Dani Alu would like to open up their industry leading products to new markets and make themselves the “go to” supplier by developing a best in class configuration service. I am accountable for the development of this service, including: - Defining the requirements and users of the service, - The development of the tools, and, - The digitalisation of the existing product range and new products in the current development pipeline, from quotation creation to ordering to BOM / shop drawing creation.I work closely with all aspects of the business, specifically the Innovation and R&D team.

Reporting to the Design Director, I provided programme management of new product development/introduction as well as functional and operational leadership of the Product Design capability. This involved managing, leading and coordinating the development and introduction of new products, continuous product improvements to existing products, project design and engineering integration and the management of a significant R&D budget.Whilst in this role I:• Successfully led the redevelopment of an inherited product in order to obtain NHBC System approval (including managing the approval process) and allow manufacture at the required cost and rate.• Led the development of a new product platform and its implementation to the production facility, co-ordinating a design team of around 30 (internal and external) and programme managing an overall project team of around 45.• Introduced a whole lifecycle New Product Introduction process to manage/reduce the risk during the development of new products, and proved it through the above project.• Implemented a robust change control procedure and oversight board to ensure changes to in-production products are managed with minimal risk to the business.• Developed a network of test centres and preferential relationships to support the product approval process.• Introduced a resource planning toolkit to the Design department, including a 12 month outlook, time capture, and planned vs. actual metrics. This toolkit is used to drive the department’s headcount increase.• Built a long-term, highly capable product design resource by identifying and hiring highly skilled engineers.• Managed the rollout of product variants into production.• Helped set the company’s product development strategy with the Design Director, creating a long term product development pipeline to dramatically widen L&G Modular Homes product offering.

I had technical and project management accountability for the development of new products across the Europe wide Portakabin Group of companies from concept to launch. My responsibilities included:• Leading the creation and delivery of practical and effective group product solutions.• The recruitment, development, scheduling, and management of product development resources.• The planning, budgeting, direction and control of task, people and resources.• Architectural, technical and product management authority and ownership throughout all development stages to full production prototyping.• Technical and commercial leadership of the supply chain.• Optimising the use of new and emerging technology.• Implementation and management of the group product development process.Whilst in this role I also digitalised the Product Design team’s procedures, developing a SharePoint intranet system with a digital approval process to replace paper forms and shared spreadsheets.

As Product Development Engineer I developed innovative new products whilst continuously developing existing products, both from a market-lead perspective as well as a product-lead standpoint. My responsibilities included:• Develop new and existing products considering the complete lifecycle of the product from the concept stage onwards.• Organisation and supervision of experimental and test work.• Close work with Logistics and Procurement ensuring robust supply chains.• Analysis and evaluation of developed design solutions across a range of criteria and monitoring product cost.I led the Konstructa Modular project from cradle to grave liaising with all areas of the business to ensure successful delivery (in May 2015). The product has features that eliminate all working at height during installation and decommissioning, and takes approximately half the time to install and decommission as previous Portakabin products. This product was the most innovative Portakabin product to-date, with three patents awarded.

I worked in the Engineering Department as a Design Engineer during my industrial placement. Often being the sole member of the engineering department working on a project, I would be responsible for developing a solution with the relevant markets/departments, designing the production equipment, sourcing quotes for its manufacture, and co-ordinating the installation and tests. I also had to write the documentation for the equipment and was often involved in production trials. I found this holistic approach to the job very fulfilling.