[A day, a job] Interview of Ulrich Komenan, PDMS Catalog Director

His passion for mechanical engineering and digital technologies were all it took to make Ulrich Komenan want to join Orinox ! Team management, monitoring, production and now head of the PDMS catalog for Edvance, Ulrich enlightens us on his busy days and challenging missions at the core of nuclear projects.

Ulrich, can you tell us about you in a few words ?

I am a mechanical engineer by training (École des Mines in Douai). In February 2016, I joined Orinox as a first job and then I followed diverse trainings on AVEVA tools.

How did you get into the engineering world ?

I wanted to be an engineer as soon as I got my baccalaureate. Engineering is one big passion of mine, especially since it can bring concrete solutions, physically build things but also numerically design them, such as digital models. That is why I took the mechanical engineering course for nothing is more concrete than mechanics !

Hence the connection with digital technologies ?

On I discovered digital technologies during my training, through internships with engineering consultants. I liked to combine the numerical field, the Web and my favorite area, mechanics. I wanted my job to connect both and I found it with Orinox and their Computer Aided Design (CAD) Engineer position.

 What were your first missions when you started at Orinox ?

My career started with a three-year and a half mission at Orano (formerly AREVA). I was a CAD Engineer there and I performed maintenance and management operations on the AVEVA project. Then my position evolved on a more managerial one when my supervisor left for Orano. From there, I had responsibility for the entire AVEVA PDMS E3D team, about 6 or 7 people almost all from Orinox.

What about now ?

In July 2019, my mission changed and I now work for our client Edvance, an EDF subsidiary handling nuclear projects. There, I am in charge of the catalog. My action spreads on almost every Edvance project, which allows us to deal with a lot of interlocutors and to answer to the different project teams transversally. I am also multi-engineering-task: civil engineering, process, mechanical equipment, general installation, etc.

How is a typical day at Edvance ?

It usually starts by management and team monitoring to look at ongoing subjects and to help them with specific issues that would slow down their progress. Then I focus on my monitoring missions: reporting, extract the indicators, update dashboards or even make sure that the processes put in place are respected. Finally, I try to keep 20% of my time dedicated to pure production and more challenging problematics that require more expertise, or that are simply more sensitive and that require to put on the leader hat.

For all missions, my job remains the same: exchange with actors from different fields of activity that take part in the project, clarify their needs, retrieve input data, put them in the catalog and make it available for the final user, the draftsman, so that he can design the digital model.

What are your ongoing projects?

What is currently on our minds is the HPC (Hinkley Nuclear Power Plant Point C) in Bristol. The catalog becomes part of this life cycle: these are projects that are perpetually in progress. As long as it is not over, we keep working on updating already-existing components in the catalog, or we integrate new needs that could occur. Sometimes, there is a difference between what is ordered and what is actually received, so we need to be ready to update. Such a project can require technical assistance for at least a decade !

What gets you out of bed every morning ?

I do like the diversity of the tasks that need to be done in one day with unexpected problematics and needs or technical challenges: a project is far from being monotonous ! Being perpetually exchanging with diverse trades, being the interface between interlocutors and answering their needs with cost, delay and quality restraints, this is what I find the most interesting and challenging in my job.

How did you know about Orinox ?

I I knew about them through a job offer for a CAD Engineer position. I made research on the company and I realized it was something that I did not know about and that could fit with my desire to connect digital technologies and mechanics. It was precisely what I wanted my job to be: the obvious expectations of this position but with a digital technology approach.

What do you like most about this company, beside the professional approach ?

The difference lies in the proximity: we are very close to our business managers and our CEO, Maxime Fourreau. Dialogue and exchange are possible with them: they listen, understand what difficulties we have to overcome and they bring a human answer to our problems. Teams are young, in both Orinox and Edvance, where about forty Orinox collaborators work. Quite regularly apart from our workday, we meet and go out. Contact is made easier.

What would you advise to applicants to Orinox ?

To join Orinox, one needs to have this digital technology culture, the wish to help the client speeding the process up in order to become way more efficient. To get to a position such as mine, one needs to develop technical skills but also managerial ones. It takes several years of practice.

Do you have any passion or activity other than engineering ?

I started acting when I was a teenager. It helped me open up, communicate with others and listen to better understand the client’s need. I also enjoy literature: it is quite relevant for me on a daily basis. And finally, just like anybody, I work out to stay in shape, but nothing serious !