Darryl Richardson
Hi, I’m Darryl Richardson, the Engineering Manager here at WCE.
Tell us about your career at WCE?
I’ve been working at WCE for over 12 years. I started my career at WCE as an apprentice tool maker, with a passion for engineering. A short-while after completion of my apprenticeship, I moved into the drawing office as a Technical Engineer. I held this position for 8 years, before progressing into a more people-focused role, as the Engineering Manager.
Designing hydraulic cylinders at WCE
The design phase is crucial, so we work in collaboration with our customers. We get to know their application process inside out, in order to design a hydraulic cylinder that matches their exact requirements.
We use the latest CAD technology in Autodesk Inventor (3D). This allows us to bring our innovations to life and collaborate our ideas with our customers. Once we have crunched all the details in design, our team utilises an ERP system to build our BOM’s and factory routings. This ensures a smooth process from planning to dispatch and keeps track of the cylinder progression along its journey.
What’s a typical day like?
My typical day involves communicating and collaborating externally with new and existing customers and internally with staff members. Ensuring we keep a close relationship between the design office and the shop floor is also critical, to deliver on our customers’ needs.
What is the best part of being the Engineering Manager at WCE?
I get to help people and solve problems. I get to provide value, make people’s lives better, develop employees’ skills and be a force for positive advancement and change.
What do you like doing for fun?
I’m quite into my cooking and also building things. I’ve recently completed a build of my first offset smoker, and now using it to smoke meats such as brisket and pork. This started as a hobby to get through Covid, but now has moved on and grown so much I’ve had to mount it on a trailer!
Please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn below.
