Employee Spotlight: James Kauke – Research and Development, 9 Years
Born and raised in Illinois, James has always had a passion for
manufacturing design. In fact, he brings 30 years of experience to
Trendler’s Product Design, R&D, Fixtures, and Maintenance teams as Head of
Research and Development.
- Q. Tell me a little more about your role, what does a typical day look like?
- Well let’s see, I have my hands in a little bit of everything. I maintain projects that are going on in development, help on the shop floor whenever a team member runs into a problem or an issue, and I take care of any fixture problems whether that be fixing old ones or building new ones. There’s not one certain task I do every day. I never get bored, I can tell you that!
- Q. What makes you excited to come into work every day?
- You never know what’s going to happen, it’s never the same path, you never know what direction you are going to head. What I enjoy most is the challenge, it gives your mind a place to expand and that’s what makes every day fun and exciting.
- Q. What has been your biggest accomplishment at Trendler?
- What I try to do is develop products where outsourcing is rarely involved. This way we aren’t relying on anyone else. One of the projects I’m working on now is a chair – one that I’ve never seen before and trust me, I’ve sat in plenty of chairs. That’s what makes developing new products exciting - seeing my ideas come to life. I can say hey look I created and developed that! Our newest product the Karaoke Wood Motion is something that I’m very proud of.
- Q. Outside of the office what do you like to do?
- Well I first picked up the guitar in 1974 and I haven’t put in down since. I like it because its fun, it’s a way to express myself! I enjoy playing and singing for people that I don’t know, compared to people I do know. The people that I don’t know are the people that come up to me after shows and say “ That’s the first time I understood that verse, that’s the first time, I’ve ever understood that song!” It’s really cool getting that response back from the crowd.