Hager Companies utilizes the talent of three different types of engineers: product, design, and manufacturing engineers in both our St. Louis and Montgomery locations.

 Located at our St. Louis headquarters, our product engineers work on all aspects of door hardware products from maintaining CAD drawings of products and preparing installation instructions to redesigning existing product elements and assisting with technical support requests. Working in tandem within our St. Louis office, our design engineers ensure high-quality, robust mechanical products are designed to meet cost, performance, and quality measures. Additionally, this group coordinates the building of prototype products and test programs related to product performance. These teams, consisting of Mark McRae, Bill Watson, Keith Weepie, Mico Agustin and Andrew Gardner, are methodical, innovative, and collaborative.

 We asked our St. Louis team members to share their experience working as an engineer in the door hardware industry at Hager Companies. Design engineer Keith Weepie said, “I like being able to help our suppliers improve their designs to deliver a better, more user-friendly experience in the field. Both for the user and installer,” when asked what he liked about his position. He also said, “We keep it lighthearted [at Hager] while working as a team, focused on serving the customer and solving their problems or meeting their needs.”

Mico Agustin, a product engineer, offered his thoughts as well. When asked about his position and working at Hager, he said he enjoys “managing a broad range of products, the flexible schedule, and the rubber band shootouts”. You’ll have to ask our engineering team about that latter one.

 Located in our Montgomery production center, the manufacturing engineering group is responsible for developing and improving manufacturing processes, equipment, and layouts with the goal of improving efficiency and quality while reducing scrap, lead time, and costs. This group consists of Mark Karner, James Copper, Kim Johnson, Herschel Johnson, Darryl Wuokko, Phillip Lewis, and Mike Sung. Our manufacturing engineers live by manufacturing metrics, are familiar with automation and robotics, and most importantly are master troubleshooters and communicators.

 The product, design, and manufacturing engineers’ work requires thorough investigation and coordination with all other functional disciplines throughout the company. Their work plays a vital role in product innovation, providing solutions, and optimizing operations which contribute to the overall success of our company. We can’t thank them enough for their contributions.