Karl Lycett: A Day In The Life of The Rittal Product Management Team
What Does A Typical Day Look Like For Karl?
Karl is part of the product management team at Rittal. Karl’s typical day at Rittal is very varied, depending on the projects they are working on. He acts as the conduit between headquarters and the UK business. Karl works on commercial aspects of the business, the product side (preparing for new product launch, videos, magazine articles), technical and communicating the needs of UK customers with HQ. His day-to-day life involves juggling all of these roles!
What Is The Most Common Enquiry Karl Deals With?
Enquiries on cooling. People use products in non-standard ways. Rittal has a specific department that deals with special projects for customers. This can include special configurations of product. Outdoor enclosures is a rapidly growing area. Projects sited outdoors still need a level of cooling to protect the equipment. Furthermore, if a product is going abroad to somewhere with extreme temperatures or high humidity, Karl needs to ensure that the specified product is up to the job.
What Are Some Common Questions Karl Gets Asked About Cooling Products?
Karl agrees that one of the biggest enemies of climate control is education - the customer needs to know the right info. It’s very important they get the right solution first time, as if it isn’t suitable for their needs, their equipment won’t be protected. Therefore, Karl always asks for information to do a thermal calculation, using Rittal’s software to analyse the most appropriate product for their needs. In addition, Karl also frequently gets asked: what creates heat inside an enclosure? The answer from Karl is that most things that are doing a job inside an enclosure, like a transformer, create heat and need to be accounted for. Otherwise, you’ll have an underestimation, and the chosen equipment may be too small. Excess heat must be managed, otherwise the temperature inside the enclosure will rise and failures can occur.
What Energy Developments Would Karl Like To See?
Karl wants to see more done to revolutionise renewable energy. He wants to see more Energy Storage Systems. These are scaled up batteries which hold energy generated by a wind farm, for example, and they can be used to support the National Grid during peak hours and prevent capacity issues.
What’s The Best Thing That Rittal Has Achieved In The Last Year?
Karl believes that considering all of the upheaval with the pandemic, Rittal has still seen growth year on year. Rittal didn’t have to furlough, they had to continue to support customers and projects, and when factories were amping up for supply shortages, Rittal were there to supply them with the power they needed. Customers have said that Rittal came through when others did not.
What’s Karl’s Favourite Rittal Product?
Blue e+. It’s a sophisticated cooling unit. Karl enjoys providing customers with a great product.
What’s Karl’s Favourite Thing About Working At Rittal?
Karl has been working at Rittal for just over five years. His favourite thing about working at Rittal is the fact that he gets to work with a big group of people from all over the world; it’s nice to learn and be influenced by different cultures.
