His busy schedule leaves him little time for much else, but that’s his motivation. Stefan Wapstra has been working at Gpi since 2017. In his capacity as technical manager, he is responsible for the engineers, project managers and buyers. Before joining Gpi, he’d been active in the processing industry for over 20 years, in various project management and engineering management positions. From the very outset, Stefan has been in his element at Gpi. Stefan: “there’s a no-nonsense mentality and an excellent team spirit. Everyone plays an equal part, from production to management. All this means we’re smarter and better at what we do.”
Continued improvements for the best results
His long-standing experience enables him to deal with whatever challenges customers throw at him. He knows how they tick. All this know-how stands him in good stead in his own job and he tries to transfer this to the team: “It’s vital we understand how a tank is integrated into an installation and what is required to do this. All this has to be taken into account at the design stage.”
Furthermore, he encourages his team to get the best out of themselves: “We provide excellent quality at an affordable price and what’s more, we’re always there to help out when our customers have a problem. Management’s vision is clear on this too: a satisfied customer is a happy customer. I like to do my bit by introducing even smarter working methods and making better products. I always challenge my team to come up with the best solutions, even though these may not always be the easiest ones. To develop into the future, we also have our own innovation department. In this way we can improve our working processes and instruments on a constant basis.”
Opportunities
Stefan is well aware of the fact that in a market which has a deficit of technical personnel, employees have to be kept captivated: “There’s no point in appointing an engineer to a project when you know there’s someone else who can do the job better and get more out of it. It’s also important not to do the same every day and to focus too on developing your workforce. It gives me energy getting the most out of my team. Gpi provides real opportunities. For example, we offer trainees the possibility to start a career with us and over time, they can progress from production to an engineering management position. Or even director.”
