Page 276 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

service manager, to focus solely on custom fabri- cation. Ravazza was tasked with bringing both the San Leandro and Portland fab shops together as a team. Each group had its own market focus, yet they both had a common purpose: meeting cus- tomer needs where there wasn’t a current solution. “San Leandro does more on the construction side; we’re more geared toward forestry,” says Shawn Hegerberg, Peterson’s Special Services manager in Hillsboro. “But whether we’re building a bucket, doing modifications, or coming up with some- thing new for a special application, we still run un- der the same philosophy of helping our customers with whatever they need.”
Teamwork is key to running a cohesive, three-state operation. Knocking down the silos of “us and them” was crucial. It started coming together in 2015 when San Leandro was slammed with work. “They were too busy to get their workload done, and we were slow, so we took on a bunch of their
Top left, clockwise: Buster’s Large Capacity Loader Bucket patent from 1966 aka the Bonus Bucket (machine shown on opposite page); Buster & Howard Peterson in the 1960s; Buster Peterson(L) working for R.G. LeTourneau as an engineer in the early 1940s; Pioneering electric over hydraulic machine controls in the 1960s
work,” says Jerry Boon, Peterson engineer in Hill- sboro. “In the interim, we got really busy ourselves, but we still got it all done. I can see how the collab- oration between our two shops benefits the whole company. We may have different customers, but we can still assist each other by sharing our knowledge and workload.”
274 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG