Working as a Maintenance Engineer at a plastic moulding factory

After getting Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from Dawood College of Engineering in 1972 I worked for one year as Medical Trainee at Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company in their Medical Division, in Karachi. Due to non-availability of a vacancy I was not offered any job. I became job less. For the next three months I was spending all week typing applications using one finger on manual typewriter, as no PC had been introduced in Pakistan at that time. After sending hundreds of applications and getting a few regrets, finally I got a letter asking me to come for interview next week on the given address.

I went for the interview. After a short interview I was given a stapled paper that said “Technical Test”. I told the person who took my interview that it had been more than an year and I might have forgotten some technical stuff from Electronic Engineering that might be in the test. He assured me that I have been “selected” for the job by the overseas company and this is just as a formality for their record.

After the test he explained me the job, salary and benefits and asked me to bring my passport and copy of the International Driving License within a week. Making the story short, as I have already written a blog about it.

I worked with this overseas company in their oil exploration work in various African countries for eight years. When the company did not have a suitable opening for my services, I was given a return ticket with the instructions “we may call you back, but until you hear from us, start looking for a job in Pakistan”.

This was 1984, and by this time I already had a family with two kids, and was living with my parents and six siblings in Karachi. I started applying for a job again, but to my surprise no company was looking at my overseas experience as a relevant experience for their requirement for any engineering positions. After a few weeks I got a job at a plastic moulding company known as Rahber Plastic Industries as a Maintenance Engineer. I had no experience, rather I had never seen a plastic moulding machine, but I needed a job to support my own family and also extended family, so I took the job.

My first task in this factory was to establish a testing and repair section for electrical/electronic controls that was used in various plastic moulding machines of different make and capacity. Some machines were new for smaller jobs and were imported from Japan, while some were imported as used machines from Germany. Until my appointment, this task was done by “technicians” who had no formal education or technical education. Some of them could not even write their name, so their thumb impression was used on pay registers. These technicians were supervised by the brother of the owner, who never wanted to get any gadgets used in the machine to be repaired in the factory, as he was getting some kick-back from the suppliers.

When I had set up the repair section and started getting an number of those electrical controls like timers, pressure sensors, switches, relays worth millions of rupees (local currency) I had stopped this extra income of the owner’s brother. He used the technicians to start making the machines “defective” that I had left in working order when I went home the previous evening. I had no idea why the machine suddenly went out of commission. I had to use electrical wiring diagram, which I had never seen before and the whole process of the machine was a virtual mystery to me.

After spending a few hours each day, I learnt about the machines and once these technicians knew that I could tell the owners the reason of machines becoming “defective”, they could loose their job, they became my friends and told me all about the owner’s brother activities. I kept working as usual, but the owner started appreciating my work. One day he called me in his office, and told me that he has imported a giant plastic moulding machine that can not be put into production, as the Electrical Control Panel was coming in a different consignment and that ship sank. He first showed me the machine and then the wiring diagram and asked me build that panel. When I saw the diagram, I could make any sense, as it was in German. I told him that I do not know German language. He just said “Then learn it, the company will pay”.

After spending eight hours on the job, I went in the evening thrice a week to learn German language from the German Consulate. After completing the Introductory course in three months, I started working with an associate that I was allowed to hire to work in this project. I selected a talented young male, let us call him Saleem, who had just completed the two-year Diploma in Electrical Technology. In just three months, we were able to “manufacture” a completely new Electrical Control Panel for the used German machine.

I had hired another young technician with high school certificate to test the machine. Due to a slight misunderstanding on the part of Saleem, he pressed the button to close the automatic door that the timer does after a delay of one minute when the machine is set to start the heater to melt the plastic pellets to pour in the mould for the plastic products. For this machine this product was a plastic bucket of 15 litre size. Saleem did not notice that the other technician was inside the door and he was checking a switch. This caused his hand being cut near his shoulder, and if I had not acted fast enough to switch off the machine, his hand would have been complete cut. We had to immediately provide transportation to take him to the nearest hospital. The company provide him all possible help. After a few more tests and some modifications we were able to put that machine into production. Whenever I look back, I realize that if you have the will to succeed, and work with devotion, there is nothing that you cannot do.