Day in the Life of a Manufacturing Supervisor

This month, we had the opportunity to talk with Sean Wolf, a Manufacturing Supervisor for the Interstates Sioux Center Prefab location, to learn about the unique work he does for the company. Here's an inside look at another role of one of our many experts. 

What is your area of expertise? 

I started as a welder for prefab but am now the Manufacturing Supervisor for Sioux Center. 

What advice would you give to someone new to your field? 

You can get a lot farther on attitude, effort, and accountability than you can on skill. 

• Attitude: If you have the attitude that something is going to be great or terrible, you are probably right. You need to have the right mindset to attack a problem.
• Effort: It isn't about running around like a maniac to try and outwork everyone; it's about being engaged and doing what is needed to accomplish a goal and not giving up at the first sign of trouble. Effort can be contagious.
• Accountability: Everyone is going to make mistakes, but accountability is not about the mistake; it's about owning up to it and what you do to fix it. No one wants to work with or follow someone who can't own up to their mistakes because they will never improve on something they can't admit to. 

What advice would you give to a client? 

Talk to us early in the project if you can. We won't be able to get into the fine details, but we might be able to point you in the right direction based on things we've tried on previous projects. Or if you have a wild idea you'd like to try, we'd love to hear it. We are not afraid to try something new! 

Feedback can be a difficult thing to give and frustrating when you don't see immediate results. Believe me, it's something we take seriously, but we are human and won't always have the answers right away. But we can't fix a problem we don't know about, so please remember we consider feedback a gift. 

What's the most interesting challenge/project that you've solved? 

I don't know how much I solved on this particular project, but it did teach me how to delegate. It was a painful lesson that I had to learn for myself, but I'm grateful to have learned it. It was also memorable because I got sick on the plane flying to that job site. 

One of my favorite things that I have helped develop over my time at Interstates is the MCC top hats. The first one I built, before I knew what it did, was strong and heavy enough to drive a dump truck over. The one we make today looks factory quality and is built in a tenth of the time than the first one I built. 

What technology or innovation are you excited about in your field? 

Our CNC machines. It started with our router table and plasma table, then the brake press, and finally the laser and conduit bender. We are able to add precision and automation to a lot of our processes and take out the labor and frustration of trying to figure it out. Any time we get a new machine, I want to figure out what we can do with it that we never thought possible before. 

What gets you to work in the morning? 

First, the people I get to work with. It is a great feeling working with people that care about what they do, wanting to help others find success and genuinely caring and helping their fellow team members inside and outside of work. I also love the challenge. Finding new ways to figure out a problem is something that excites me. 

Curious about a career at Interstates? You can view current job openings and more here.