The Nor-Cal Controls in-house fabrication shop builds electrical control panels, weather stations, data acquisition racks and network racks for our solar PV monitoring and control systems. Our skilled fabrication team builds from engineered blueprints or drawings supplied by Nor-Cal's engineering group.
With multiple projects happening at once, there's never a dull moment. We sat down with Production Manager Doug Yates to discuss a day in the life at the fabrication shop.
How does the fabrication team continuously improve? How do you implement lessons you've learned?
Everything we build goes through rigorous testing and a quality check process, during which we document and notate our opportunities for nonconforming materials. Then, we enact process improvements based on any items that fail after the first pass of our quality check and follow it up with a second quality check.
We're constantly evaluating all the steps that it takes to complete each build. As a custom integrator, one of the most interesting and challenging aspects of our job is that there's little duplication between projects. Having something even slightly different on each build keeps us on our toes. We approach this as an excellent opportunity to keep focusing forward and continuously find better ways to do everything.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
Right now, pandemic-related supply chain issues are our biggest challenge. We're dealing with long lead times for materials, and many customers are shifting deliverable dates around, which has had a huge impact on our business. Thankfully, we have a creative and collaborative team working hard and smart to mitigate these challenges.
Learn more: Mitigating Supply Chain Challenges in the Renewable Energy Industry
What is the coolest part of your day?
It sounds a little corny, but my favorite thing about each day is getting to work with my team. I feel like I'm the luckiest person at Nor-Cal Controls because I get to manage such a great team. It's a group of individuals who have such a passion for building the highest quality product.
Put Nor-Cal's experience, passion and dedication to work for you.
At Nor-Cal Controls, we're committed to providing our customers with open architecture solutions that give you complete control and flexibility over your custom solar solutions. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, our team of dedicated solar solutions specialists remains dedicated to ensuring our customers receive proven engineering excellence, customizable solar solutions, and unrivaled customer service at every step of the way.
If you'd like to learn more about any of our control systems solutions, contact us or request a demo today.
