[CAT® MARINE] Hands-On Training at Miami Lakes

Sergio Tigera: Welcome to the Cat® Power Podcast, where we deliver powerful insights into the world of Cat Marine, showcasing the latest in technological advancements and highlighting the stories of the industry's most dynamic leaders. I'm your host, Sergio Tigera. Now let's get ready to power up with the Cat Power Podcast. And welcome to the cat power podcast. My name is Sergio. You can catch us and every episode on YouTube, apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, or wherever you'd like to listen to your platforms on. And today we're very excited about a guest that we're going to have on here. It's Hashim Marzuq welcome my brother.

Hashim Marzuq: How you doing? How are you Sergio, good morning.

Sergio: It's great to see you. So Hashim, he went to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He has a bachelor in science, third assistant engineer, unlimited horsepower for both steam and diesel vessels. He's shipped on oil tankers for six years and he's had 20 years with Caterpillar on various positions all around the world. He's been a service project engineer in Manila, the Philippines and the Cayman islands. He's been a Marine application and installation engineer, Peoria, Lafayette, Greenville, Houston, all over the place. He's been a territory support manager in Hamburg, Germany as well as now, a GDL staff instructor and consultant here in Miami lakes. And of course, kind of like me, he likes running, golfing and boating and who wouldn't living in south Florida. So welcome Hashim. Yeah.

Hashim Marzuq: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that Sergio.

Sergio: Absolutely my brother. So listen, before we get into about what you're doing and interesting things with Cat, you have a very interesting background. Tell me a bit about kind of where were you born? What was it like growing up for you and how did you get interested in this world of Cat Marine?

Hashim Marzuq: Oh, wow. Yeah, the background I'll keep it brief. I was actually born in Kuwait. My parents are from Palestine but born in Kuwait. We migrated to the U. S. and well, the whole family been immigrating to the U.S. since the seventies, actually my older brother, he went to the same school I went to, Mass Maritime Academy as well. And he got two of his kids to go there, so Marine is embedded in my blood.

Sergio: A big change in weather too.

Hashim Marzuq: Right. Yeah. Right. From the Sahara to-

Sergio: I mean, I don't think you get more extreme than that. So that's awesome.

Hashim Marzuq: So yeah, so in the U.S., Massachusetts is my hometown, or home state if you will, hometown would be Plymouth, Massachusetts, just where the pilgrimage migrated to.

Sergio: Very similar.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah. So yeah, I went to the Maritime Academy, graduated in'92, I went in the engineering segment. I did sail for about six years, mainly steam oil tankers, which had a lot of diesel backup generators, etcetera, majority of them were Caterpillars. The other vessels I sailed on was also with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. That was all diesel. And it was all Cat engines. That one-

Sergio: Was meant to be from the start.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah, exactly. And right after that, there was an opportunity with Caterpillar to work in the Philippines for them as a service engineer. It's actually was kind of like what we call here is a field follow. So Caterpillar was trying to get into the heavy diesel oil side of the business and they upgraded several 3600 Series into heavy fuel oil. And at the time Caterpillar was looking for people that had experience with heavy fuel. Although I, at the time I did not work on diesel heavy fuel, but I worked on steam tankers that process heavy fuel, and all of, for it to go into the boilers to be, to heat up the boilers in the water to become steam. So anyways, my criteria curriculum matched the interviewers and they shipped me off to the Philippines.

Sergio: So at the time were you married? Did you have kids or were you alone?

Hashim Marzuq: I was just got engaged.

Sergio: Your fiance wasn't too happy about that, right? Or was she like," Yeah, let's do it. It's a good adventure. Let's go to the Philippines"?

Hashim Marzuq: At that time she was adventurous. We'll keep it at that.

Sergio: Yeah. She'll be watching this here soon, so. And so, you went out there and what was, what was it like, what was your kind of biggest memory or the thing that struck you the most in that role?

Hashim Marzuq: So on that one, the objective was like I mentioned, was field follow, that actually is more of the people, the Caterpillar structure, the support at one of my greatest colleagues back then, Richard Peek, he still works for Caterpillar he's in Asia right now. Get to learn a little bit of the Aussie accent, but not really.

Sergio: Yeah. Yeah. There you go. There you go. It it's interesting. Cause as, so I worked for Caterpillar for 14 years and I lived in Geneva, in Rome and then Panama. And it's interesting because you do start picking up accents depending on your environment, right? At least while you're there and maybe you don't bring it with you afterwards, but every time you go back, you start picking it up again.

Hashim Marzuq: Yes, yes. And whenever you meet somebody from Australia we kind of, I just like have a lot of influence, I even played the game. I played the Aussie rule football when I lived in Houston, Texas, so-

Sergio: Nice, nice. You look at, you have the size for it, so that's good.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah I don't know if I was that good. Yeah. Ended up breaking my ankle, but anyways.

Sergio: Awesome. Awesome.

