder / Backward Curved wheels
  • Keith Franklin – Welding / Backward Curved wheels
  • Jennifer Branch – Production Supervisor / Logistics / Cross Flow
  • Keith Searcy – Maintenance

We also decided to try and re-create shots like the sales meeting, quality discussions, machine operators, hand welding along with a couple of others.  We did not want it to be exactly the same but we tried to stay with the same concept. The final plan for our total shot list ended up having 15 different staged actions/areas. From team shots, meetings, shipping, to production.

Frederike was helping by providing input on the shots and making sure that we had everything we needed to have a successful photo shoot (polos, t-shirts, sweatshirts etc.). Frederike also noted the importance of keeping this photo shoot authentic, which was greatly appreciated by our employees. – Long beards and all 🙂

ISO certification group picture

ISO certification group picture

PHL is a small group of people and since we are so small, we tried to give everyone who wanted to participate the option to do so. Some people were definitely more nervous than others and some did opt out. But we managed to capture all but one (Neil Fullwood – Quality Team – He was off that day) in our ISO Certification Group Picture. This was also Frank Mueller’s 1st day at PHL – Perfect Timing! (this was all in the plan 😉 ).
The day we had all anticipated had arrived and we were off! The photographers arrived around 8:00am and we began with the picture above as our first shot of the day. Group shots and meeting shots were done first. The photographers, their assistant and the make-up stylist made sure that we were standing or sitting perfectly, looking where we needed to look and that not a hair was out of place.

There was a lot of laughter on this day since none of us had ever had someone chasing us around with a powder puff and hairspray. I think our faces were also sore from holding a smile for so long.

After all of the meeting shots and group shots had been completed, a quick lunch was brought in and we were all back at it. It was on to the “action shots”. The action shots included:  shipping & receiving, manual welding, robotic welding, balancing and the Cross Flow operators.

Some of my favorite shots of the day are the robot welding, balancing and the Cross Flow shot. It was very interesting for us to see how many times the lights needed to be moved to get it “just perfect”, I think we thought it was a little ridiculous until we saw all of the different proofs and realized what a big difference the “perfect lighting” makes.

The photo shoot ended around 4:45pm. For all involved it was a very interesting day. I was very tired but very pleased with all of the support I received from the team. The Management, Quality and Sales group picture has already come to great use as we printed it and sent it to our customers in their Christmas cards.

I am very pleased with the web site. I think having the local team on the site will greatly benefit punker LLC while letting our customers and potential customers see the faces of their suppliers as well as offering a sneak-peak into our facility.

It was a great job done by all!

 

Some additional comments from the team include:

“The photo shoot was a great experience. I think it went very well and was pleased with the website. I am looking forward to seeing more pictures on future publications.”

John Barefoot, Shipping (fork lift shot)

“I was nervous about the photo shoot at the beginning, I didn’t know that I would be in it as much as I was. The photographers were very nice and gave me clear direction so I just kept on working as if they weren’t there. I think everyone was amused with the hair and make-up, it’s not often that you experience that at work. Over all it was a nice experience and I am happy with the way it turned out.”

Annette Whitmire, Cross Flow

“I think the photo shoot went really good” Jessica asked, “Were you nervous?” Keith replied, “Yes, I was really nervous at first about the makeup and my beard. She tried to trim it but I got a little fidgety and she stopped, then it was all good.”

Keith Franklin, Welding / Balancing (balancing shot, quality with Michael Greene shot)

Markets Together

From the Idea to the Booth – 2016 AHR Show Orlando

When exhibiting at trade shows, companies always present their best side. Exhibition stands are supposed to appear effortlessly inviting, professional and innovative. In the months leading up to AHR Expo in Orlando, Florida, I came to find out just how much strategic thought and hard work goes into actualizing a successful presentation.

Coming up with a concept

The 2016 AHR Show in Orlando had the target to relaunch our HVAC wheel series to the market. The decision was made early on that there was a need for a new marketing concept, especially for the American market.

In the end of November 2015, the punker LLC team had the first brain storm meeting to discuss new ideas for the show. Members of the team included Ryan Kilkelly (Managing Director), Michael Greene (Quality Management), Jessica Owens (Inside Sales) and myself, Frank Mueller.

An abundance of ideas were laid out on the table but only two made it out of the meeting. It was decided that we need one display stand to proudly announce that Hickory manufactures in the USA and another to showcase the R63D-HVAC wheel and include technical information.

The display stands we had used in the past weren’t useful for this goal. It was decided to redesign the booth and purchase new display stands.

The different ideas of the “Made in the USA” campaign ranged from an American flag made using backward curved and cross flow wheels to powder coated wheels in the traditional US colors; red, white and blue. Ultimately, it was decided that three R63D-HVAC wheels were to be coated in these colors, which also happen to be punker’s standard corporate colors.

The concept for the HVAC display was simple, the R63D-HVAC and the new D light wheel were positioned in the center of the display while side panels included technical information from our brochure.

The Sales team at punker LLC then began the search for a company to create our vision. We found a local company nearby and began the process.

In previous years, punker has rented all equipment for the booth. This year, the decision was made to purchase all of the items. This move is sure to save punker from costly rental fees in the future.

In addition to support from the entire punker LLC team, we also received a tremendous amount of support and assistance from Frederike Walter from the Marketing Department in Eckernforde. Ms. Walter assisted in everything from the space rental, booth design, literature, wheels – you name it and she helped with it.

Planning the idea to the booth consumed a minimum of three months. A lot of planning went into turning our vision into reality and finally seeing our material waiting at our booth. There were plenty of days leading up to the show that “show planning” turned into a full time job for Jessica.

The AHR Expo 2016

The Expo took place from January 25th – January 27th. It is the largest show for the HVAC industry in the US. Exhibitors included many of our competitors and also many customers, too. This was truly a great opportunity to meet with our customers and especially for me to be able to introduce myself as the “New Area Sales Manager” of the Americas.

In my opinion, out of 42,396 visitors and 17,978 exhibitors, it was clear that the following three topics stood out amongst the rest:

  1. Energy Efficiency
  2. American Made Products “Made in the USA”
  3. Plastic Wheels

To our surprise, many of our competitors presented plastic wheels and expect to see a great market for them in the future. However, this is not our opinion. We will watch this closely as only time will tell.

In general, the show was well attended from potential customers around the world. Not only did we have visits from many US customers, but other countries as well, such as: Israel, Egypt, Saudi-Arabia, India, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and China were also represented.

Many visitors to our booth were interested in our HVAC product line, focused on the potential for energy efficiency. Energy efficiency will begin to make a strong impact on the sale decision following the continued efforts of the DOE’s bill for efficiency.

 

To see more pictures from 2016 AHR Expo in Orlando, visit the SmugMug gallery.