Martin MacLean is the Technical Manager (Decontamination) at DD Group. This article focuses on his career from semiconductor to medical and dental equipment. Martin has worked as an engineer and as a team lead and manager. His remit now includes sales as well as service engineering.

Field Service Engineering and Sales for Dental Equipment

Background

Why did you want to work in engineering?
I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was due to leave school. However, I had attended local job fairs and National Semiconductor (now part of TI) was a well thought of local employer. I applied and was lucky enough to pass the tests and interviews.
How did your career progress?
I started as an apprentice and progressed to shift engineer at National Semiconductor, then progressed to a senior position on shift. I left to become a Field Service Engineer with one of the manufacturers (Matrix), then returned to shift work at Motorola. After that, I transferred to a medical career in 2010. First as a field service engineer, then quickly promoted to senior FSE, then Technical Lead before becoming Technical Manager. For the last 18 months I’ve been helping with Technical Sales whilst fulfilling my Technical Manager duties.

Apprenticeships

You started your engineering career as an apprentice. Why do you think an apprenticeship is a good way of starting a career in engineering?
Apprenticeships in my opinion are by far the best way to start out a career. It provides structured learning with usually a qualification at the end whilst learning “on the job” and gaining proper experience.
What are the advantages of an apprenticeship over full time study?
Learning on the job with someone experienced and gaining real live experience yourself.
What are the advantages to you as an employer of an apprentice rather than someone who has studied full time?
The company has the ability to mould the apprentice into what they want from an engineer.
What do you personally look for in a potential apprentice (soft and technical skills)?
Attitude. The correct attitude and work ethic is 90% of the job. It’s easier to teach someone the technical details than it is to teach attitude and work ethic. These soft skills need to come from within. We have asked simple generic questions which will show what the candidate’s thought process is like. We have also asked a very difficult question just to see how they would respond under pressure to something they have no idea about.

New apprentices

If someone is thinking about starting an engineering apprenticeship. What advice would you give?
I would give four main pieces of advice:
Make sure it’s something that you’re interested in.
No point spending several years doing something you don’t enjoy.
Ask loads of questions.
Work hard, show a real keenness as the engineers training you will help more if you are showing a willingness to learn and progress.

Semiconductor equipment

What sort of equipment did you work on?
Etch, Diffusion, and Deposition initially, then after the first year of apprenticeship I focused on Dry Etch.
How long did servicing take?
Servicing took anywhere between 2 hours and 24/36 hours if I remember correctly. Some simple PMs (Preventative Maintenance) involved a clean and some small parts replaced like door seals and chamber seals. Annual servicing on complex units like Lam Metal Etch units would take a full 24 hours plus due to the complex nature of the clean and service.
What was the most challenging piece of equipment you worked on?
For me, I found the Gasonics HiPOx, (a SiO2 thick oxide film deposition system) difficult to understand at the time. I was still an apprentice, and it worked differently to other furnaces, and I remember I couldn’t get my head around it at the time.
What was the most interesting piece of equipment you worked on?
I liked the Lam 4520i Rainbow etcher. The precision of the unit with its harmonic drive arms was incredible at the time.

Transition from semiconductor to medical and dental equipment

Why did you decide to make the transition from semiconductor to medical and dental equipment?
Motorola were shutting their plant in East Kilbride, and I had seen a few other semiconductor fabs close over the previous few years. I had seen exceptional engineers in their forties and fifties struggle to get a job. So, at the time I felt I needed to get into a career with a greater longevity as I didn’t want to be in the same boat a few years later. I felt a Medical Field Engineer job would be perfect for me.
How difficult was it?
Not difficult at all. I really enjoyed the Field Service position I had had over a decade earlier. I loved every minute of the field role in Dental. It was new and exciting. The FSE role I had in Semiconductors previously took me to around eight or nine different sites. Within the first year as a FSE in Dental I had visited over five hundred different customers. The variety was a real breath of fresh air.
What was the overlap? (in terms of soft and hard skills)
Technically it was very different.
Semiconductors were a lot higher tech and precise. Medical, not so much, but a lot more emphasis on guidance and self-regulation. Doing exactly what you’re meant to do is crucial in Medical, as at the end of the day someone’s health can be affected by your quality of work. For me the soft skills, like communication and building relationships are far more prevalent in the dental/medical world as you end up working a lot closer to dentists/doctors etc. in their practices and surgeries.

Typical week working in dental equipment service engineering

What’s your typical week like?
My typical week at present whilst I’m filling the two roles is a mix of:
assisting technically (although I’m now being massively supported by our senior engineers),
looking at escalations,
talking to manufacturers regarding technical issues,
sales and business development.
However, I would say I’m mainly working on sales of equipment, speaking to interested customers every day and assisting the rest of the sales team to build their knowledge on decontamination equipment.
How much of your time is spent being proactive and how much reactive? How do you balance this?
When I was solely doing the Technical Manager position, I always ensured at least 30% of my work was PROACTIVE, with the rest being reactive. It’s really important to be proactive otherwise personally, professionally and as a department and company you don’t move forward. In the Sales role I’m probably able to be even more proactive as I can get involved in business development tasks, upselling, advising, and educating customers which leads to further sales.
Do you still have the opportunity to be ‘hands on’?
Not as much as I would like but yes, I can still be hands on with regards to testing and onboarding new decontamination equipment like autoclaves etc. This allows me to stay up to date with the equipment specifications and performance rather than rely on what documentation/brochures say.

Leading and managing a dental equipment service engineering team

When you are looking for a new member of your team, apart from a strong technical background, what are the three most important skills to have?
Communication skills, both oral and written.
Positive can-do attitude.
Team player.
How important is it for a manager/team leader to remain hands-on?
I think it helps, not always necessary, but it can help.
How do you improve confidence in those who need it?
Praise any progress. Encourage them. Train them in bite-sized chunks. Encourage them to make decisions and praise when decision is correct, support them when the decision is wrong and advise where they went wrong.
How do you support someone in your team when things have gone wrong because of a mistake?
Ask them what their thought process was and advise how it should have been resolved. Advise them that everyone makes mistakes and always to take the positive out of the situation as every day is a school day. Sometimes we all learn more from when things go wrong instead of everything going right.

Further reading

Successful apprenticeship to life in global medical hardware installations
Leading a team of Radiotherapy Technicians in the UK

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