Adam Smith has been selected as Brookville Equipment Corporation’s Employee of the Month for March.
Adam has been employed at Brookville Equipment Corporation for the past 28 years, through multiple positions. When Adam was first hired, he worked in the framing stage for around 10 years, this included welding, fitting parts, etc. He started to assist final assembly with a focus on electrical for a couple of years, he bounced between final assembly and framing. In 2012, once the expansion of the High Bay Building was built, Adam was Mechanical Crew Leader for Final Assembly for projects like DART Liberty Streetcars, SFRTA Eagle Passenger Locomotives, AMT Locomotive Overhauls, etc. He worked in this position for 10 years as well. Following, once BROOKVILLE established a need for a Manufacturing Engineering Group, Adam moved into an office space where he and a small group create SolidEdge and 2D drawings to support the shop and engineering. The Manufacturing Engineering Group works as a buffer between the two.
Adam’s duties include evaluating manufacturing processes by designing and conducting research, improving manufacturing efficiency, analyzing, and planning workflow, space requirements, and equipment layout, etc. His favorite part of his job is seeing the product he had a hand in creating, from conceptual design to being a real life product out in our cities and in their new homes. “It is really cool to see the products you had a helping hand in creating, go out into their forever homes. These vehicles aren’t ones that people are getting a new one of every five years, these vehicles are in revenue service for 20 years and it is really something to be proud of,” said Adam.
He went to school for residential house wiring at Jeff Tech and through the years while working at Brookville Equipment, he has continued to grow his skills and gain a lot of on the job experience with electrical and manufacturing processes done at BROOKVILLE. He also has improved his welding skills while at BROOKVILLE, which originated by his dad owning his own welding business when he was growing up.
Adam’s favorite type of equipment to work on are the larger locomotives and the more unique projects like CARTA (Chattanooga Incline car). Adam also said that he loved working on the San Francisco Muni Car #1, which was San Francisco’s first publicly owned streetcar in the United States. BROOKVILLE had the opportunity to restore the vehicle in 2009, to live her days being saved for being rented out for special occasions. Adam did all the brass work on the streetcar in his personal shop. With great projects, always comes challenges, however. Adam never had plans over becoming a crew leader, where he managed 40+ people, but he attacked the task with strength and performed well in his position, till he transitioned to his next adventure at BROOKVILLE. With Adam working at BROOKVILLE for the last 28 years, he also had to learn all of his computer skills with on-the-job training, this also presented him with a challenge that he has overcame. When asked “how do you keep yourself motivated at work?” he said “I don’t really have to keep myself motivated at work because I do things on a weekly basis that are different enough, it doesn’t very often feel like the same thing over and over again. I really enjoy working on the special, more challenging projects.” Furthermore, Adam remarked the most important lesson he has learned on the job is the only thing that is consistent at BROOKVILLE, is change. With a company that is ever evolving and always looking to push the envelope on the next, best technology, is you always have to be different.
During his free time, Adam likes to ride his Honda buggy. However, when he leaves work, he keeps himself busy by working in his shop, at home, on side jobs for his own pleasure, like machining, sign making and 3D printing, as well as welding and sheet metal work. Adam has two CNC lathes and three Mills that he enjoys working on project with.