Dan Williams: Taking our Product Line into the Future
Dan Williams is a Design Engineer for GT SCHMIDT. His last position was with Comcast where he worked on the design and costing of fiber optic routes. Looking for a new challenge, he was attracted to our small, fast-growing company. He thought his ideas might be implemented more quickly here, and he knew he could bring a new perspective to our existing designs. He joined us in February of 2017.
Product Makeovers and Future Innovations
With his work background and a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from IIT, Dan feels well qualified to perform his duties here at GT SCHMIDT. He is responsible for developing bills of material (a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, parts, etc. required to manufacture an end product), product design, product revisions, and the designing and execution of laser marking samples for perspective customers.
Dan’s duties also include the challenge of deciding which products should stay in the line, be replaced with new products or be declared obsolete. Part of this task is keeping his eye on developing trends such as smaller laser enclosures. He is also listening to our customers when they ask for things like faster, deeper laser marks.
Job Satisfaction
What Dan enjoys best about his job is seeing the whole process of producing new products unfold: watching them go from idea to design to the manufacturing line. He is also proud of the fact that, despite his short tenure, he is already training customers on best practices for our products. One thing that surprised Dan about the company was the longevity of our employees, with many being here over two decades. He is pleased to be welcomed into such a close-knit group.
Off the Clock Activities
Away from the company, Dan likes to improve his guitar skills with some rock riffs or get together with friends for playing the latest board games or a few hands of cards. He keeps fit and reduces stress by regular rounds of weight lifting. Quiet times find him with a book by one of his favorite authors: Gene Wolfe, Kurt Vonnegut, Dan Simmons or Tom Clancy.
When he can get away, Dan’s favorite travel spot is California. He enjoys the weather, the natural environment such as the mountains and oceans and all the things to see and do outdoors.
