Gareth Thomas Email & Phone Number

Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Leeds, United Kingdom

Developing the new process technology to enable NPD innovation, improve sustainability, and enable scale up / down into developing markets. Also covers the rolling out of existing process technology into new regions, and optimisation of this technology for local requirements, be they raw material, legislative, or cultural.Technologies covered are mainly cooker extrusion and baking.

Leeds, United Kingdom

Mars as a company, has a passion for developing and manufaturing its own products.My role is to continue pushing the boundaries of what Mars is capable of doing with a core process technology, and rolling out the benefits across the European and US supply network.These developments can deliver new innovation by enabling NPD in process and formulation development, supply efficiency improvements, cost & quality improvements.To enable these developments to be sustained long… Show more Mars as a company, has a passion for developing and manufaturing its own products.My role is to continue pushing the boundaries of what Mars is capable of doing with a core process technology, and rolling out the benefits across the European and US supply network.These developments can deliver new innovation by enabling NPD in process and formulation development, supply efficiency improvements, cost & quality improvements.To enable these developments to be sustained long term, my role is to also develop the Mars R&D technical people, allowing them to bring their scientific and technical passion and know how, to deliver in a FMCG environment. Show less

Leeds, United Kingdom

My role is to push the boundaries of what we are capable of doing with our key technology, cooker extrusion, to deliver business benefit, be it delivering new innovation, factory expansion, or continuous improvement. Examples include,- the development of the formulation + process for the recently launched Pedigree DentaFlex, a unique product for both petcare and cooker extrusion.- process development to double the output of the extrusion lines for Pedigree DentaStix, whilst reducing… Show more My role is to push the boundaries of what we are capable of doing with our key technology, cooker extrusion, to deliver business benefit, be it delivering new innovation, factory expansion, or continuous improvement. Examples include,- the development of the formulation + process for the recently launched Pedigree DentaFlex, a unique product for both petcare and cooker extrusion.- process development to double the output of the extrusion lines for Pedigree DentaStix, whilst reducing recipe cost and improving quality.Development of technical training, development, and implementation program with R&D.Roll out of current technology across global segments.Management of the scale up programme to take NPD from concept development, through to production. This is done within the framework of a business wide ISO system.Training of best practise NPD to new members of the R&D Innovation Team. Includes; design for manufacture, contracting with clients, developing and writing specifications, legal on pack declarations, HACCP, pilot to production scale up, and commissioning best practise. Show less

Leeds, United Kingdom

Managed a team of 6 people, with an annual spend of €30m, across a wide range of raw materials and packaging items.Owned the quality and food safety systems, for all incoming raw materials, and packaging items. Ran periodic supplier reviews, and set up Supplier development programmes.Developed suppliers’ capabilities to ensure contracted volume and quality requirements are met.Managed the procurement requirements for the NPD activities, undertaken by the Global product R&D team… Show more Managed a team of 6 people, with an annual spend of €30m, across a wide range of raw materials and packaging items.Owned the quality and food safety systems, for all incoming raw materials, and packaging items. Ran periodic supplier reviews, and set up Supplier development programmes.Developed suppliers’ capabilities to ensure contracted volume and quality requirements are met.Managed the procurement requirements for the NPD activities, undertaken by the Global product R&D team, from a technical and commercial sustainability perspective.Own the Commercial viability assessment programme for NPD activities.Run the European wide quality improvement / cost reduction programme, often involving co-development activities between Mars and suppliers. Programme realised annual savings of 12% of spend, by reducing waste & complexity, implementing fit for purpose materials, and leveraging volumes with other Mars' business units. Show less

Leeds, United Kingdom

Managed a team of 6 R&D Technologists, to support production facility with a €180M annual turnover.Transferred product and process knowledge throughout the Mars group globally in areas such as; cooker extrusion, food coatings, injection moulding, baking, and process technology.Ran the continuous improvement programme for existing products and processes, to meet quality, cost, and supply requirements.

South Shields, Tyne And Wear

Responsible for running a team of 5 people. Developed the key mechanical processes to allow the business to expand in to higher technology markets. Improved the process capability and yields on telecoms and datacoms PCBs from 65% to 90%. This allowed the company to successfully expand into this very cost-competitive market.Responsible for the introduction of QS9000 into the mechanical process area. This covered the introduction of; SPC, FMEA, Kaizen, and 6-sigma style quality development… Show more Responsible for running a team of 5 people. Developed the key mechanical processes to allow the business to expand in to higher technology markets. Improved the process capability and yields on telecoms and datacoms PCBs from 65% to 90%. This allowed the company to successfully expand into this very cost-competitive market.Responsible for the introduction of QS9000 into the mechanical process area. This covered the introduction of; SPC, FMEA, Kaizen, and 6-sigma style quality development. The successful implementation allowed the business access to the automotive market.The sole engineer in developing microvia technology. This required the development of new equipment, and its integration into the existing process. This opened up a new market, with yields, tooling requirements, and processing costs 30% less than industry standard. Show less

Uk And Argentina

Engineering graduate scheme, which covered 4 projects in both high volume, and small batch specialist manufacturing. Development areas covered include, TQM, 6-sigma techniques, SPC, and the Demming-based quality improvement philosophy.The sole UK engineer in a 10-month project in Argentina, developing the manufacturing capability in a newly acquired business.

Master Of Philosophy (Mphil), Advanced Course Of Design, Manufacturing, And Management

Bachelor Of Engineering (Beng), Mechanical Design, Materials, And Manufacturing

A Levels. Maths. Chemistry. Physics. General Studies. All A Grade