Kuehne Company is blessed to have so many brilliant engineers who help keep all three plants running safely and efficiently. One such engineer is Maykel Alvarez, an Electrical Engineer of Cuban origin who has been working with the company since 2015. Last February, Maykel was promoted from I&E Technician to his current position, from which he began phase 1 of a project to convert the legacy side of our manufacturing facility from an Analog Control System to a Programmable Logic Control System (PLC).  

Phase 3 will entail getting chlorine stations, a new caustic railroad track, bleach storage tank, loading trucks, and a railroad car set up to be controlled by the PLC. Maykel is highly organized and will be sure to have final documentation for the new system, which will include the creation of a Process Indication Diagram, which is like a blueprint of the entire process.   

Innovating for Safety 

As Maykel showed me some of the new features of the new system, he pointed out various ways that it improves safety by reducing human error. For example, the new system will not allow someone to add to a tank that is already full. Additionally, loaders can now load trucks through the PLC, as opposed to manually turning valves.  

Working with Maykel 

Kevin Booth, our Director of Corporate Engineering, has a lot of great things to say about Maykel:

“When I think of Maykel I see a lot of myself. Maykel is a quiet and shy person who goes about his daily business without looking for a pat on the back for his valued contributions. His work ethic and training transformed Maykel form a local contractor employee into an opportunity to become a Kuehne employee and eventually  a member of  the engineering team which has proven to be a great decision by Kuehne.

After joining the engineering team Maykel was tasked with adding the Legacy process to the PLC Control System. With not much input from me, Maykel coordinated the transfer of I/O with Operations and Maintenance such that now at the Scale House and the BTB control room the Legacy process can be monitored and controlled. I cannot speak about the value of this to Operations but from an engineering perspective we can now track performance and recall historical data which is also beneficial during regulatory audits. As the prior Kuehne EE, I feel comfortable allowing Maykel to handle the company EE responsibilities which allows me to focus more on my role as the DOE and the positions responsibilities.”

Manny Correia adds to this by stating that “Maykel is a pleasure to work with. He is calm, collected, and never gives up on solving a particular problem. Maykel not only has a deep understanding of the facility’s instrumentation systems, but one can clearly see he has an appreciation and passion for their operation.” He goes on to say that “much like Kevin Booth, Maykel can talk the talk and walk the walk!” 

Family Matters 

Family is another one of Maykel’s passions, and he is grateful that he is able to spend time with the ones he loves. In his free time, Maykel enjoys celebrating life together with his wife and child. He also gets to spend a lot of time with his grown daughter and her baby – Maykel’s first grandchild! Maykel enjoys cooking too and knows how to make delicious Cuban foods like chicharrones (pork rinds).      

Thank you! 

There are many innovative minds on our team here at Kuehne. We are thankful for all of you. This month, we are celebrating Maykel Alvarez for his commitment to innovation, safety, and efficiency. If you work with Maykel, please reach out to congratulate him; he does his part to make Kuehne Company a great place to work!