Jamie’s presence and energy at RPM is readily apparent within the business. He is constantly on the go and conveys an air of importance and urgency to everything he does – but with it comes a sense of humour that will make even the most staunch businessman smile.

He is keen to talk about his time as an engineer and describes his passion for engineering a result of his ability to build anything he wants. His rich imagination provides very few limits to his inventiveness.

We asked Jamie why he is so driven and motivated in his work. He believes it is the gleam of success and winning over the odds of a challenge. He likes to be an innovator and acknowledges that he works as part of the team at RPM, an advanced tooling manufacturer and market leader in New Zealand.

A proponent of refining systems to make processes smoother, easier and faster and moving with the times, Jamie says the tool making process has changed radically over the course of his career. He describes the old process as Consult, Design, then Build – but now with efficiencies in place, the whole process can be carried out in parallel. This reduces lead times and costs and makes for happier clients.

Logical thinking is a large quota of Jamie’s’ intellect, and it is clear that he sees building things as a series of steps, where one thing precedes another in a logical in order. Considering his long employment with RPM, and his successful career, this mentality has obviously stood him in good stead.

Jamie became the CNC Manager at RPM in 2011 and believes he is a good teacher and enjoys sharing his knowledge with his team of nine staff. At sixteen Jamie decided to take life by the horns and chose the career path that he wanted to pursue. His job in a warehouse wasn’t giving him any satisfaction so he went door knocking, looking for an Apprenticeship in Engineering. He was lucky enough to find Mark Vincent at a brand new RPM, a business which was only four months old at the time. Mark offered Jamie a trial for a week and that was the last door Jamie had to knock on. Jamie’s Apprenticeship took him on a 9000 hour learning curve. He still proudly recalls his 90% pass grade in Calculus and 80% pass grade in Theory for his trade certificate.

CNC Machine Manager

After ten years of operating 3 Axis CNC Machines for the company, Jamie was an expert at getting the best out of the machines but when 5 Axis CNC Machines entered the market, the quirky engineer recommended the new technology to the RPM Directors. They replied “If you can run it, we’ll buy it!” and Jamie was promptly shipped off to Germany for a month of 5 Axis machine training, along with Mark Vincent.

A few months later New Zealand’s first Deckel Maho 200P 5 Axis CNC machine arrived at RPM along with a crew of German experts. By the time the Deckel Maho technicians had installed the machine and spent two weeks with Jamie in a real life working environment, they returned to Germany with even more knowledge and expertise than they had arrived with. Jamie had mastered the operation of the 5 Axis and was already thinking outside the box to make the CNC machine perform how he wanted. He says “The 5 Axis CNC machine was a lot of fun to run when we first got it.”

Ten years of dedicated service running the Deckel Maho have earned Jamie respect and kudos throughout the New Zealand Engineering fraternity and especially within RPM. He recalls a defining moment; “We made a Titanium facial implant and jawbone for a lady recovering from cancer. The implant was grown using the Direct Metal Laser Sintering process and I did the secondary machining on the 5 Axis machine.” He goes on to describe how he machined teeth for the jawbone, which were later porcelain infused. This same sintering process was ahead of its time and is only now becoming more and more useful in the construction of engineering applications. RPM are using the sintering process more and more in the design and construction of tooling.

Outside of work it is clear to see the Jamie’s passion continues – with a distinctly Adrenaline Junkie flavour! Amongst his top hitting list are :

• Qualified Glider Pilot with over 200 hours of Gliding under his belt
• Solo sky diver with over 100 jumps to his name
• 20 year’s jet skiing
• A 30ft launch that continues a boating passion that began at the age of 5.

Despite all this to keep him occupied, Jamie is always keen to catch up with his RPM team socially on a Friday after work, where he and his team spend an hour or so having a beer and discussing the week.

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