Manufacturing Accelerated Management Scheme

Name:
Ryan
University attended:
Imperial College, London
Degree obtained:
Mechanical Engineering 2:1
Joined Scheme:
2002

Manufacturing is often one of the least recognised functions in industry, but certainly one of the most important and most demanding. You will have the very real challenge of getting many different products to the customer using equipment, labour and materials as efficiently as you can. This will involve real thought around how to forecast, plan and order. You will control the majority of any business costs, and you will take responsibility for keeping those costs as low as possible, while maintaining excellent levels of service, quality and safety. Manufacturing gives an excellent insight to business and is a great opportunity to learn all aspects of the P&L. If you are a natural leader with a real passion for motivating and developing people in a team, as well as having a keen interest in improving efficiencies and processes, then this is the scheme for you.

Real work from day one

The Bakkavör Graduate Manufacturing Scheme is carefully structured to provide valuable insight into all aspects of manufacturing management. The scheme consists of two work placements in separate Bakkavör business units. One of these roles will include responsibility for managing operators on a line in the factory, whilst one role could be Logistics, Planning or Engineering in focus. It is anticipated that after two years you will be doing a Supervisor or Section Manager role. You should reach a senior operations role within 7-10 years

Real responsibility for graduates

I joined Bakkavör in 2002 and began my first placement at ASDA Walmart's headquarters in Leeds. My remit was to improve availability and reduce wastage of Bakkavör products in ASDA stores through better planning and closer communication with the customer. It was great to see our business from the perspective of one of our customers and to work within one of the UK's largest multiple retailers.

My second placement was within one of our automated ready meals facilities where I was responsible for the implementation of a Kaisen 5S project. This is a Japanese methodology - originally developed by Toyota - to improve factory efficiency through good organisation and housekeeping.

During my third placement I was given the opportunity to lead teams of production operatives, first as a Line Leader responsible for 15 people on one production line and then as a Section Manager responsible for 60 people on 10 production lines. This challenging but highly rewarding experience has proved extremely valuable in more senior roles since where understanding of the activity and people at the core of our business is essential.

My final placement was with a small team of manufacturing improvement consultants on a project to improve operational efficiencies. My first real lesson in the importance of effecting change through others rather than maintaining the status-quo or trying to do it yourself!

Upon completing the graduate scheme I continued work as a consultant completing several manufacturing improvement projects as part of a team of four and leading the team on one of the projects. Since then as operations manager I have also been responsible for manufacturing operations in a prepared fruit facility with up to 150 employees (plus 200 temporary workers!) and for a 150 strong shift team in one of our pizza manufacturing plants.

In my most recent role as Engineering Manager I am responsible for the maintenance and installation of processing equipment, buildings and building services on a site with 850 employees. As well as providing good breadth of experience I have been able to use some of my degree training for the first time and also to apply some of the skills and techniques learned in production to the engineering department.

Major Achievements:

  • Led the development and roll-out of the company standard Key Performance Indicator system - now used across 17 businesses.
  • Led a project team of four to deliver savings of £1.5m through implementation of lean manufacturing processes.
  • Had sole responsibility for manufacturing at a small factory with a turnover of £16m.
  • Leading the engineering function at a key Bakkavör site.

A real challenge at a fast pace

My experience at Bakkavör has been both positive and rewarding. Food manufacturing is not always the most glamorous industry, and it can be hard work at times, but there are good opportunities for those who strive to succeed. Due to the short shelf-life of our products and highly competitive nature of our industry pace of life is always fast and the next challenge is just around the corner.