INTERIM QUALITY MANAGER – MECHANICAL, METAL AND ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS 

“Career development opportunity for ambitious customer focused quality manager to drive operational quality for a diverse range of in house manufactured and third party sourced products.”

Salary:  c£45000 (Pro Rata) + Excellent Benefits 

Location:  Wolverhampton, West Midlands 

Commutable from Birmingham, Kidderminster, Stafford, Stone, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Edgbaston. Harborne, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Bromsgrove, Lichfield, Tamworth, Stoke on Trent, Telford, Shrewsbury, Droitwich, Redditch, Worcester, Coventry, Warwick, Sutton Coldfield, Coleshill, Stockport, Crewe

Our client is a well-established and respected manufacturer of fixtures, fittings and components both mechanical and electronic in the home and building infrastructure products sector. Customers include national, regional and local DIY chains, trade counters, hardware stores, other manufacturers etc as well as B2C internet sales. Highly acquisitive and experiencing excellent growth, the company is based in brand-new offices, distribution centre and test centre complex in the West Midlands but has operational facilities and subsidiaries nationally and globally.   

This is an interesting Interim (to Permanent) opportunity for a Quality Manager.  Reporting to the Manufacturing and Technical Director. You will drive and develop quality management capability, cultural quality behaviour and operational quality effectiveness. You will manage day to day operational quality activities focused on delivering effective resolution, preventative measures, and the exploitation of continuous improvement opportunities throughout our client’s head office, sales, manufacturing, next day logistics operations and all sourced product groups. The focus will be on resolving issues involving both products and service. You will drive and develop operational quality activities, ensuring the effective management of customer complaint investigation, preventative action implementation, effective handling of incoming and returned product inspection and quality management support to manufacturing operations.

The Role:

• Promote and maintain best practice for safety, health and environmental factors throughout all Quality operations, and facilitate the development of the safety culture within the quality management team.
• Establish, maintain and develop appropriate quality management systems and procedures, commensurate with the company’s objectives, ensuring continued accreditation to BS EN ISO 9001
• Provision of management system expertise and support for safety, environmental and resilience management systems.
• Implement appropriate analytical measures for the prevention of defects, process improvement and business quality performance.
• Lead the management of product and operational performance related customer complaints, from initial receipt acknowledgement, through containment and corrective action, to resolution, including on-site support, where appropriate, using 8D methodology.
• Remotely facilitating and coordinating 8D activities with overseas sourcing operations and supply chain.
• Effective management of operational quality activities, including appropriate AQL inspection of incoming products & materials, product returns handling, including investigation, trend analysis and appropriate final resolution with relevant external parties.
• Drive the quality management of manufacturing activities, embedding quality assured processes and the provision of appropriate quality surveillance within production operations.
• Provision of support to the sourcing team for evaluation and qualification of new suppliers, and continuous improvement activities with existing suppliers.
• Support Production Engineering in process development, equipment selection, and process flow activities within manufacturing operations.
• Coordinate quality management planning for new product introductions and product modifications.
• Provide coaching to develop quality awareness and cultural improvement
• Management of a small team of Quality Engineers.
• Effective management QMS auditing.
• Producing monthly reports, including KPI’s & Trend Analysis. 
• Creating Standard Operating Procedures for relevant activities. 
• Producing Product Quality Plans & associated documentation and corrective and preventative action reports.

The Ideal Applicant:

• Prefer trained QMS auditor with six sigma qualifications
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in a customer focused quality role, ideally within a manufacturing environment, serving retail, wholesale, trade or consumers.  
• Highly customer focused with excellent customer relations skills and ability to bring issues to a satisfactory conclusion.
• High level of proficiency with MSOffice applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Proficient with FMEA process 
• Familiar with a design culture and able to read CAD / technical drawings 
• Experience leading problem-solving processes and use of quality tools
• Excellent team working & verbal and written communication skills
   

TEST LABORATORY MANAGER - TESTING & CERTIFICATION 

 “Career development and leadership opportunity for commercially focused Test & Certification specialist with best in class experience gained in mechanical and electrical test engineering or other disciplines, including chemical, metallurgical, forensics etc to UK and International Industry Standards”

Salary:  c£Very Competitive + Excellent Large Company Benefits 

Location:  Wolverhampton 

Commutable from Birmingham, Kidderminster, Stafford, Stone, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Bromsgrove, Lichfield, Tamworth, Stoke on Trent, Telford, Shrewsbury, Droitwich, Redditch, Worcester, Coventry, Warwick, Sutton Coldfield, Coleshill, Stockport, Crewe

Our client is a well-established and respected manufacturer of fixtures, fittings and components both mechanical and electronic in the home and building infrastructure products sector. Highly acquisitive and experiencing excellent growth, the company is based in a brand-new office, distribution centre and test centre complex in the West Midlands close to the M6/M54 but has operational facilities and subsidiaries nationally and globally.   

