Maintenance Lead a Devoted Servant Leader

Brian Huffman, Millwright Plant Maintenance Lead Always Ready to Help.

By Jennifer Ferrero, APR, DTM

Brian Huffman, an Erickson employee for over 17 years has a job title and description, but ultimately, he is in a servant leadership role with his drive to help others. “We have a security department, but if someone doesn’t answer the phones, they call me – everyone has my cell number.” He said he’ll come to check on facilities in the middle of the night if needed. “I’m pretty devoted,” he said, “I will go the extra mile.”

The former automotive technician came to the company before the computer-based hiring formalities of today. “Back when I was hired, you met the boss and gave them, your resume. If they liked you, they hired you.”

Today Huffman supervises two employees in his role and their job is to maintain six buildings owned by Erickson in southern Oregon. When asked whether they could consolidate their buildings he said, “Think of a Costco building, and the size of each building, we’d need to have six of them put together to match the square footage of the six southern Oregon facilities.” His team manages everything from window and door maintenance to fixing major equipment used in the production and maintenance of aircraft. He said that his team is invaluable to him, “I could not do my job without my team.”

If a CNC machine breaks down, to minimize downtime, he and his team want to get it fixed as soon as possible. “Once we are alerted to the problem, people think, the fastest way to do this is to call Brian.” But Huffman said that integrity and tenacity are not just his values, but are those of the entire company, “Anyone who has been here a few years knows that you take care of the person next to you,” he said.

He will do what it takes to get something fixed. In the recent past, Huffman had a chance to prove his devotion to the company and saved them thousands of dollars. They needed to move a machine shop, “This is big machinery,” he said. They were able to accomplish the task in-house which was a major cost saving for the company, “It was very seamless, and I was proud of myself for making it happen,” he added.

One thing about Huffman, that he said drives his wife crazy, is that he does not let things get under his skin. His wife asks him, “How are you in such a good mood if you had a bad day?” He tells her, “I enjoy working with this group of people. I don’t stress about anything. It’s either controllable or not controllable, no reason to stress about it,” he said.