Hashim Marzuq: But other than the people, again, the Caterpillar structure, the whole staff, everybody that I got to meet within Caterpillar, they were all very welcoming, very knowledgeable. Whenever you need support or help you call anybody, they would jump on it, figure out a way to help you, if they couldn't help you right then right there they'll call somebody. So both in any possible means like technically speaking and personally speaking. So that was really great.

Sergio: Yeah. That's a great point because I remember back when I was, while I was working in a Cat, that was one of the things that was most, just most impactful for me that wherever you went in the world, you would meet some Cat people and it felt like home and people would help you and so forth. So that's a great culture, not only in Cat, but in the dealer culture as well, and just in the network, even with customers. So that's a fantastic thing. So you were in the Philippines for a few years and then you went off to the next place. So tell me about that.

Hashim Marzuq: I went to the Cayman islands. So that was-

Sergio: All right there you go. That was reward after out there.

Hashim Marzuq: I mean, Phillipines was great too. Yeah, yeah, sure. Absolutely. It's just a different experience. You have to always bring the positivity of the place you go to. I mean, there's always challenges wherever you go or end up with and obviously, or of course in different places, you have different, a much more impactable type experience where you enjoy it more so, but that's, but the places, Philippines was fantastic. Cayman islands, picked up scuba diving there. And there we moved from heavy fuel 3600 and we were working on distillate 3600 diesel, not diesel number two, not heavy fuel. So that was the treat I, because they had a fuel, it has a little bit more extra steps. You have to heat the fuel, filter it, go through several filteration systems before it goes into the engine. But with the diesel straight up number two diesel, less stressful, if you will, and living on the island also gives you a little bit of opportunity to enjoy life a little bit. I was not stuck in traffic for six hours at a time. The Philippines, the one thing that was bad crosstalk was the traffic. Yeah. Because you get to lose your day, two hours, three almost to get to a spot and same on the return. So your days are tough. But the Cayman islands, 15 minutes you walk to it, you're at the plant.

Sergio: Your wife was much happier as well, right?

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah, sure. But yeah, so the Cayman islands was just fantastic. At the time Caterpillar had a contract or an agreement to support the power plant, Cayman Utility Company CUC, that was the idea there. I still, I also, there, I worked with Richard Peek as well. He had moved there as well. And again, we had a good time there. Learned a lot, again, more of Caterpillar structure on a different side, because we were on the customer side, we were kind of the supporting, if you will, were the customer to Caterpillar dealer there. So it was interesting to kind of see how that flew and the process.

Sergio: Yeah. Yeah. You're on both sides of the coin, so to speak.

Hashim Marzuq: Yes, exactly. So it was, was very interesting times. I spent a couple years there. It was great experience. And then another opportunity came up within caterpillar in the Marine world, which is my origin. And as far as what I wanted to work on, and that was in the application installation side of things in Lafayette Indiana. So that's how it started within Caterpillar on the ANI side.

Sergio: Interesting. You know, one of the great things about that is that you're constantly getting new challenges and learning new things. And one of the things I say about leadership and just growth and development is having that growth mindset where you get introduced to new challenges constantly. And that's just part of what we do and part of how we live. It's not always about the end result, but finding yourself in the process of learning and helping and growing. It's fantastic. And being able to do that in so many places around the world, exposing yourself to different cultures and different languages and lifestyles and everything else is a fantastic opportunity.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah, same thing. And it's great that you have faced a similar process so you understand very well all the different areas. I mean, you still want to learn and provide all the technical knowledge that you have to the new environment, but at the same time, you gain much more from where you go to, which is always great. So in Lafayette, Indiana that's how I got to know the 3500 product, was ANI for that one, did great projects with many dealers. I got to know more of the dealer network a little bit more was not just one dealer that I was working with like in the Manila and the Cayman and now it became global. So I get to know more dealers as you work with them to create different quotes, different projects, and you get to know a lot about not just the engineering that you are working with, you get to go to the shop and to figure out how this new unique quote is going to work, because you have to create a new product that, I mean, that's what the custom quoting was all about is about offering something that is not on the price list.

Sergio: Right. Right. It's difficult sometimes as a manufacturer, because you're having to deviate from your normal process of work and so forth, but it adds a lot of value as a client, as a customer out there.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is one of the greatest things that Lafayette site really offers is the customization of the product there. It makes you grow a lot.

Sergio: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect. So, and then you kept going throughout your career to all these different locations, and now you're in Miami, right? crosstalk So tell me a little bit about that and how you're supporting customers right now.

Hashim Marzuq: So with Miami I work for GDL, Global Dealer Learning, and I am at Miami Lakes Learning Center. I work for amazing, amazing group. We were actually just had a presentation about our team and how we support the caterpillar network on the learners side, all the projects that we have. And again, very welcoming team. You feel like with family instantly. From my manager, Jaime Casanova to all the staff and the supporting team, whether they are the consultant, whether they are the production management, project managers, the whole nine yards. Everybody in there is just working on creating an environment that makes the learner that comes in. Whether that learner is from our dealer and customer, our Caterpillar employees to feel that they are treated. They get first class experience from every direction. The learning, the material that's coming at them, the actual hands on training that they get. And this is what we pride on is what we are proud of is the hands on experience, because we're able to ensure that all the assets that we got are utilized for whatever training that we have.

