Joe Kirchner, our Vice President of Operations, is a valued member of our WHP family. So what does Joe do at WHP Trainingtowers™? Maybe a better question would be – what doesn’t Joe do? In his current position, Joe oversees the entire sales team and the operations team. “Once something turns into a project, I help with the transition from sales to the project team,” he said. There’s not much Joe doesn’t touch at WHP. From sales, to research and development, to purchasing, contracting and customer relations, Joe keeps things moving smoothly for both the company and the customers. “I know a little bit about everything,” he laughs. After 20 years and over 700 projects, he ought to!
Don’t Know? Ask Joe!
Because he is involved in so many different departments, he is in a unique position to hear from people both inside and outside of the company. This allows him to identify problems and challenges customers are finding with products and then take that straight to internal departments to find a solution/improvement. He finds this one of the most satisfying parts of his job. “One thing that I really like about my job is that I have a foot in sales and I have a foot in operations, so I kind of have an ear to the ground of what sales is dealing with and what the customers are asking for,” he said. “Because I have a foot in operations, I can dig in with the R&D team and come up with solutions to solve customers’ problems and work on constantly improving the products that we deliver.”
Joe says his favorite thing about his job is the fact that he gets to be involved in the delivery of fire training systems that are designed specifically for each fire department. “I get to work with each fire department and make sure their individual needs are met,” Joe said. “And I get to be involved in the process to ensure that we’re providing them the system that they need to train their firefighters.”
WHP Trainingtowers™ Has Evolved with the Firefighting Industry
Joe shared that he thinks WHP’s constant innovation has made a huge impact on the firefighting industry. “I’ve been here 20 years now and seeing where we were 20 years ago versus where we are now is amazing. We have really evolved with the needs of the fire service” he said. Immersing ourselves in every aspect of the industry has allowed WHP to develop a turnkey operation. We sell the product, design it, fabricate it, deliver it, and install it. “It gives us a unique role, different from any competitors out there, to be able to provide full service to the customers and really be able to listen to them on what changes are coming about in the industry,” he added.
One example Joe shared was the plate steel door system WHP Trainingtowers™ developed based on feedback from previous customers. We learned that the traditionally available commercial doors were a weak link in the buildings as they didn’t age well when it came to maintenance and upkeep. So WHP developed a plate steel door specific for fire training that is much more robust and can handle the moisture, heat, and abuse much better.
Communication Is the Key to Innovation in Fire Training Towers
“It’s a pretty important position of making sure that those ideas are communicated back and forth between sales and the end users and the project team who’s actually designing, fabricating, and installing these systems,” Joe said. “I’m always listening to everyone from the outside sales rep talking to a customer down to the welder on the floor.”
Joe credits the team and the overall attitude of ingenuity at WHP for the company’s success. “Everyone at WHP Trainingtowers™ is constantly trying to change things and improve things that we do,” he said. “I’m no different. Everybody knows that I’ll take on special projects and really try to deliver improvements to our products that, in turn, improve the training capabilities of our customers. Firefighters fight fires differently today and being able to accommodate their modern training needs with our tried-and-true technology is the goal.”
Joe lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife Megan and three children … Louis – 12, Nola – 9, and Annie – 8. He spends his free time being a Boy Scout leader, coaching track and field at the grade school, and renovating their 100-year-old house. “We must like restoration, because we’ve also restored a lot of old furniture and a 1960s camper that the whole family takes on camping trips,” he said laughing.
