How does a company that takes care of animals, people, and machinery survive without a good maintenance department? The answer is, they can’t! Traver Weber, who has been the maintenance manager for the past four months, shared his thoughts on the responsibilities and organizational structure that protect the birds, people, and machinery that are a cornerstone of MacFarlane Pheasants.
The maintenance department is responsible for maintaining all equipment used at MacFarlane Pheasants. A checklist is followed before tractors and trailers leave the farm for deliveries to make sure this equipment leaves the farm in tip-top shape. They do regularly scheduled oil changes and other equipment changes as needed. In addition to those duties, they repair the barn equipment, like heaters, dimmer lights, fans, etc. The crew repairs and builds delivery crates and makes doors, gate, and pen repairs. In fact, if anything on the farm needs repair, the maintenance department is prepared to do the job.
The maintenance department has four employees led by Traver Weber, the maintenance manager. Each person has a specialty area, but all help whenever needed on any project. One of the crew members does most of the woodworking jobs, one is a diesel mechanic, and one person is designated to handle barn repair work. Traver believes in something called “Servant Leadership.” He explained that this philosophy is centered on the manager (Traver) asking each employee what he can do to make their job easier. If that means that he will clean the truck so the mechanic can focus all their energy on the mechanical repair, then that’s what he does. Traver also does all the parts ordering so that crew members don’t have to take time away from repairs to do that job.
Work orders are filled out by priority of need and importance:
5. Highest Priority-Safety of employees or animals
4. Could cause us to miss a ship date or has caused or will cause damage to company property.
3. It’s broken and will not work
2. It’s an inconvenience and when repaired will improve quality of job
1. No rush - get at it when you can
Traver ended our discussion by sharing his thoughts on how much he enjoys working with such dedicated and talented crew members at MacFarlane Pheasants. He looks forward to incorporating his background in maintenance software to build on his dedication to protecting the birds, people, and machinery that are so important to the business.
