Blackhall Engineering’s new Director of Business Development – Dean Wheatley

Blackhall Engineering’s new Director of Business Development, Dean Wheatley, is the newest member to join our team. “It has not been an easy path,” says Dean. “I have not met many people who can claim that they have followed through on their early ambitions of becoming an Astronaut or a Marine Biologist early on in their life, because we become enamoured by other things as more options open up to us due to life’s wriggly path. It is a journey that has to be frequently tweaked and tuned to accommodate changes that are placed upon us.

“I really thought I wanted to become an Architect at the age of eleven and told everyone so,” says Dean, “but my pursuit of this heady goal was curtailed after life threw one of many curve balls at me whilst I was studying, meaning I had to leave full time education in order to find work. Still, utilising those skills learnt at college all those years ago has stood me in good stead so even though I didn’t achieve my first ambition, I did find another rewarding career path afforded by my interests. It just wasn’t in Architecture.”

Life Change

His life changed dramatically, as it does for all parents, with the birth of his first daughter. Entering the world of work in 2000 Dean took up his first role in the utilities arena as a sales representative for Burdens, a family-owned business that supplied materials to the civil engineering sector. It was here that he helped forge a specialised ‘channel of supply’ to water companies who were struggling to find certain products that were required in their regular maintenance projects.

After successfully gaining a reputation within this sector, the company (and Dean) moved their attention to the gas industry where they became one of the first distribution companies to secure a 24/7 contract with Transco to supply various gas related products in emergencies. Since then, Dean has worked for various manufacturing and distribution companies such as AVK, Tyco and Keyline utilities owned by the Travis Perkins Group, helping each grow in turn.

Moving on

Which is how Dean finds himself where he is today – at Blackhall Engineering. As a family-owned business, with a big punch within the valve industry, he has in a sense gone full circle. The big difference is that he now has twenty years of accrued knowledge that will help Blackhall forge a path into the future.

The beginnings of which are already starting to get off the ground. Instigated by Blackhall’s Sales Director and good friend Antony Butler (who he first met during his time at Burdens), the company is set to launch a new division based around the provision of Through-Life Engineering Services (TES)

The new division and TES

TES is essentially at the heart of everything that Blackhall does already. It is in the company’s DNA to supply high quality, long-lasting critical assets to the water and power industry and also to be able to offer a comprehensive after sales service too. It is something that was already there but is now being formally recognised with its constituent parts joined up to become a recognised service.

Essentially TES can be viewed as a defined process that allows a company like Blackhall to provide support throughout each stage of a product’s lifecycle – from conception, through design, manufacture and operational cycle to end of life disposal. It is seen as a natural stage in the evolution of product support and maintenance, repair and overhaul strategy with huge cost savings across the board.

How it works at Blackhall

As TES is a relatively new concept everyone is coming to the show rather late. We’re picking up the challenge from engineering projects that were signed off at the turn of the last century. Besides implementing TES on new installations, Blackhall are committed to restoring assets that are 100 plus years old, rather than simply scrapping and replacing components; unlike some of our competitors.

As Dean says: “We want to be in a position where we can become trusted advisors to the British Dams and Reservoir engineers; to train them in what is good practice on how to operate and maintain these precious assets wherever possible.” He goes on: “This has become my mission and what I have been employed to do by Blackhall. We aim to raise awareness of the condition that some of these assets are potentially in, and how it is crucially important to take the maintenance of their valves and subsidiary equipment very seriously. Especially as a fault can lead to a catastrophic event that impacts upon the environment and could even lead to the loss of life!”

They said it couldn’t be done

One of Dean’s first projects at Blackhall was work carried out on the Kielder Dam. It is the largest and newest dam in Europe having been completed in the 1980s and was in need of an overhaul. Dean had the pleasure to work on restoring a 36” Fixed Cone Valve that dated back to 1977.

What added impetus to the project was the fact that our main competitor said that it could not be done, due to the valve being worn in key areas, leading to their conclusion that a complete replacement was required. However, after a thorough examination Blackhall’s expert engineers got to work and completely refurbished it within 10 weeks, generating cost savings for the client and ultimately creating a new way of thinking about complex engineered assets. We wanted to demonstrate how adopting TES could lead to a clear understanding of maintenance (corrective or preventive) and the resulting cost savings over time. Our approach seems to have worked as Blackhall have been asked to add Kielder into its new maintenance programme called VAMP^®.

The future

We believe that TES and VAMP^® is the future of Engineering and we are following in the footsteps of some of the greats who are also implementing this model into their respective industries such as Rolls Royce.

The future will see ‘condition monitoring’ as accepted practice. Our VAMP^® model allows us to implement a 24/7 observation service for our customers, meaning we will be able to give asset owners live information based on the current condition of a valve and when intervention is necessary to augment its lifespan. If the valve is beyond repair, even for our engineers, then Blackhall are perfectly placed to be able to offer a new valve which is manufactured to exceed the current standards both in terms of performance and whole life cost, meaning we will guarantee our valves for 100 years!

A last word from Dean

“Joining Blackhall Engineering has really opened my eyes to what is classed as true quality. Having worked for the market leaders in valves in the past, those who mainly import, I now feel able to state that the quality of Blackhall’s valves is second to none. If I was to invest in a product that was classed as a critical asset, one that is ultimately protecting our water supplies, our environment and people l would now turn to the Valveologists at Blackhall.”

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