Repair Center & Quality Control; a department of passionate specialists

Experience in the profession, from white goods to LED screens

Dennis manages a team of 16 specialists, all technically trained and often specialists in a relevant field. “I have years of experience in white goods. As a service technician for a well-known brand, I repaired the electronic panels of mainly washing machines in people’s homes.” A job in which he mastered the search for and finding solutions for all kinds of malfunctions. “White goods also contain printed circuit boards and ICs. And yes, I often used the soldering iron myself.” He didn’t have to think long when his cousin, who works as a planner at Faber, tipped him off about a vacancy in the Repair Center. “So the type of work was already close to me and that made the transition a lot easier.”

Passion for technology

Anna de Jong is a key player in his team. Despite her young age of 27, this Frisian woman has become an integral part of the Repair Center, albeit through an unconventional route. “I have followed a care course, and have also worked in care for a number of years. However, my true passion lies in technology.” That had happened much earlier on the farm, where she lived with her parents; Anna loved nothing more than tinkering and doing odd jobs on cross cars. It was a logical decision for her to switch and choose the Electrical Engineering course at MBO level, while combining it with work. She reached out to Faber for employment opportunities, starting as an intern. Since 2018, she has been a valued permanent employee at our repair center in Sint Annaparochie.

The greater the challenge, the more fun the work

“The process we go through in our department has three steps”, explains Dennis. “All equipment that comes back from projects is first tested. We apply a technical quality control process to all returned LED panels, projectors, video controllers, cameras, computers, and servers. We inspect all ports and reinstall clean versions of the relevant software. We scan entire systems for errors and improper commands.”Most of the repair work is done on the thousands of LED panels that Faber has. “It can vary from a simple broken LED pixel to cracks on printed circuit boards or missing traces,” says Anna. “There’s nothing more fun than diving into these challenges and investigating what might be causing the problem.” It’s sometimes fiddly work, requiring a magnifying glass or special glasses. ‘Then you feel like an electro-surgeon who has to work very precisely.’ And yes, I admit wholeheartedly: You do need to be able to solder for this work, have a steady hand, and be able to work with great concentration.”

Effort and relaxation

Anna has learned from experience that repair work can be quite tiring. In her spare time, she finds relaxation through macro photography; ‘Last year I got my SLR camera out of the dust and started following a course. That suits me fine at the moment as a counterweight to the intensive work.” Dennis spends most of his days staring at computer screens, with his attention fixed on the schedules that form a major part of his work. “We typically plan our schedules on a weekly basis, but often unexpected events come up,” he explains. “My desk is located on the floor above the busy LED street of the Repair Center. Being slightly removed from the hustle and bustle allows me to focus on organizing things behind the scenes.”

Difficult to find people

According to Dennis, the workload is quite heavy, partly due to the continuous growth in the volume of equipment. ‘And the difficult search for new colleagues, that also causes headaches. We are actually permanently short of trained hands.’ For operational on-the-job support, he relies on seniors, such as Anna: ‘She is gradually taking over my role of first source of information.’ Anna: ‘That is also what’s great about Faber. You get opportunities to grow here. Of course, you have to indicate the direction yourself, but then something is done with it.’ By the way, the department takes the lead in training new colleagues to become LED surgeons. And the ultimate satisfaction of all that work? “We often see the result of our work on television during productions and events. That’s just great fun, isn’t it?”