Sergio: So 2020 was obviously a very challenging year for everybody with the pandemic and travel. And so as remote learning continues to develop, you will still have value in having people come and touch the iron and really get trained hands on there. But how are you guys developing the next technologies to train remotely? Is there VR goggles where you're doing in that, in that virtual environment? What are some of the things that you guys are developing now to be prepared for the future?

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah. So great point. So what we have now is what we call VILT. So Virtual Instructor- Led Training. So that's what we have currently that's happening. So with that, and with that one, we actually do also what we call there's blender learning. So we're able to go for us like, I'm the resident there right now in Miami lake. So I'm able to go to a lab and start an engine, or provide certain segments of what's needed for the training. And then we can present it live for the learners. So we kind of still give them a little bit of a hands on experience, but virtually. And hopefully as things move on and the dust clears and the virus disappears, hopefully will get back into hands on. However, it still evolves in a way that we will probably continue offering this virtual training where if you are just discussing the theory or trying to get the intro, which would actually impact the learner, that they don't have to spend the time to travel here and lose two days on theory, for example, where you can do that through virtual. And then when they come in to the training facility, they're straight into action. So that will reduce their travel time. It will reduce their travel time, the cost, hotels, rental, ecetera. So it's actually, well, I think it's kind of, again, Caterpillar and everybody would try to make things better when faced with a tough situation, if you will. So.

Sergio: Yeah. So yeah, things are changing at a rapid, rapid pace and adapting to that change and staying effective on the cutting edge is something that Cat has done for many years and will continue to do going forward. So at Miami Lakes, there's training for not only Marine, but other divisions as well, right?

Hashim Marzuq: Absolutely. Yes. We support oil and gas industry. We have a lot of different modules and assets that we have here. One of our biggest one is what we call the Larson station. We have expert consultants and trainers at the facility there that come in and they certify commissioning engineers. That is one of the things. The other things we are supporting also is the new mine, the mining industry with the truck engine technology, the DGB. Diesel gas, blending and transmission. So right now that's a huge project that's ongoing right now that we have great colleagues of mine, Nick and Brendan, they're working on it right now. They're doing a great job. Can't wait. Cause hopefully I'll get to touch it though.

Sergio: It's funny, because we get excited about these big toys, right? Whenever I tell people I work for Caterpillar they're like, oh the boot company? I'm like, no, no, no, the construction company, they make these huge tractors and engines and it's a lot of fun being in that industry. Especially you can touch it and you can feel it and sense the power of this stuff. It's impressive when you see it firsthand, and that's what you guys are able to do there at the facility. So what events, what do you have coming up in 2021 for customers to be excited about?

Hashim Marzuq: We have, again, we have the DGB engine that's coming up. We're hoping that we expand on our 3500 and the C32 engines that are at the plant. We do MSCs training. We do MCs training. We also, hopefully we can get back our CMA certification. It's usually a big event at the end of the year where we certify our Marine analysts. So we'll see how the, you know, dependent on the control of the virus. We'll try to see how those, but as of now, we're ramping up all our efforts to ensure everything is ready and available. Once we shift and move back to face to face people coming into our facility.

Sergio: And then the bonus is that when they come in they get to go running and golfing and boating with you on the weekend.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah, sure, yeah.

Sergio: Spend some time in Miami over the weekend and hang out with Hesham and the crew have a good time mix a little business with pleasure and have a good time.

Hashim Marzuq: Absolutely. Sure. Absolutely. And I, now that I know that you are around, we'll have to set up at least the golf game.

Sergio: We might have to do some customer interviews here on the power podcast.

Hashim Marzuq: Yeah, sure.

Sergio: Hashim, where can folks get in touch with you if they have some questions, they want to get more information? Is it an email, LinkedIn?

Hashim Marzuq: Yes, I am on LinkedIn, but I'm also on email. Maybe we can set it up on the screen. It's Marzuq_Hashim_M@Cat.com. I am on LinkedIn. I need to be a little bit more active on LinkedIn, I need to update all my information. I have not been as active as I should be. But yes, those are my information. You know, happy to answer questions, especially with what the upcoming trainings are and whether you are end customer or Caterpillar employee, or obviously our dealers. Our dealers, they have all the links that we can provide them to from GDL that gives them our service internet and details.

Sergio: Fantastic Hesham, thank you so much my brother for being on the Cat Power Podcast. It was a pleasure having you on, hearing your story, it was awesome. And being up the street we got to connect and go hang out for a little bit.

Hashim Marzuq: Yes, absolutely, Sergio.

Sergio: So you can, like I said, you can catch these episodes on YouTube, apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, whatever platform you choose to listen to. And subscribe because we're going to be giving you a lot of value. We're going to be interviewing leaders in different industries and guys like Hashim and Alan Bohlmann and experts in the field to keep you updated each and every time we have an episode. So enjoy, have a great day everyone, make it a great one, and thanks for being on the Cat Power Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow and rate us and be sure to share it with a friend so that you can power up their life and their career.