The right spirit brings successful sales

Gerhard Gerstmayr was also involved in the new voestalpine image campaign. When he's not in front of the camera, he's responsible for sales at voestalpine BÖHLER Aerospace as Vice President Sales.

This was the second time Gerhard Gerstmayr has participated in a voestalpine image campaign. This time his assignment took him to a film studio in Hamburg as well as to an Austrian Airlines hangar at the Vienna Airport. “It is exciting. You feel like a little movie star – with makeup and a wardrobe, you’re constantly getting spruced up, a crease is smoothed or the jacket is straightened. It’s exciting to see how this industry works and what details get attention. To put it crudely, a lot of effort goes into making a couple of photographs and a few seconds of film, but this is the only way for the results to really be good,” Gerstmayr said.

In addition to Gerhard Gerstmayr, a Boeing 777 from Austrian Airlines and machined structural parts also play a role in the spots.

From technology to sales

He didn’t actually want to be a film star when he was young, but rather a technician. So he studied metallurgy at the University of Leoben and wrote his dissertation on a mechanical engineering topic. In 2010, after obtaining his doctorate, Gerstmayr joined voestalpine BÖHLER Aerospace (then BÖHLER Schmiedetechnik) as a product manager and was responsible in this position for various forged products. He has been in charge of all sales activities since 2014. The high-quality and customized drop forgings from Kapfenberg are primarily in demand in the aerospace industry, a high-tech sector characterized by its extraordinarily high standards.

High-tech with unsurpassed standards

“You have to control the production process very well throughout all stages so that the safety-relevant products can precisely demonstrate the required properties,” says Gerstmayr. In addition, there are strict requirements where quality management is concerned – such as for process safety, equipment accuracy and process documentation. Gerhard Gerstmayr also has a ready example of this: “In a heat treatment furnace, a product is treated for several hours within a defined temperature range with a tight tolerance. If you are outside this tolerance range for only one minute, you must immediately register this internally and, if applicable, talk to the customer about whether the product can be delivered.” Each die-forged part is accompanied by lengthy documentation to guarantee complete transparency and traceability.

Shared quality awareness

Trust is essential in the aviation industry. “We have long-standing, trusting customer relationships with our few major customers – not everyone builds aircraft. If mistakes happen with you as a supplier, the whole industry quickly knows about it,” Gerstmayr says. To be successful in this elite class of forging technology, all employees in the company must demonstrate a high degree of quality consciousness across all departments.

Making good progress

“At the end of the day, our claim to be ‘one step ahead’ stands or falls with the people, from the management to the employees in production. We have been able to establish this spirit in the company. There is a broad common understanding, even if we are still far from the end of the road,” says Gerstmayr. The 37-year-old also makes good progress in his leisure time – hiking, running and gardening. But most of his free time is devoted to his wife and three children.