Imagine working in different countries all around the world every day and navigating different languages, cultures and even time zones – without ever leaving your office. Your day starts with a call from Australia and ends with you solving a problem for a customer in Mexico. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Well, that’s exactly what an average day for a PLC Technician at KNAPP is like. Check out our job postings – we’re sure you’ll catch the travel bug in no time!
This blog will show you a day in the life of a PLC Technician, also known as a PLC Support Engineer. Our colleague Luca Kasan has been working as a PLC Technician at KNAPP since 2022, making him the perfect person to tell you all about it.
Luca Kasan, PLC Support Engineer, International Customer Service
What are your main responsibilities?
Luca: My main job is to receive support requests from our customers all around the world and to process them by finding a solution.
If a customer has a problem, they reach out to our colleagues in 1st Level Support, who are our customers’ first point of contact. They determine if there’s a quick fix to the problem, and if not, they create a support ticket, which summarizes all the important information about the support request. Then the ticket is sent to me so I can work on finding a solution. Sometimes the customer has an inkling of what might have caused the problem, and sometimes it’s pretty clear, like if the error occurred right after a power outage. I use all this information to connect to their system using a PLC program and try to find out what caused the error – and, of course, how I can solve it. If a mechanical part is broken, then fixing the error is simple. For more complex issues, I start by offering a temporary workaround so the customer can get back to work right away. Then I have some breathing room to find a long-term solution.
Working as a PLC Technician means I receive support requests on both mechanical and electrical topics, especially relating to our conveyor systems, picking stations and shuttles.
What are the requirements for this job in terms of education, previous knowledge and interests?
Luca: To work as a PLC Technician, you need more than just the right technical know-how. You also need to have the right personal characteristics for the job.
To sum it up, if you’re a solution-oriented person who enjoys offering a friendly ear to customers from all over the world and working in a team, you’ve got what it takes for a promising career as a PLC Technician.
What does an average day at work look like?
Luca: As soon as I arrive at my office, I log into our phone system. Then I check the current status of my open tickets and work with our customers to solve their support requests.
In general, my average day varies a lot and is always full of surprises because I work with so many different people from different cultures on different issues each and every day. Good communication is key, both with our international customers and within our company. I work closely with other departments, such as the Development Department. Language support plays an important role, too. Since we communicate in English, we also offer language support for additional languages, such as French, Chinese and Portuguese. Once I’ve found a solution for a customer, I explain it to our language support team, who then convey the information to the customer in the respective language.
In your opinion, why does this job have good prospects for the future?
Luca: To ensure that our customers receive first-class service, KNAPP offers much more than just solutions for highly automated systems. Customer Service also provides a complete, top-notch package with plenty of support solutions.
This range of service solutions is reflected in my work as a PLC Technician because I help customers all around the world solve problems with their conveyors or shuttles. To do that, I apply my technical expertise, which is in very high in demand on the job market. Since customer service plays a major role at KNAPP and my skills greatly contribute to customer satisfaction, my job is very appealing and has great prospects for the future.
What do you like most about your job? And what challenges you?
Luca:
Want to know more?
Do you, too, want to navigate different languages, cultures and time zones from the comfort of your own desk?
Then follow Luca’s lead and apply to become a KNAPP PLC Technician today! We’re sure you’ll catch the travel bug in no time! Check out the job posting here: Job posting: Service Desk Engineer PLC
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