Visiting South Africa and, in fact, the African continent for the very first time, Oliver
Ronshausen, service manager from MA Lighting, recently presented an elaborate
three-day Advanced Service Training session to the DWR Distribution technical and
support team.
Oliver joined MA in 1994, and with only a four-year interruption in between, is a part
of the MA family. “I love the MA team – the product, being around the users and
distributors and making friends in the industry,’ said Oliver, who in August last year
started pushing service training to new and more structured level. “The training is
aimed to educate and to enable people in the field to perform repairs. However, the
most important aspect of the training is maintenance. The feeling I have is that many
MA owners don’t realise that they have to maintain their consoles to operate shows
with a reliable product.’
The complex course went right down to component level and included fault-finding,
quick fixes, replacing parts, PC boards, screens and a wealth of other information.
“We have learnt a great deal and our sincere thanks to Oliver,’ said Bruce Riley, head
of the DWR Technical department. “Our knowledge of tips and tricks and prompt
problem solving has increased. We have learnt about support, how to listen to
problems over the phone and how to swiftly get to the bottom of issues.’
An added benefit was that the entire DWR technical team, from Johannesburg, Durban
and Cape Town, received the same training at the same time. “That was the beauty of
it all,’ added Bruce. “On many occasions, it’s one person going overseas and then
coming back to share what they have learnt. This time everyone was trained on the
same level, and it makes life so much better and easier. It also makes the DWR team
that much stronger on support.’
Technician Tyler Pugin believes the training will definitely help him in the future. His
colleague, Nick Barnes agrees. “We feel like rocket scientists now!’ said Nick. “The
nice thing is that you are learning from MA – who have dealt with problems from all
over the world and how to fix them. Oliver has preempted us on what to look out for.’
Referring to the DWR team as “seasoned technicians’, Oliver said that while
technicians were all familiar with how things worked, it was the little things that
“switched on the light bulb.’
According to DWR workshop manager Derek Kruger, “There have been a couple of
short tips I’ve learnt over this time. Button presses to shortcut something. The
session really was beneficial for me.’