Meet a Nilar Employee – Kjell Bergman
What is your job title?
IT Demand Manager
How would you describe yourself?
I would say that I am a calm and analytical thinker who likes to get things done! I want to base decisions on facts rather than gut feelings, even though gut feelings can be a good indicator on what fact to prove or reject.
I’m also someone who tends to always fill my time and keep myself busy with multiple tasks at once. I have realized that I need to finish things before starting something else, but I’ts fun to be involved in many things.
I’m also an analytic person. I like to dig into things and try to understand the root cause of a problem. At Nilar this means that you have the opportunity to be a part of many improvements to change the outcome.
What led you to work in the energy storage industry?
After spending 32 years in the Telecom industry, I felt I needed a change, so I started to think about what kind of industry I would like to work in. Nilar was one of the companies I applied for due to environmental thinking, even though there were no open positions at the time, and it turned out they were in need of a person that could structure and analyze data collection.
How did your journey with Nilar begin?
By connecting all production machines, I built a data warehouse. I also added code tothe data for the factory and processed stored data. This can ease potential expansions going forward. I like to have solutions you can scale.
3,5 years have passed since then, and a lot has happened in that time. Through my role as an IT Demand Manager at the newly formed IT department I can help the organization to get easier access to information, through digitalization and structuring. I think this will be an interesting year going forward.
What is the most common misconception about your role?
Many people assume that I always have all the necessary numbers and information memorized in my head, but it doesn’t work that way for me. But in most cases I do know where to find them.
What is the coolest thing you are working on right now?
I would say one of the coolest projects that I am currently working on is the development of a Picture AI together with RISE. It’s able to analyze pictures taken as part of the production process to identify any errors in the assembly process of a module. This saves us a lot of time and helps us to make fast adjustments. We have already implemented the first version in production. Another cool thing in my work is to see how individuals in our team develop over time.
What motivates you?
I am motivated by problem-solving and finding solutions that can be applied to more than just one thing. Making people happy is also something I care about and a big motivator for me.
Early mistakes that you learnt from in your career?
Once I accidentally stopped the delivery from a factory for nearly 1,5 weeks due to a manual mistake. The mistake led to the destruction of a spectrum analyzer that was utilized in multiple areas of the factory to do the final check.The cost of replacing the analyzer was comparable to the cost of a house for a family of four. I chose to be honest and when I told my manager what had happened, he didn’t get angry at all, just glad I told him. This experience taught me the importance of honesty at a workplace and I believe the honesty to tell what happened directly payed off. The factory also learned a valuable lesson to not only have one instrument. After this they bought at least one more to prevent it from happening again.
Your favorite hobby?
I’m a multi-music person and enjoy listening to various types of music like classic rock, singer/songwriters, blues, country and rock. For me it’s more important that the music has a meaning and israw and honest, rather than being perfect. And of course, it should be live if it’s possible.
Another hobby of mine is traveling that easily can be combined with music and my other hobbies, filming and taking photos. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to travel and experience music as much as I’ve wanted to in the last couple of years due to Covid-19. However, I was able to go on a motorcycle trip to Oslo last year to see Thomas Gabriel, The Ark and Tom Jones live in Stockholm, and Europe in Gävle.I also helped my friend Jamie Meyer on my vacation with somefilming at a concert he held last summer. It was great fun to do it with multiple cameras, but it takes a lot of time to edit the movies.
What’s the best thing about working at Nilar?
One of the best things, except the people that works here, is the size of the company. I’m used to big, political organizations with a lot of bureaucracy. At Nilar, decision paths are short.