Engineering Week Employee Spotlight

TAYLOR GOLDSMITH

You probably didn’t know that Great Plains Industries has a former record-holding college athlete working in its engineering department! Taylor Goldsmith has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wichita State University where he was also a participant in indoor track. Taylor held a WSU record for a number of years in the weight throw event.

During his time at WSU, Taylor started as an intern at Great Plains Industries. Nearly 9 years later, he has worked on notable projects like the M30 mechanical fuel meter, and the V25 and V20 modular vane, fuel transfer pumps.

Taylor credits his early interest in Legos and his curiosity of how things work with his decision to enter the engineering field. Curious, creative, not afraid to challenge the norm, always learning/seeking better solutions, problem solving, critical thinking are all traits he says make for a great engineer and things he embodies himself. When asked what his dream engineering job was, he said he would create the next big gadget and retire early; we can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

When speaking of the Great Plains Industries work environment, Taylor had this to say,

“It is a good work environment when everyone is on the same page. We all want to put the best product out there that we can. At the same time, we are not all robots and can connect on a human level too.”

We appreciate Taylor’s hard work, and while we hope he gets rich inventing this future-state gadget, we are thrilled to have him until then!

LAURA STORM

GPI gives the warmest welcome to our newest Engineer, Laura Storm! Laura has a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wichita State University. Since childhood, she has been obsessed with robots from cartoons and other media…in fact, she would love to work on animatronics! She has always enjoyed tinkering and figuring out how things work, and so it seems natural that in her current position, she designs fixtures and tooling to aid production.

She is very excited to see changes in Engineering demographics:

There’s more female and POC representation in Engineering. As a Latina engineer it fills my heart with joy to see so many Professional & Student societies that inspire young kids from all backgrounds to consider and pursue STEM careers.

Speaking to her own accomplishments within the field, Laura presented an R&D project in front of a panel of industry professionals with over 100 years of combined experience and was commended for how she presented. As many can relate, she has always had a fear of public speaking, and as one of the youngest researchers, it was a very intimidating task, so receiving that positive feedback cemented her sense of belonging in the engineering field.

In her free time, Laura enjoys reading, gardening, arts & crafts like origami, and playing video games with her husband. She loves to travel and enjoys different cultures.

Although Laura has only been at GPI for about 2 months, it seems that she fits right in, as she states about GPI, “I really appreciate the sense of camaraderie and the approach to problem-solving I’ve witnessed so far, and how invested GPI is in the well-being of the workers, be it professionally or heath-wise.” She looks forward to future ambitious projects in GPI’s future, and GPI looks forward to more ambitious projects with Laura. We have enjoyed these two months and look forward to the future with Laura! Thank you for all you do!

JON CURRIER

Great Plains Industries has had the pleasure of employing Jon Currier for 15 years. In that time, he has developed design concepts for new products and prototypes, as well as testing and determining cost feasibility. He works closely with the production line, helping address issues they may be having, overseeing initial production builds and typically remains involved with the product for years after it is built and in production.

Jon has five kids, so he stays very busy. In the summer he enjoys outdoor activities like riding bikes and going to the pool. A guitar enthusiast, he owns 7 guitars and has played for over 40 years. He has a large collection of Legos – a common theme among engineers, it seems – and would have loved to have worked for Lego or Mattel as a toy designer.

Some of Jon’s proudest accomplishments are:

• 9 U.S. patents granted
• 162 injection molded parts that went into production
• A highest single tooling expenditure on a design of $750,000 – an anxiety inducing investment for an engineer 3 years into his career
• Highest annual production for a single product design (units sold per year): 1,000,000+ over 5-6 years (this was the same product that cost $750,000 to tool up)

Over his 25+ year career, Jon has seen many things change in the field, from software to 3D printing. Not only has the quality got better, but it is much cheaper too.

He appreciates the family-based culture at Great Plains Industries and the ability to bounce ideas off other people. To observe the engineers here is to be amused by their lighthearted banter. And though Jon may be one of the quieter engineers, he’s sneaky funny and sometimes will catch you off-guard with a joke as he makes a quick exit.

We are grateful to have you, Jon!

JOYCE CHIAM

Joyce Chiam is a student for life. When asked what she would do if she weren’t an engineer, she said that she would be happy to be a student for the rest of her life. Perhaps it is not too much of a stretch then, that what drew her to engineering was the desire to do things in a faster and easier manner. Industrial engineering introduced her to concepts and tools backed by science and data that is useful both at work and at home.