They are now seeking to strengthen their Test Centre team with the appointment of a Manager to head up their brand-new Test & Certification facility.  Our client offers testing and certification services both on an in-house basis to internal group companies and also to external customers including other manufacturers of mechanical, electrical and electronic components and products, in line with industry and national and international standards and certifications.  The role also encompasses management of product certification schemes to ensure continuity of compliance and maximise value from product certifications

Testing equipment is pneumatic, hydraulic and electrical/electronic and could cover tensile testing as well as a wide range of other tests.  

The Role:

You will manage our client’s brand-new Test Engineering Centre, ensuring that internal and external customer needs are met, providing an exemplary service, managing product certification scheme to ensure continuity of compliance and maximum value from product certifications.

• Promote and maintain compliance with procedural requirements and best practice for safety, health and environmental factors associated with testing operations, ensuring suitable provision is made for the identification of hazards and management of risks
• Develop & maintain the necessary systems and competencies within the testing team to manage daily operations, testing scheduling, and quote and report generation 
• Promote and maintain professional standards of service.
• Manage the testing capacity to suitably cater for customer indicative, UKAS accredited, competitor analysis, development and audit test requirements.
• Develop & maintain the necessary systems and competencies within the testing team to manage daily operations, testing scheduling, and quote and report generation 
• Preparation of audit test samples for our client’s certified product testing.
• Maintain a test quotation and booking service with transparent lead times and manage the provision of testing to agreed service levels.
• Maintenance and development of UKAS accredited ISO 17025 Laboratory management system, manuals, procedures and accreditation requirements.
• Identification and implementation of testing service improvements including scope of service and efficiency
• Promotion of our client’s testing services within the industry to maximise value.
• Development and maintenance of our client’s product certifications including CE marking, Kitemark and Certify product schemes, and product specific testing evidence.
• Monitor and evaluate developments within industry testing and product standards, identifying threats and opportunities and liaising with key stakeholders.
• Represent our client’s testing services at the Test House Studies Group.
• Manage and develop the Test Engineers and Team Leader to ensure flexibility and quality of service.
• Maintain good relationships internally with key members of executive team as well as customers and external bodies.

The Ideal Applicant:

• Degree/HNC/HND educated in Mechanical or Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Forensics or similar.
• Experience of Electrical/Electronic Engineering advantageous. Experience could be gained in mechanical, electronic, chemicals, biological, metals sectors or forensics. 
• Currently working within a similar specialist testing team or alternatively as part of a quality or product development function within a manufacturing environment but keen to develop career further into testing and certification.
• Experienced leading and motivating a team of engineers including apprentice engineers.
• Experience of BSI standards essential.
• Customer facing experience essential – this could be external customers or internal customers within different product or manufacturing divisions of the same organisation.
• •Experience of planning resource allocation and creating and presenting reports.
• Structured problem-solving techniques, including analysis and corrective and preventative action identification
• Ability to technically appraise company and competitor products.

In return our client offers a very competitive salary plus pension, 25 days holiday and the option to choose from a wide variety of other benefits offered by our client.
 

MAINTENANCE MANAGER - HEAVY ENGINEERING & PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT

“Exceptional career development opportunity for an Engineering Graduate, with track record of excellence in maintenance management to join market leader at strategically important production & processing facility.”

C£45-50000 + Car/Allowance and Excellent Benefits 

Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire

Our client is a world leader, with a £multibillion turnover and plants on virtually every continent.  Its investment in the latest heavy engineering and processing technology ensures its reputation as one of the world’s most sustainable corporations.

As part of its policy of continuous improvement and development they are seeking an ambitious Engineering Graduate who is very keen to take the next step into a Maintenance Management role at a strategically important site.

Reporting to a recently appointed and highly experienced Plant Manager, the Maintenance Manager will lead a small team of electricians and mechanical fitters, ensuring that plant equipment and maintenance systems are maintained, developed and improved within a manufacturing and Continuous Improvement environment and culture.  

The focus is safety first and zero harm and as Maintenance Manager you will champion and proactively promote this safe working ethos amongst your team and contractors.   You will lead the daily management of a production critical maintenance department including spares inventory and warehouse management on a processing/production site which operates on a 24/5 basis.  Assets include: shredding and crushing equipment, motors and sensors, mobile/materials handling equipment for transportation of material across the site, packaging and palletising equipment.

Therefore, our client is seeking an Engineering professional (mechanical and/or electrical) with a recent track record of engineering and maintenance team leadership gained within a “best in class”, quality focused, processing and production operation.
  
The Maintenance Manager will lead an experienced and competent team of mechanical and electrical engineers and will work with the Production Manager and cross functional colleagues in implementing all maintenance operations, mechanical, electrical and process control across inspection, planning, scheduling, execution and improvement phases. The objective will be to deliver a culture of continuous improvement and proactiveness not only within maintenance operations but also safety and health, environmental compliance and plant reliability. 

