Team Knowledge – Johnny Cid-Luques

Johnny is our trainee Field Service Engineer and joined Status in 2021. Since he started Johnny has visited many client sites and we took a little time out to chat with him about his role and get an insight into his work.

Tell us about a typical day in the life of a field engineer.
My day always starts with coffee. I am a very early riser and with a coffee behind me, I am usually raring to go in the morning. I am sure everyone says this, but there is no typical day!

As a field engineer, I visit customers all over the UK so getting an early start means I can also beat the traffic. I could be in Northampton one day and next week I could be in Northern Ireland so there is lots of travelling.

I am fortunate enough to meet some interesting customers and gain insight into so many different industries. From CMM breakdown and calibration to maintenance and upgrades, being a field engineer means that most of the time I am responsible for getting CMM’s up and running quickly when there are issues. Lots of customers only have a handful of CMM’s so it is really important that we leave them with working and reliable equipment.

What brands of CMM have you recently worked on?

I work with a few brands of CMM’s and I have been lucky enough to work with many of the bigger brands such as Mitutoyo, Hexagon and LK and also Zeiss which are less common. It’s great to be able to work with many types of machines and I have a good grasp of most of the CMM’s available in the UK.

What is your favourite part of your job?

I enjoy travelling and the fact that my job is really varied. One day I can be at the computer working on calibration and then the next day I could be travelling anywhere in the UK to visit a client on-site.  The different elements of mechanical, electrical and talking to customers whilst working on different CMM’s make my job interesting, and goes back to my previous comment, that every day is genuinely different to the next.

Which CMM stands out to you?

The Hexagon Leitz is an incredible CMM, which is a very specialist piece of equipment that can handle complex geometries which I find fascinating. One day I would like to work on one of these.

But day to day I enjoy working on all CMM’s for their capability, precision and the fact that they are used in so many industries from aerospace to automotive.

What qualities do you need to have as a service engineer?

I would say that it is important that you are flexible, as mentioned before calibration is so different to a CMM move for example. Having good communication skills is also a great quality to have as there are lots of face-to-face to meetings with customers, especially when visiting a site to help diagnose and fix a problem.

Why is maintenance of CMM equipment so important?

Regular maintenance is a really good way to give equipment a good health check to pre-empt any unnecessary breakdowns. CMM equipment relies on accuracy, so when there is regular maintenance in place it gives the operators the confidence and reassurance that the results are precise. There have been occasions where customers have explained that their machinery is working well but the CMM is not reporting accurate results often on machinery that hasn’t had regular maintenance. So having a service plan in place helps to bring peace of mind that the results they are getting are accurate.

What advice would you give to anyone considering a role as a field service engineer?

It is a great career to learn and develop new skills. I have been given so many opportunities through my college and also through Status to learn about new technology. Status have been very supportive, and I have been to Hexagon and Renishaw on training courses, which were excellent. It is a career that would certainly suit a problem solver.

It can sometimes be challenging working and travelling alone, but I get a lot of support from my colleagues. I also really like my course at Nottingham Trent University and the combination of working and gaining a qualification is a perfect way to be able to apply theoretical knowledge with on the job practical.