PLC Maintenance Technician at Aspire Bakeries

Aspire Bakeries is a North American baking company with a leadership position in specialty frozen baked goods. Formed from leading bakery companies, its innovative food portfolio includes breads, artisan breads, buns, cookies, donuts, muffins and pastries from beloved brands like La Brea Bakery®, Otis Spunkmeyer®, and Oakrun Farm Bakery®. With 13 bakeries in North America, we are committed to driving innovation, predicting upcoming consumer trends and flavors, and exceeding our customers’ expectations. Aspire Bakeries champions the values of Integrity, Ownership, Customer Focus, Creativity and Care to help us deliver on People Safety, Food Safety, Quality and Collaboration.

The PLC Maintenance Technician is responsible for maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing all manufacturing equipment including wrappers, mixers, motors, conveyors, and refrigeration systems. They install, program, and repair automated machinery and equipment such as robots and PLCs, as well as monitor equipment to ensure it is in excellent operating condition. The technician performs preventive and corrective maintenance, repairs faulty equipment, installs new equipment, and maintains documentation on electrical and control systems.

Responsibilities:

• Maintains troubleshoots, and repairs all manufacturing equipment such as wrappers, mixers, motors, conveyors, refrigeration systems.
• Installs control and distribution apparatus such as switches, relays, and circuit-breakers panels.
• Connects power cables to equipment, such as electric range or motor, and installs grounding leads.
• Monitors and ensures that the equipment is in excellent condition for operation.
• Performs preventive and corrective maintenance on the equipment.
• Repairs faulty equipment or systems.
• Installs powers on the new manufacturing equipment.
• Visually inspects and tests machinery and equipment.
• Listens for unusual sounds from machines or equipment to detect malfunction and discusses machine operation variations with supervisors or other maintenance workers to diagnose problem or repair machine.
• Dismantles defective machines and equipment and installs new or repaired parts.
• Cleans and lubricates shafts, bearings, gears, and other parts of machinery.
• Installs, modifies and maintains pipe systems and related hydraulic and pneumatic equipment, and repairs and replaces gauges, valves, SOVs, pressure regulators, and related equipment.
• Repairs and maintains physical structure of facility.
• Installs, programs, or repairs automated machinery and equipment such as robots and PLCs.
• Maintain current documentation of all electrical and controls systems including device hardware and software.
• Assist Mechanics in troubleshooting and repair of electrical or controls related failures.
• Train and coordinate activities of Mechanics on all shifts as necessary.
• Work from offsite locations occasionally to assist with equipment troubleshooting and repair.
• Maintain production equipment while running on a product production schedule. Perform electrical and mechanical inspection safely while equipment is in production.
• During equipment down days the PLC Technician will coordinate work on the production lines taking care of any corrective, preventive or scheduled repairs in accordance with the company and/or machine vender specification.
• In the event of an equipment breakdown the PLC Technician will oversee the Mechanical Technician to determine the cause of the trouble, repair and return the equipment back into production in the shortest time period.
• Complete assigned tasks in accordance with government codes and regulations, GMP, safety, quality control, company programs and procedures.
• Primarily performs preventive, scheduled or corrective repairs on batching and continuous process control systems, their networks, AC/DC and servo drives, pneumatics, hydraulics and mechanical components.
• Maintain plant secondary systems for the supply of steam, hot and chilled water, pneumatic air, electrical power, refrigeration, HVAC and emissions control (oxidation).
• Maintain work records in accordance with work orders, backlog and job assignment system.
• May travel to various locations to purchase parts, attend training or for other duties.
• Works to maintain and improve on the quality, legality and safety of each product and the processes used in their manufacture. Responsible for keeping assigned work area clean and tidy at all times and reporting any potential contamination and suspicious activity to a Supervisor immediately.
• Any other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• A high school diploma or GED is requried. Associates degree or certificate in electrical, mechanical or industrial automation engineering or related degree(s) preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience maintaining manufacturing systems and equipment in an automated plant is required.
• A background in full machine and electrical control system design, installation and commissioning.
• Rockwell PLC and Drives certification is highly desirable.
• RS Logix and Factory Talk View programming
• Knowledge of ammonia refrigeration systems is highly desirable.
• Food plant experience preferred.
• Must have strong mechanical background in a production setting troubleshooting and repairing gearboxes, conveyors, sprocket/chains, belts, clutches, and brakes.
• Must be able to troubleshoot and repair electrical systems up to 480v 3 phase, read and interpret electrical drawings and P&IDs.
• Knowledgeable in use of all power tools, hand tools, welders, lathes, drill presses, etc.
• Must be able to work any shift including weekends and holidays.

Shift: 2nd

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Aspire Bakeries is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.