The Happiness Connection

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Cavotec wants to contribute to a future that is cleaner, safer and more efficient by providing innovative connection solutions for ships, aircraft, and mobile equipment today.

Ports are for connecting. Whether it’s making that next flight, seeing a familiar face, or getting long-awaited goods by land, sea, and air, ports are where millions of people and technologies come together. Cavotec knows all about this: Its cutting-edge connection solutions for aircraft, maritime vessels, and mobile equipment are used in ports and airports all over the globe.

As the world moves toward the increased use of electricity to power ships, cranes, planes, and vehicles, Cavotec is leading the charge, serving the world’s transportation hubs with innovative automation and electrical connection solutions. The Swiss-based engineering group demonstrates a soaring commitment to reducing the environmental impact of technology by actively reducing its own environmental footprint and inventing truly sustainable, responsible, and equitable solutions for its customers.

And when it comes to aircraft power distribution and delivery systems, Cavotec USA is on the forefront of progress. The Cypress, Calif.-based operation manufactures critical airport power systems, creating novel equipment that simplifies gate-to-aircraft connection, reduces environmental impact, and makes aircraft servicing more convenient and efficient.

“We pride ourselves in being manufacturers of ingenious products, not commodities,” explained Mo Jadbabaei, Director of Manufacturing Operations for Cavotec USA. “In an airport, when you walk down a breezeway to hop on a flight, you’ll see a lot of people on the ground and small carts driving around the plane. Our goal is to make a step change towards the full automation of these activities, so they become settings instead of manual tasks.”

That ingenuity – made possible by advancements in remote control, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, and other electrical control systems – encapsulates the kind of bold vision and enthusiasm that fuels the division.

Cavotec USA manufactures a range of power systems, including 400Hz and 28VDC ground power units and pre-conditioned air systems. One of the latest innovations from Cypress is the Cavotec Skyway Terminal, which, according to Cavotec, enables “tele-remote operation with an application that maps airport gates and installed equipment such as 400Hz converters and pre-conditioned air and ensures a live feedback with information on operation and equipment status.”

Jadbabaei added that the Skyway Terminal “enables operators to actually see airport terminals and view the layout, the gates, click on each gate, and check the parameters of the gate equipment we have installed. You can see how it is being used, if the operation is optimized or if there are any issues with the equipment and power supply system. You can see it from your operations office, no matter where the gate is in the airport.”

Making the human connection

Airports have a notoriously long development cycle, and Cavotec makes sure to be in the process from the very beginning. “If someone wants to build a new airport, planning, execution, and specifying the equipment and other needs takes place on a three- to five-year cycle,” he said. “We build the relationships we have with our customers from Day One until the product is delivered. We collaborate with them, go through the design cycle with the airport, and we consider the architecture, the bridge models, the planes, as all of these things will adapt as we go with them.”

The Cypress manufacturing facility is a world-class operation founded on lean manufacturing principles such as the bottleneck-busting theory of constraints. Said Jadbabaei, “We’ve taken a major step in implementing lean principles, thus creating a visual factory and creating a flat organization where you have team spirit and every decision is made by the team and on the ground.”

For Jadbabaei, happiness is central to success. “We have made improvements in level-loading our production line, which has improved efficiency and thereby our service to customers. Our safety is above average as compared to industry standards. We take pride in that and take it very seriously.”

The ability to connect for success comes directly from the top, and, for Jadbabaei and the Cypress team, that makes for a happy and satisfying workplace. “Whatever the challenge, working closely with our customers, Cavotec delivers the expertise and technologies that help customers improve safety, drive operational efficiency, and reduce environmental impact.”