OEM of construction fixings for the DIY & trade

Shareholder and director at Bullfix Ltd.

Technical Director for components sourcing company. Projects have included mechanical components such as plastic injection mouldings, machined die castings to full assembly of electro mechanical products manufactured to customers own design. Responsibilities include full commercial P&L of the business, logistics, supplier development, quality, account management and new business development.

Manufacturer of automatic stove ignition system

Working in a Tier 1 automotive component manufacturer (1st / 2nd Tier supplier of machined parts), responsible for introduction of new products at the Stratford site. Operating from within the commercial organization, taking full programme & engineering accountability from the point of sales winning an order, to start of volume production. Activities include:• Main interface with customer post nomination as supplier.• Overall responsibility for process planning, specification & procurement of tooling / equipment, layouts and final commissioning of facilities etc • Quality planning including reporting project APQP status to customer.• Monitoring of tier 2 supplier timing / quality.• Reporting to company directors for programme approvals / regular project updates including cost & timing. • Chairing multifunctional project core team meetings

Working within the engines business unit (Powertrain), I was responsible for identifying and managing projects to reduce component costs by resourcing from china.Back in the Powertrain division of Rover Group, I worked in product engineering as a programme manager, responsible for global re-sourcing of powertrain components. This involved liasing with engineering, purchasing, parts quality, logistics and our customers (MG Rover, Land Rover, Lotus). My objective was to take all cost saving resource opportunities from the point of new supplier nomination, into production as quickly as possible. Essentially the process I was responsible for was:• Identifying possible component re-sourcing opportunities from purchase.• Investigating feasibility and product validation costs / timing• Compiling each business case and obtaining board approval• Ensuring approved global re-sourcing projects were delivered to cost & time.Later on my responsibilities concentrated on moving components supply to China in order to support the MG Rover / SIAC joint venture.

Responsible for all production / purchasing / manufacturing engineering activities within a small gas & electric fire manufacturer. Recruited to “sort out” what was a very poorly managed factory, my key achievements within 18 months were:• To reduce stock / WIP by 55%.• To transfer production to “build to customer order” from “building to stock”.• To implement a formal production scheduling and capacity planning system enabling an 80% improvement in delivery achievements.• Negotiated sole source supply of laser blanks from one of our main laser cut suppliers, to provide 10 % reduction in cost of supply and regular weekly drop of parts to Kanban triggers.• To implement a Kanban system to pull work from the fabrication areas into the assembly shop.• To reduce direct manpower by 23% whilst continuing to maintain production output.• Using standard DFM techniques in conjunction with the engineering team to design a new and improved product at a projected cost reduction of 34% • Negotiating flexible working practices and annualized hours scheme to support the seasonal variation in demand for production.• To implement lean manufacturing principles such as visual management, 5S, single piece workflow, changeover reduction, demand smoothing, supplier partnership & performance measurement (TPS and lean principles)

Contracted for a specific new engine project with TWR engineering consultancy, my role was to develop proposal costs and manage the manufacturing engineering input on behalf of TWR for a new major engine family programme. Project responsibilities included ensuring product manufacturing feasibility for the TWR design team activities, as well as offering technical advice to the client for planning the engine assembly and block / head machining lines. This project was for a 500,000 unit p/a engine factory to be based in Iran. (Total facility investment of circa £100 million). Key achievements included: • Significant detailing & negotiation of work scope responsibilities with the client.• Successful presentation and agreement of proposals to the client’s senior management team.• Starting from scratch, I generated & robust plan to meet the extremely tight manufacturing engineering programme timing. • Developed proposals that include latest methods to support lowest cost and shortest time to manufacture (Such as digital engineering – Tecnomatix for early process planning & DFM, Simultaneous engineering with equipment vendors from concept design, and a Lean Manufacturing philosophy) (This project terminated 14th Nov 02 as TWR went into receivership)

(STRATEGY / FORWARD PLANNING MANAGER) Jun 96 to Jun 01Recruited by my previous manager, I joined a select specialist team recently formed to develop new business opportunities for Rover Group manufacturing sites in competition with alternative external supply options. This was an entirely new role, which had not previously been defined. Projects had both commercial and technical responsibility including; proposal preparation, capital planning and manufacturing support on product design / development. This required close liaison with both senior and junior management within the Rover / BMW organization. Achievements included:• Gaining approval of in-house car suspension manufacture for the next 2 new vehicle programmes (R50 & L30). • Developing capital proposals (Combined value of circa £40 million) to support suspension / axle manufacture of Rover Group new vehicle plans for the next 7 years• Instigating simultaneous engineering activities between manufacturing engineering and design engineering for all new axle / suspension projects. • Initiating benchmarking of suspension manufacturing, including a review of several major automotive suppliers.• Developing project assembly methods to support the Rover Production System (Lean Manufacturing)(MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGER) Sept 94 to June 96Overall responsibility for managing a variety of manufacturing engineering projects related to machining and assembly capital equipment. Projects ranged from £5.5 to £0.2 million in value, including a new cylinder head machining cell. Key achievements included:• Raising project justifications and gaining funding approval.• Recruiting and establishing a new team of engineers to deliver project activities.• Developing detailed specifications for capital equipment proposals.• Managing supplier negotiations of high value capital equipment. • Delivering all projects to time and in budget

(OPERATIONS PRODUCTION MANAGER) Aug 93 to Sept 94Direct responsibility for 116 production operators over various shift patterns as well as maintenance and production engineering support within the Land Rover Engines machine shop. Achievements included:• Co-ordinated successive production volume increases.• Implemented Statistical Process Control on all “critical features”.• Implemented Quality teams resulting in a 40% reduction in scrap over 5 months.• Established a continuous improvement team where production operators jointly contributed to efficiency improvements. (Successes included tooling & manpower savings). (OPERATIONS PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR) Sept 92 to Aug 93Supervisor in Engine Test & Dress area for T Series Engines Manufacturing. (GRADUATE TRAINEE) Sept 91 to Sept 92