In my current role as Head of Industry & Supply Chain in Thales, I am the leader of a team of 200+ team members covering Operations, Tactical Buying, Supply Chain Planning, Manufacturing & Test Engineering, and Quality Control. The OME Business has a £240M+ turnover per annum, with sites in Glasgow & Reading. I am accountable overall for the delivery of all Make and Buy products. I am currently implementing a High Performance Culture change to drive focus on Productivity, Improvement, and Cost Reduction.

As Operations Director in Vallourec I had oversight of all Manufacturing & Services Operations for North Sea Oil & Gas, reporting directly to the Managing Director. Vallourec’s customer offering includes manufactured products, customer owned material storage, and services – all for the Oil & Gas sector – equating to £50M turnover per annum. I overseen manufacturing, storage, and servicing sites in Glasgow and Aberdeen. I was the Chair of the Negotiating Committee with the UK Trade Unions. My direct reports covered Operations, Methods Engineering, Maintenance and CAPEX Projects functions. I led the delivery of a restructuring project of the UK Operations Model, reducing headcount in the Glasgow location and doubling headcount in the Aberdeen location. I implemented the framework of a new Transformational Ops Excellence Model to modernise Vallourec’s offering to the market whilst implementing Lean philosophies and driving out cost.

As the Operations Manager in Teknek, I performed as the Head of the Operations function for the business on the senior management team, reporting directly to the Managing Director. The company manufactures Capital Equipment for, primarily, the Tier 1 Electronics sector – with manufacturing bases in Scotland and Hong Kong, reporting to myself. It has a significant supply chain that I managed due to the number of components in the Capital Equipment. The Operations, Engineering, Planning, and Buying functional managers reported to me. I led a $20M per annum business. I had full accountability of delivering the KPIs and P&L for the company. I drove a cultural transition through Teknek to deliver Operational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma methodologies to implement KPI improvements.

As a Programme Manager in the Rolls-Royce Services sector I managed a UK-wide complex Value Stream across multiple sites. I managed the delivery of the product (£10m per unit) through the learner curve of development, working with the executive teams across both sites as an escalation point for cross-functional product specific issues, but in the medium to long-term analyse the key issues on the critical path of the value stream that is impacting the lead time and cost of the product. As I resolved continually changing bottlenecks in the supply chain I had a large and wide interface chart of cross-functional in-direct reports driving improvement through the value stream.

As an Operations Manager in the Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Supply Chain I led teams of 80+ cross functional team members (with 8 Working Team Leaders reporting) in both the largest Machining cell and largest Forging cell in the business – manufacturing high precision Aerospace components. I have been a direct supplier to both internal and external customers and led a transformation programme to merge value streams in preparation for a significant increase in production load. I drove the Forge throughput performance from averaging 3700 units per week to 5300 units per week in 10 months, during which the area had major quality issues, and maintained zero arrears to customer. As leader of the cross-functional team I drove performance through the Production System, mitigating risk through Lean Six-Sigma tool-sets and rate-readiness reviews.

As the Engineering Leader for the Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Supply Chain I had responsibility of delivering time-constrained milestones, across numerous projects, utilising multiple cross-functional teams. I was required to deliver objectives that I am not directly accountable for. I gained a high level of technical expertise in engineering related matters. Gained a strong ability to manage through others, whilst building rapport and trust quickly with work colleagues. Ensured focus at all times on the milestones key to the customer, through myself and my teams. Worked closely with sub-contract and tooling suppliers, design engineering, and project teams to deliver to customer. Interfaced with raw material supply chain vendors, specialising in exotic steel and Inconel alloy metals – challenging them on lead time, cost, and quality.

Within the Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Engineering team, I had full responsibility for the Automated Polishing Cells, Special Processes, Milling Machining Cells, and relevant inspection operations. This broad ownership of varying operations allowed me to drive Continuous Improvement projects across large sections of the value stream. I applied Lean Six-Sigma tools to remove wasteful operations delivering cost reduction, and enabled projects driving further benefits such as optimised inspection and reduced processing content.

The technical engineering apprenticeship introduced me to various areas of the business in different roles, developing my knowledge and breadth.