In her position at Great Plains Industries, Joyce provides recommendations on design layout, operator flex strategies, and improvement ideas to help increase efficiency to mitigate ergonomic risks of the job. She is involved in various data collection initiatives, from time studies to test stand data to help transform numbers into actionable improvement plans. Most recently, she has been assisting in project planning and production implementation of new products, as well as creating standard operating procedure documents of new equipment that help automate our assembly process.

Joyce’s team was awarded and recognized at conferences for their senior design project that they had collaborated with Great Plains Industries on in 2021. They placed second at the Institute of Systems Engineers (IISE) Regional conference, received an award from West Point Military Academy, officially published their project in a journal, and were invited to present their project at the IISE Annual Conference. This accomplishment not only helped secure her full-time position with us, but also pushed her to learn from mistakes and continuously do better conference after conference, “It meant a lot to me when family, friends and people at work said they were really proud of me.”

Would Joyce encourage more young women and girls to go into her field? “Absolutely! Engineering is not at all about "being smart" it is about enjoying the journey of problem solving and thinking of the best solution to positively impact everyone around you. A small change can result in big impacts and being part of the ups and downs of problem solving just makes the outcome so much more rewarding.”

In her free time, she enjoys a variety of activities such as pilates, cooking, baking, and recently, she learned how to do her own nails, which she finds to be fun and stress-relieving. She also enjoys watching football so that she can bicker with her co-workers – Go Bills!

Her dream engineering job would be to work at Disneyland or Universal Studios as an Industrial Engineer. She is intrigued by the prospect of working on projects like bathroom capacity, reducing wait times on popular rides, and scheduling characters at different areas of the park so they don’t clash. She would also like to do data analysis on using Fast Pass/Lightning Lane to see if visitors actually get their money’s worth.

What gets Joyce excited about the future here? Their mission to take Lean to the next level, saying, “Everyone involved in this mission is open to changes and all have the best interest of the company in mind. Changes are effectively and openly accepted, so I get to see the outcome of different solutions and be part of the implementation phase. Aside from that, upcoming automation projects spark my motivation as it not only helps with production throughput, but it also makes our operators' jobs more efficient and ergonomic.”

In her 2 ½ years at Great Plains Industries, Joyce has already accomplished a great deal and we can’t wait to see what is to come! Thank you, Joyce!

STEVE SEVERIN

Engineer Steve Severin is Great Plains Industries’ time-tested trailblazer. Forty-eight years ago, when he joined the company, there were no desktop computers and scientific calculators were exciting new technology. GPI was a brand-new company and Steve was looking for a job where he didn’t have to travel as much.

Steve grew up on a farm where rebuilding and servicing equipment was the norm. In high school, he was able to simultaneously attend technical school, and then attended Oklahoma State University – for no more than $12 per semester - while working as a John Deere Diesel Mechanic.

A car and motorcycle enthusiast , Steve can frequently be heard talking about cars. In another, wealthier life, Steve may have even been a professional drag racer, but he seems pretty happy with his current one,

“I really enjoy my job. I get to work with a great group of knowledgeable people, and the fuel pumps we sell are used to pump race gas at the drag strip, yea.”

Steve shares his outlook on 48 years as our team member,

“GPI is not only a great place to work, but we strive for innovative, cost-effective products. The work atmosphere is great as there are so many knowledgeable people that can be used for help/reference when needed.”

 Outside of work, Steve enjoys time with grandchildren and riding motorcycles, and begrudgingly sweeping up berries for his donkeys who like to imbibe a bit too much.

Steve is an invaluable asset to Great Plains Industries. Not only does he bring a lifetime’s wealth of knowledge, but an impermeable air of positivity. We are incredibly lucky to have you, Steve, and we thank you for being a devoted employee for all these years!

JACKI FOX

Allow us to introduce you to our resident Mathematician and Electrical engineer, Jacki Fox! Jacki uses her Electrical Engineering degree to design and build test boxes to validate production circuit boards used in Great Plains Industries’ products. To say that she is hard-working would be an understatement, as she finished her first degree in mathematics while pregnant, then went back to school for engineering all while her husband was deployed, she was taking care of two children, and they were buying a house and moving!

Jacki and her family love to play board games, and I guess you would say she is an engineer through and through because they have a 3D printer, CNC router, laser engraver and circuit and embroidery machine and they love to work on projects at home. She finds her husband’s line of work interesting – he is a service engineer that repairs CT and MRI machines, so I guess she really found her calling in engineering!

The engineering field is evolving, and Jacki does feel that there are more women going into STEM fields. She also notices that there are more fields emerging within engineering. We are happy to see the exciting changes within the engineering field and are thrilled to see more women enter into it.

Thank you, Jacki, for all the hard work you put in for GPI!