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The Undercover Boss in this episode is Bernt Bodal, CEO of American Seafoods. Mr. Bodal oversees one of the largest seafood companies in the United States. The CEO is a Norwegian immigrant who came to the country in 1978. He was a deck hand and captain on seafood ships in Alaska for 11 years. He and a couple of other investors bought out a previous owner and is now the CEO. He is also a musician and plays with Sammy Haggar, Steven Tyler, and Roger Dalton, among others. While undercover, he's looking for ways to increase efficiency. His undercover name is Bjorn.
The first stop is at a processing plant in New Bedsford, MA. He is working with John the maintenance manager. The first job is cleaning a pit in the plant's water treatment plant. Bjorn gets lowered into the hole to shovel out the mess. He's barely into the hole when he starts yelling, "It's boiling, lift me up!" John says the water is a little warm but Bjorn is not going back down.
John and Bjorn move on american petroleum institute pumps to a breading machine and he is not doing a good job. John reveals he's from Portugal and says foreigners have to work harder than the average person because they have more to prove. Bjorn tries welding and he's not good at that either. John decides Bjorn won't work out so he sends him packing.
The second stop is the American Triumph, American Seafoods flagship boat in Alaska to work as a deck hand. The factory manager, Asgeir, and the captain know who he is but they have to keep it quiet. The boat catches and processes the fish. Bjorn is working with Billy on the deck. The beginning of his deck hand experience is not so smooth but he slowly picks things up but he's not as good as he used to be.
Billy has been fishing for over 20 years. He's working on the boat now because his mother has MS and he wants to buy her a condo. He says it's hard to be away for so long. The crew can be on the boat for up to six months at a time. Billy thinks it would be a good job to get Internet access on the boat so the crew can communicate with their families.
His second job on the boat is processing fishmeal, the head and guts of the fish. They are cooked and ground into a cornmeal-like consistency. Bjorn is working with Rafal, the fishmeal foreman. Bjorn gets up close and personal with his boat as he must pull all the fish guts on the blades by hand and wash it. Bjorn moves on to the bagging side of the process and Rafal tells him he must do 10-15 bags an hour; each bag weights 77 pounds.
Rafal comes back to check on Bjorn and his bags are too full. On a break, Rafal tells Bjorn he is also an immigrant. He is married with two kids but they're all in Poland. He is trying to realize the American Dream. He wants to move up in the business and bring his family to the United States. He has the same issue Billy has with the lack of communication. Also, he doesn't get vacation time because if he leaves there is no replacement for him.
The third job on the boat is the surimi factory. Surimi is like a fish paste used in making products such as imitation crab. Be aware of a few straightforward changes that should be added to a standard
centrifugal or positive displacement pump. In pumps with overhung impellers, moving to a solid shaft is a straightforward improvement over the standard sleeved shafts. Mechanical seals should be improved with the addition of silicon carbide faces, and elastomers are able to be changed to EPDM. Finally, magnetic bearing protectors will be a great improvement in relationship to the lip seals which the vast majority of industrial pumps rely on to keep bearing sump oil contamination free.
Bjorn is working with Susana, a surimi packer. She decides she must treat Bjorn like she was first treated. His first job is to grab trays coming off an assembly line; he is not successful. They move on to packaging the surimi. He's not moving fast enough so Susana steps in to catch up.
On a break, Susana tells him people have to work hard to move up because promotion is hard. She is American Samoan and has lived in Alaska since she was four. Her mother passed away and she hasn't interacted with her family since. If she doesn't get close she can't be affected if something happens.
The Reveal
Bernt Bodal does the reveal in the break room of the American Triumph. Bernt revealing his true identity, with the exception of John from New Bedsford, pleasantly surprises everyone. He doesn't like to be tricked and feels like he's been made a fool. Bernt tells him not to feel that way because he needed to go undercover to do his job.
He tells John he really appreciates his work ethic and is giving him a $10,000 raise and a new title of Director of Maintenance. But he wants to change the pit procedure to stop the boiling water. He also offers to personally fly John's family to Portugal and $10,000 spending cash.
Bernt tells Billy he appreciates how hard he works and the ships will have Internet access so the crew can communicate with family. He also gives Billy $20,000 as a down payment on his mother's condo and $10,000 donation in his mother's name to an MS charity.
He offers Rafal $5,000 to improve his English skills so he can move up in the company. When his family is ready to move to the United States, Bernt will personally fly them from Poland to Seattle. He also gave him $20,000 for expenses to move his family.
He tells Susana to apply for any openings that come up because she is such a hard worker. He encourages her to spend more time with her family so he gives her a ticket to fly to American Samoa to visit, $5,000 spending money, and $20,000 for her dedication to the company.
The Aftermath
John is enjoying his new job title, Susana reconnected with her family; Billy took some time off to be with his mother; Rafal is working to bring his family over and is taking English language classes.
What did you think of Undercover Boss? Catch Undercover Boss Fridays 9/8c.
(Photo mud pump Source: University of Washington)
pumpmaven18749 · Tue Sep 30, 2014 @ 08:23pm · 0 Comments |
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