Gray's career is on the right track
by Paul V. Arnold
Imagination is life’s No. 2 pencil.
If boundaries or barriers stand in your
way, use the eraser end.
If asked to jot an essay answering the
question "Why?," use the lead end to write in big letters:
WHY NOT?
How sharp is your pencil? Ever use the
eraser?
In a country where everybody wants to
be No. 1, only imaginative people — the pencil people — know
the importance of being No. 2. That’s Thomas Gray.
A creative, hands-on guy by nature,
Gray spent his free time tinkering with automobiles and doing home
improvement chores. He had a good job as a U.S.
Postal Service mail carrier in Salt
Lake City, but wanted more from a career.
Gray imagined himself as a maintenance
mechanic at the local USPS processing and distribution facility.
One problem: He didn’t have any
formal education or training in maintenance and electronics.
Erase the barriers? Why not!
Gray made it happen by visiting the
Salt Lake City public library every chance he got. He read textbooks,
manuals, trade magazines — anything to fill his head.
"I took the Postal Service
maintenance test and passed it," he says.
Being a Level 5 maintenance mechanic
was just the start.
His ability to learn on the fly and
seek out company-sponsored training opportunities helped him achieve
Level 7 status. He recently passed advanced testing and will soon
become a Level 9 electronics technician (ET), the highest
classification available for Salt Lake City maintenance employees.
"The first time I took the ET
test, I didn’t pass," he says. "After getting suggestions
on reference materials from the maintenance manager and studying them,
I passed it the next time."
Gray currently serves as a mail
processing equipment specialist and is one of only a handful of
maintenance pros doing preventive, predictive and repair work on the
facility’s high-tech, big-money tray management system (TMS).
Maintenance took control of the TMS last November.
The backbone of that system is a cadre
of 13 trains that travels on an overhead track. Each train consists of
a tug and 30 trolleys and functions on a wealth of electrical
components, automation equipment and computer software.
Each train precisely transfers and
deposits mail trays at destinations throughout the production area.
Taking care of the TMS requires
technical wizardry and, yes, a little imagination. Gray gets creative
by using his automobile knowledge.
"One vehicle runs on electronics
and the other on oil, but there are similarities," he says.
"You need ingenuity sometimes to make it work. Parts may not be
available, or the problem may not be that obvious."
He also develops ways to modify trains
to increase maintainability and mean time between failure.
When a mail train must get back into
operation, Gray always gets the lead out.
This article appeared in the
August/September 2001 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2001.
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