When did you join Akiem?

I joined Akiem Technik five years ago as an employee in Material & Supply Management. I’m now team leader of Material & Supply Management.

What is your role and what does it consist of on a day-to-day basis?

It involves constantly looking for new suppliers and building great relationships with them, as well as identifying and sourcing the right spare parts, managing repairs and upgrading our logistics chain – and plenty more besides! It’s a team effort with a wide range of challenges.

What is the standout feature of the work you do?

We are totally customer focused! We aim to always have the right spare part in the right place at the right time, to make sure locomotives are out of action for as short a period as possible – a significant challenge given we have such a varied locomotive fleet.

What appeals to you most about your job?

The sheer variety of projects. Some of them are really unusual and fascinating from a technical standpoint. I’m currently working on a project to homologate rolling stock traditionally used in France and Morocco to give them a second lease of life in Hungary and Croatia. It’s a project that’s helping me to learn new skills.

What makes Akiem different?

There’s a friendly working culture and the teams work together very closely: we speak several languages on a daily basis, we work in different countries, and together we provide support for a range of major projects. There’s a real sense that all the teams, wherever they are in Europe, are committed to working together to drive Akiem’s success!