My manager didn't just delegate the problem. He rolled up his sleeves and joined me on the factory floor.

 When I started at Alfa Laval in 2007 as a production engineer, we were going through a difficult time. Our decanters kept failing vibration tests. Everyone was frustrated, products couldn't ship, overtime piled up, customers grew impatient, and my team's morale tanked. 

My director of operations, who hired me that first year, didn't just delegate the problem. He rolled up his sleeves and joined me on the factory floor. His advice was simple but transformative: "Spend time focusing on solving problems by understanding the details. That's how you make real progress." 

We discovered the issue wasn't the grand design, it was tolerance measurements in assembled components being off by micrometers. Someone had skipped precision checks with the right equipment. Small detail, massive consequence. 

That hands-on approach created a paradigm shift. My team started treating precision measurements like they mattered, because they do! Our success rates climbed. Stress dropped. Weekend overtime disappeared. 

Now as factory manager for brazed plate heat exchangers, I live by that lesson: when you have a leader willing to get into the details alongside you, it doesn't just solve today's problem. It builds a high-performing culture. 

Yogesh Chavan
Factory Manager

Give it a try. You’ll never know where engineering can take you unless you do.

That was the encouragement I received from Dr. Chin, my final-year lecturer.  At the time, I wasn’t sure I belonged in engineering. It wasn’t my first choice. I’d stumbled into it, and many of my classmates were planning to move into other fields after graduation. From our seats at university, engineering felt narrow.

But then Dr. Chin walked in. She wasn’t just teaching equations; she also shared her story: completing her degree, working in the industry, returning for a PhD. Hearing how her career had taken so many turns planted a seed in me: if she could shape such a varied path, maybe I could too.

Her words convinced me to give engineering a real chance – to stay with the craft, keep learning, and let curiosity guide me. And she was right. Just a few years into my career, it’s already taken me from Malaysia to Denmark, working on international projects I once only dreamed of. Dr. Chin showed me that engineering is a gateway to a journey that keeps unfolding. 

Geok Wei Ng
Project Manager