Elyas Ahmadzai always knew he wanted to be an engineer; he just didn’t know that he would be working in the aviation industry.
“When I first started working in the greater Detroit area, I started in the automotive industry. After the downturn in 2008, I started looking for other engineering work in non-automotive industries, and I stumbled across Daifuku, which introduced me to the baggage handling and aviation industry,” Ahmadzai said.
Ahmadzai joined Daifuku in 2011 and has since been promoted to Controls Systems Supervisor and co-manages the Electrical and Controls department. He manages a team of 45 engineers, leading the design, commission, installation and maintenance of airport baggage systems throughout North America.
“We do it all, from design to installation and commissioning – cradle to grave,” Ahmadzai said.
In the past five years, Elyas has been responsible for over $200 million in combined total project value. Elyas led the design, installation, and commissioning of baggage handling systems at some of the busiest airports in North America, including Dulles (IAD), Boston (BOS), Philadelphia (PHL), Orlando (MCO), Toronto (YYZ), Minneapolis (MSP) and Seattle (SEA). Furthermore, Elyas managed the design, installation and commissioning of one of the very first Mobile Inspection Table (MIT) installations in Checked Baggage Reconciliation Area (CBRA) at Orlando International Airport in 2018.
“There is always something new and challenging waiting for me and my team every day,” Ahmadzai said of what he enjoys most about his work. “I also love that I am not always in the office. I go to our job sites to oversee our projects and see the baggage handling system we designed on paper come to life. I’ve done a lot of projects and the best part of completing a project is when you see the first passenger bags come through the system you designed and put years of hard work towards, that gives me a great sense of accomplishment.”
As a leader of the Electrical and Controls Design department, part of the new Daifuku North America Innovation Center at their Novi Headquarters, Ahmadzai has a key role in designing the innovative airport offerings of tomorrow – such as Daifuku’s Baggage Tray System (BTS), Self-Service Bag Drop, Mobile Inspection Tables and Early Bag Storage
“Any project in the airport industry needs a tremendous amount of design, planning and implementation. In an airport environment, there is no down time. Most of the projects you implement in an airport environment, you plan as much as you can. You do all your planning and then once you start implementing some of those plans, there’s always unexpected problems that come up. Then you got to be on your toes. You got to come up with fast solutions, because you cannot impact the live operation at an airport, and that’s what keeps me challenged on a daily basis and keeps me on my toes. That’s something that I love – it’s not boring,” Ahmadzai said.
