Gerwin

While helping my parents on the farm in 2016, I got talking to Gerrit, one of the founders of SCW Systems. He came to get separated cow manure for a new gasification test. I told Gerrit about my background, and he mentioned that they were looking to expand the team at SCW. This was soon followed by an interview. I was impressed by the plans and so consciously decided to go with SCW and the challenges it presents.

After graduating from my senior secondary technical school, I immediately went on to study mechanical engineering at technical college and got my diploma in that as well. After this I had various jobs, including in technical service, as a maintenance employee, and as a warehouse manager. I have now been working for SCW for 6 years as an engineer/operations planner.

It is really fantastic to work for SCW. I have seen the company grow from a small start-up in a mobile office to the innovative, dynamic and fast-growing company it is today. Working at SCW can easily be combined with raising my young family. Though there is no 9 to 5 mentality, you are fairly free to set your own working hours – as long as the work gets done. For example, I have a ‘daddy day’ every other Friday.

A working day at SCW is never the same. I start the day by opening the plant so that everyone (both internal and external employees) can get to work. I then go through my email and we discuss the work that will take place this day. We try to find solutions with the team for any issues we encounter. Then I do the rounds to visit the people who are busy building on the plant site. I check whether they are having any problems or missing anything. I then order these items or have them ready so that the work can continue smoothly. I often have a review with a process engineer to see whether the solutions we devised are also feasible in practice. Together with my colleagues from the mechanical team, we take on a job and work out all the details. I end my day by doing a round of the employees busy building things to find out if they need any parts or other stuff, which I then order before I head off home.

With the growth of the company there are many opportunities to grow within the organisation. We are looking for a lot of new people to strengthen our ‘SCW family’. It is truly wonderful to be part of SCW with the opportunities and challenges we face. I’m thrilled to be involved in taking the company’s technologies from concepts on the drawing board through to a plant that is in continuous operation. This is the future!