It’s with both happiness and sadness that we announce the retirement of Romet’s Engineering Manager, Andrew Smich. Andrew has been an integral part of the Romet team during his 40+ years of service, leading and innovating Romet’s metering designs and technologies.

We sit down with Andrew to celebrate his career and capture his insights and knowledge into the industry.

It wasn’t Andrew’s plan, spending his whole career with Romet. In fact, he describes his entrance to the company as an accident. A happy accident, as it turned out. It was the 1980’s and there were just around thirty people working at Romet at the time. Andrew, a young mechanical engineer, had recently arrived from Europe and found his way into an interview at Romet; at the time, being a family-owned and operated business. Impressed by the eagerness and tenacity of a young engineer, the interview was cut short and Andrew was hired and instantly put on the job. 

Andrew began his career in mechanical assembly and various quality inspection roles, which allowed him to learn and understand the intricacies and design principles of the product. It wasn’t long before Andrew’s talents and capabilities shined through and he transitioned to the engineering design team, developing, and designing new products, assemblies, and subassemblies. In a time before AutoCAD and SolidWorks, Andrew spent his days working on drafting boards developing line drawings by hand, supporting new product development and manufacturing process improvement.

Further down the road, Andrew took the helm of the engineering team, leading the product development effort for Romet’s metering devices, known throughout the industry today for their rugged and reliable designs.

What changes have you experienced within the industry during your years with Romet?

Back in the seventies and early eighties, the focus was improving accuracy, efficiency, and reliability of mechanical metering devices. Throughout my years in the industry, I’ve seen and led the transition from mechanical metering to a focus on leveraging electronics to computerize gas data acquisition and analysis. During my early years with Romet, our engineering team introduced and patented the world’s first integrally mounted electronically corrected meter - the ECM®, being the predecessor to our current Advanced Electronics Platform, AdEM®.

The industry as a whole is constantly evolving technologically but at the same time has remained focused on a consistent goal - delivering safe, reliable, and economical energy to the world, and to this day, that is still our industry’s goal. I am proud to have been a part of supporting that goal throughout my career and to have supported the evolution of Romet to stay at the forefront of industry innovation.

What is your most memorable or most hard-earned accomplishment during your time with Romet?

It’s hard for me to pinpoint a single accomplishment and to compare the importance of each project that I’ve had the privilege to be a part of. Each successful project was an accomplishment and a challenge. Romet is part of the natural gas industry and our product designs focus on safety, accuracy, and reliability. I couldn’t afford any shortcuts in design, testing, and international gas measurement regulations. Although it’s hard for me to pinpoint an exact memorable or hard-earned accomplishment, the thing that I am most proud of and will cherish is the incredible engineering team that I’ve led and worked with throughout my years at Romet. Together we have issued over a dozen international patents for gas metering, gas measurement, and testing devices. 

What quick message would you provide to a young engineer just starting out in their career?

When working as a product designer and product innovator, you must know the product from the bottom to the top. You must know how a product works as well as its application, not only at the product level but at the manufacturing level, all the way down to its lowest subassembly design. The key to success is knowing the “how” and the “why”.

Andrew has been an integral part of Romet’s history, his designs of measurement devices created a foundation for Romet’s current technology offering, providing customer-focused measurement solutions through advanced electronics and data analytics. 

Please join us in celebrating Andrew’s career as we wish him a happy retirement and wish him great success in all his future endeavours.