MATHESON

The Gas Professionals

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Meet Carolyn, Our November Employee Spotlight

Most mornings, Carolyn wakes up and drives anywhere in a sixty-mile radius of MATHESON’S Columbus, Nebraska store to speak with and assist customers working at businesses such as metal manufacturing facilities, ethanol plants, and even fire truck manufacturers. 

This is an environment Carolyn not only loves but one in which she thrives. “I love working with our customers and taking care of them. This job allows me to travel and bring new ideas and solutions to the attention of our clientele.” 

Carolyn has been a MATHESON Outside Sales Representative since 2006. However, she has thirty-four years of combined experience in sales, management, and accounting. Carolyn began working for Linweld in the late 1980s and stayed on when MATHESON acquired Linweld in 2006. 

“I love helping customers throughout the entire process, but the support you give after the sale is critical in the longevity of customer retention.”  

Carolyn

Carolyn’s typical day involves problem solving and offering ideas to customers to help improve their general processes or provide vending solutions, automation studies, welding processes, and safety solutions.  She will often assist in training customers in using new equipment and be available to support and troubleshoot questions on our products. “Service after the sale is essential to me,” states Carolyn. “I love helping customers throughout the entire process, but the support you give after the sale is critical in the longevity of customer retention.”  

Over three decades in the workforce have allowed Carolyn to learn a thing or two about customer relationships. “The best lesson I have learned during my career would be to take good care of your customers and build loyalty with them. You are developing relationships and trust with your clients that will continue to foster other relationships and help grow your business.” 

 “Teamwork is another large part of my success. I couldn’t do it without my fellow team members at the store. The collaborative environment at MATHESON is exceptional; we frequently bounce ideas off one another and help each other out in any way we can.” 

When she is not traveling with her husband to different parts of the US, Carolyn likes spending time in her garden at her home in Omaha.  “I have a lot of fun gardening. I love growing jalapenos and everything else needed to make salsa, my favorite treat.”

If you are ever in Nebraska, you should be on the lookout for Carolyn. 

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Production Capacity Success Story: Cryogenic Freezing

OBJECTIVES

To keep up with pet food demands that quickly skyrocketed during COVID lockdowns and double production until a new plant can be constructed.


CHALLENGES

A leading manufacturer of high-quality dog food saw steady growth of their product lines over the last decades. A new plant was under construction but would not be ready for a few years. There have been massive spikes in sales due to COVID quickly exceeding the production capacity for the current location. This company needed to double production in a short time frame without substantial capital expenditures or plant expansions.

MATHESON SOLUTION

This pet food manufacturer used an older cryogenic 3-pass tunnel freezer at their manufacturing facilities for many years as part of their only existing production line. The freezing process was the limiting factor to additional production. The customer ran this line beyond its design capacity, trying to maximize throughput. Constant breakdowns and high wear caused the unit to require frequent and expensive maintenance. As a critical process, it would often bring the entire plant to a standstill when breakdowns occurred. The small production area limited their ability to use a larger freezer that was more suitable for their production goals.

Approximately six months before being approached by this customer, MATHESON purchased a used 3-pass freezer. MBI Cryogenics, Inc., a MATHESON owned cryogenic food freezing and chilling equipment manufacturer, refurbished the freezer to ensure it was in good operational condition.  This 3-pass freezer could be the interim solution for this pet food manufacturer.

After rigorous testing and economic analysis were conducted by the logistics, cryogenic service, gas applications, and sales teams, it was determined that the 3-pass freezer would be a great solution. The overall size of the freezer was the same as the current system, allowing them to be placed in parallel identically configured production. A thorough review of the customer requirements indicated that the belt speed and liquid nitrogen flows had to be dramatically increased, calling for additional modifications. The unit was modified in Los Angeles as nitrogen tanks were ordered and installed. 

A team of skilled and experienced contractors installed the system under the supervision of the MATHESON Application Engineer. New vacuum-insulated piping and stainless steel exhaust systems were quickly installed over a few days. The system was tested using the actual product, and a few minor modifications were made to better accommodate customer’s specific requirements.

The customer was greatly impressed with the ease of utilizing MATHESON as a total solution provider to investigate the production problem, procure the equipment, commission the system, deliver the gas, and provide technical support to maintain the production while installing and starting up the equipment.  Production capacity was dramatically increased with a new redundancy provided by two identical, parallel production lines. MATHESON brought the entire system online within the customer’s six-month window. The total cost was about half the price of a new system. 

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Meet Rita, Our October Employee Spotlight

If you are ever headed out to the Wisconsin area, you may be lucky to interact with Rita, the Purchasing Manager for MATHESON’s Southeastern Wisconsin, Illinois, Eastern Minnesota and Eastern Iowa regions. 

Rita began working at MATHESON in 2011, but has been a part of the welding industry since 1996 with over 25 years of experience in the business. Her daily responsibilities as a purchasing manager include a variety of tasks such as supporting MATHESON’S retail stores, assisting in creating purchase orders for welding hard goods, helping with shipments, and doing physical inventory. 

An aspect of her job that Rita particularly enjoys is inventory management and making sure all stores are properly stocked. Rita works diligently with our site managers to make sure our customers get the products they need as soon as possible. “We have a great team of site managers and purchasing managers; we all work very well together and support each other whenever necessary.  It is so great to be a part of a team where we all feel like family.”

I have been involved in so many areas of MATHESON; it is nice to have that experience and knowledge to help me make informed decisions and help my teammates.

Rita

In Rita’s years of experience, she has picked up a few life lessons along the way, one of which is “knowledge is power.” She loves learning and is always taking additional courses to help her grow professionally. By doing so, Rita is able to assist her coworkers when they need support and uses those lessons she has learned to not only help her at MATHESON but in her everyday life, as well.  “I have been involved in so many areas of MATHESON; it is nice to have that experience and knowledge to help me make informed decisions and help my teammates.” 

Here at MATHESON, our company culture revolves around helping our customers. Rita strives to continually learn new skills that will ultimately help our patrons, whether it be making product suggestions or knowing the customer’s buying behavior in the different regions she manages. Even when Rita’s work does not require her to directly interact with customers, she is still helping them from afar, and MATHESON as a whole. 

If you were to run into Rita during her personal time you may find her reading the latest fantasy or science fiction novel, listening to the albums of anything by C.F. Kip Winger, or relaxing with one of her favorite hobbies…photography. “I really enjoy photography, especially wildlife photography. It is a pretty relaxing activity and because I have to wait to watch the wildlife come out and do something interesting, it also helps teach me patience.”  If you want to be a part of the MATHESON family, visit our career page to find a job opportunity near you:

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