Daikin veteran retires after 48 years

UK: Steve Anderson, operations manager at Daikin Applied UK, is retiring after nearly 50 years in the industry.

Anderson joined American Air Filters (AAF) as an apprentice sheet metal worker in 1974 aged 16 straight out of school, before working his way up the company to senior draftsman, engineering supervisor and then engineering manager in 1986.

In 1988, he was asked to head up a task force to redesign all the manufacturing processes for AAF and its sister company McQuay. He moved to the US in 1989 to help turn around the company’s Alabama plant and subsequently returning to the UK technology team.

He moved to McQuay’s site services team in 2005 which led to a period of globetrotting before becoming factory manager in 2006. Initially, he was focused on improving shop floor processes to meet growing demand on production to keep pace with market growth. Since 2007 he has been operations manager for the company, which was renamed Daikin Applied UK in 2015.

Steve has travelled the world with the group helping to set up factories and working on major air handling projects. “The main highlights all came while I was working in the site services operation. I travelled all over the world and helped set up the factory in Mexico. I took a squad of site services supervisors to Qatar to install our AHU on site.”

He would also encourage young people to consider a career in refrigeration and air conditioning. “It does not matter where you start. There are always opportunities for you to improve if you want, just look at what happened to me,” he says.