He is passionate about what he does: Rainer Waßmann

A passion for training

“I’m truly passionate about what I do – because I have the most satisfying job in the whole company,” says Rainer Waßmann. And he should know, because he is at home all over the world and nevertheless a dyed-in-the-wool Koebauian – as he has been for more than 40 years. As a training instructor, he is not only acquainted with our customers from all corners of the globe, but also with their countries and customs.

People & Professions
Read time: approx. 3 minutes

Rainer Waßmann can now be considered part of the furniture at Koenig & Bauer. His career began in the factory vocational school in 1983, when he started his apprenticeship as an electrician and power electronics technician. This laid the foundations for his subsequent work as an assembly technician, which saw him install banknote printing presses from Koenig & Bauer worldwide. It was around this same time, however, that a second passion emerged: together with a friend he made during his apprenticeship, Rainer Waßmann gradually built up a reputation in the region as a DJ. Organising events and not only shaking up the music scene, but also getting involved himself, was more than just a passing phase for the young electrician. Even today, ‘DJ Wassi’ is the man behind the turntables at various company party events.

Rainer Waßmann is very much in demand – and highly respected – as a trainer at Koenig & Bauer

Career-wise, it was the programming of the presses he installed which began to arouse his curiosity more and more. As a PLC programmer, he spent eight years in charge of further development of the drive and control systems, a task which soon led to the next adventure in his colourful career. He enrolled for further training as a state-certified electrical engineer, and added classes to obtain an instructor’s certificate to allow him to share his knowledge with others. That brought him full circle back to the factory vocational school at Koenig & Bauer –this time, however, as an instructor for electrical engineering. For three years, he trained the next generations of young apprentices before switching to adult education.

 

Initially, he conducted internal training seminars, until Koenig & Bauer decided to extend its training offers to customers; Rainer Waßmann was involved from the very beginning. He trained the local teams of our customers on the technical details of their presses and explained how to exploit the productivity and efficiency potential to the full. The concept soon established itself and the department grew to become an inherent element of the company organisation.

Today, Rainer Waßmann is the training team leader for the Digital & Webfed segment, and passes on his enthusiasm for presses from Koenig & Bauer in training courses for customers all over the world. With his extensive knowledge of drive and control systems, he is also very much in demand – and highly respected – as a trainer for in-house technician workshops. In this role, he says, he feels a bit like the paper web running through a press, interacting with so many different people along the way: the worldwide training courses feed his passion not only for engineering, but also for foreign cultures, work with people and exciting travel. After all, only around 30 per cent of the training courses are held in Würzburg. The schedule calls for great flexibility – something that definitely isn’t problem for someone as committed as Rainer Waßmann, whose great talent is to infect the customers with his boundless enthusiasm.

Even today, ‘DJ Wassi’ is the man behind the turntables at various company party events

Of course, there is a lot that needs organising between the training courses. And Rainer Waßmann leaves nothing to chance: training documents are compiled individually and well in advance for each assignment, and he even has electrical and mechanical models made to ensure that everything can be demonstrated as realistically as possible. As each training course is ultimately pursues a different objective, it is especially important to Rainer Waßmann that every participant takes away the maximum possible benefit and can later apply the acquired knowledge with confidence.

 

Aside from the requisite passion for engineering, there is one more thing that should not be forgotten: the preparations for a training course often include also cultural research – especially in the case of international assignments. It not only takes expert knowledge, but also tact and instinct to avoid cultural gaffes and to satisfy the expectations at all times. One situation, in particular, sticks in his mind: Rainer Waßmann had to travel directly from a training assignment in Asia to his next customer in the USA, and “that, of course, meant being really careful and making the most of the flight time to prepare myself for the completely different mentality,” he recalls. “But it’s still a great pleasure every time and I learn at least as much as the participants in my training courses.”

Rainer Waßmann is living proof: many roads lead out into the world from Koenig & Bauer, but there are just as many that bring you back and – as in the case of Rainer Waßmann – guide you to your absolute dream job.