YOUR PROPULSION EXPERTS
Nancy Xiao, a Spares Supply Manager in Suzhou, China, joined SCHOTTEL about 15 years ago as a recently graduated marine electromechanical engineer. Not only can she support customers, she also finds her job offers her many opportunities for career growth
Nancy Xiao, 39, has been with the propulsion expert in Suzhou, China, for more than a third of her life. She is a Spares Supply Manager for SCHOTTEL (Suzhou) Trading & Service Co., Ltd. (SSTS), a subsidiary in the Chinese city that is situated on the Yangtze, about 100 kilometres west of Shanghai.
She first started working for SSTS in 2005, after graduating from Nantong Institute of Technology with a degree in Marine Electromechanical Engineering. Xiao was drawn to the company because of its strong reputation in the marine industry. When she started, the team was much smaller. “There were just two employees, one was a manager and one was a service assistant. The latter one was me.” Today, there are ten people in her team, and she herself climbed the career ladder.
Her work is driven by the clients’ needs and fulfilling them quickly and thoroughly. An example for a typical morning might be a customer calling to tell her about an oil leakage. “These are usually urgent cases, so I need to act quickly,” says Nancy Xiao. After talking to the representative, Nancy Xiao carefully checks the manual, identifying the replacement parts that will be needed from a technical drawing and preparing an offer accordingly. As soon as she has a “go” from the customer, she coordinates with other departments to arrange the delivery of the parts as soon as possible.
Nancy Xiao feels one with the SSTS team spirit, including how serious everybody is about the work. Just one example was an emergency that took place about three years ago. A government vessel with a SCHOTTEL Twin Propeller unit was experiencing some technical problems. The ship was urgently needed for an expedition to the South Pole. “The ship had to be fixed even though it was a national holiday.” The team came together and worked through the vacation.
“Finally we finished the repair job, made our customer satisfied with it, and the scientists could embark on their expedition,” Nancy Xiao remembers. Working hard to meet customers’ needs is one trait that she has learned to value during her time at SCHOTTEL. The company offers her opportunities to grow, she says: “I’m very lucky to be working here.”
Nancy Xiao, who is married and has a young son and is expecting a baby, explains that the trust placed in her gives her a lot of faith in her abilities: “I’m confident I can handle even very difficult situations.” Such as taking over a heavier workload when a colleague is away. She remembers one time during which a colleague was absent for several months: “I was very busy, but my boss gave me a lot of support.”
In her spare time, she likes cooking for her family and reading. The engineer also likes to find the time to meet her co-workers outside of the office to have dinner together. “I feel happy because of the good atmosphere in our team.”
She has also found her job is an ideal place to learn about the world. SSTS is truly international, and Nancy Xiao enjoys working with customers and colleagues from many different countries – often times her customers are international shipping companies docking near Suzhou. In addition, talking or e-mailing with colleagues in Germany is part of everyday work. She spent two weeks in Germany at SCHOTTEL headquarters, getting hands-on experience and taking part in specialized workshops on the quality of the German company’s products. “I learned how to explain SCHOTTEL parts to everyone, and the knowledge has grown everyday within the last almost 15 years,” she comments, looking back at her career with SSTS. Nancy Xiao says she has truly grown as a person and an employee along with SSTS Suzhou.