Our client is seeking a high potential who is already adept at working to stringent KPI’s and performance indicators. Successful candidates will be able to evidence excellent people development, managing engineering maintenance team performance via regular reviews, training, coaching and mentoring whilst also recognising potential with a view to succession planning.  

Maintenance and budgetary planning experience will be essential as you will be a key member of the site leadership team.  You will also be an excellent problem solver, structured, systematic and logical. 
 
The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical engineering and maintenance background gained within heavy processing sectors such as cement, aggregates, minerals or steel.  

The Role

• Develop a high-performing engineering and maintenance team with a culture of delivery and continuous improvement through effective leadership and management to deliver operational excellence.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant statutory legislation and the internal company Safety, Health and Environmental Standards.
• Drive improvements in plant equipment availability and performance, including costs, through the implementation of engineering maintenance best practices across the whole site. 
• Own, develop and evolve the site’s engineering maintenance strategy, implementing a common maintenance platform.
• To monitor and ensure implementation and delivery of engineering maintenance procedures, initiatives and controls across all areas of responsibility.
• Liaise between functions to ensure team work, consistency, co ordination and best practice to eliminate losses from poor practices or communication and to expedite learning.
• Develop annual maintenance budgets for the site, highlighting operational constraints and the value adding performance that Maintenance can make.
• Ensure the application of defect elimination/Pareto/root cause failure analysis to all losses and be responsible for the recommendation/implementation of solutions.
• Management of the established site maintenance, planning and cost reporting systems to maximise their potential to the organisation.
• Keep abreast of and apply where appropriate new condition monitoring technologies, maintenance improvement 'tools' and processes.
• Support the development of engineering staff by defining, and where necessary, providing training in activities that support maintenance improvement and coaching.
• Define and implement KPI’s to monitor the performance of all maintenance employees and contractors.
• Apply and communicate the engineering and maintenance improvement strategy for the site including proactively supporting cross functionally to ensure maintenance practices are adopted and implemented.

The Ideal Candidate:

• University degree educated in Engineering. Must understand both engineering and business management principles. 
• An appreciation of a wide variety of engineering disciplines i.e. electrical, mechanical, process control and optimisation will be critical to success and credibility in this role.
• Master’s degree/other post graduate CPD highly advantageous.
• Your engineering & maintenance team management experience will be from very high safety culture, heavy engineering processing environments. Cement, aggregates, mining and minerals or steel/metals industry would be particularly interesting sectors.
• Consistent industry career history including existing or recent experience as a Maintenance Engineer or Coordinator, Maintenance Shift Team Leader or Supervisor/Manager, Maintenance Planner, Reliability and Asset Supervisor or Manager or other similar Maintenance Engineering leadership role.
• You will possess a demonstrable track record of engineering maintenance team leadership, motivation and development, working closely with HR to produce competency matrices, training plans, talent identification, coaching and mentoring.
• Experience using continuous improvement techniques will be critical to success.  Change and project management experience will therefore be highly advantageous.
• You will have experience of preparing and managing maintenance engineering budgets.
• Excellent project management skills are essential as you will play a key site lead role in terms of capital expenditure projects.
• A high level of IT literacy is essential i.e. Microsoft Excel and maintenance management and process control systems. 
• You will be an excellent communicator both in written and verbal format with executive presence, gravitas and technical and professional credibility.
• You will be an adept at engaging at all levels from the maintenance team to senior management and cross functionally, with well-honed persuasion and influencing skills.
• Resilient, driven, results focused personality - a high achiever.

In return our global multinational client offers a very competitive salary and benefits package, plus the opportunity to make a real difference to a market leading operation at an exciting stage of its continued growth and development.
 

PRODUCTION MANAGER - HEAVY ENGINEERING & PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT

“Exceptional career development opportunity for an Engineering Graduate with a track record of production process management, people development and continuous improvement leading to excellent OEE and Safety”.

C£45-50000 + Car/Allowance and Excellent Benefits 

Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire

Our client is a world leader, with a £multibillion turnover and plants on virtually every continent.  Its investment in the latest heavy engineering and processing technology ensures its reputation as one of the world’s most sustainable corporations.

As part of its policy of continuous improvement and development they are seeking an ambitious Engineering Graduate who is very keen to take the next step into a Production Management role at a strategically important site.

Reporting to a recently appointed and highly experienced Plant Manager, the Production Manager will provide leadership, guidance and direction for production processing operations, ensuring sustainable performance aligned with strategic corporate objectives and delivery of business commitments.  

As Production Manager you will be responsible for optimising labour; safety on site; production scheduling, material and equipment resources to maximize plant production capability and meet customer expectations with excellent quality and service as the site takes on increased customer volumes.   

Our client is seeking a high potential who is already adept at working to strict KPI’s for health & safety, environmental excellence and high-quality production output.  The ideal candidate will be a role model for the promotion of safety awareness, promptly addressing safety concerns and performing regular safety inspections of equipment and the site. 

In addition, successful candidates will already be able to evidence excellent people development, managing production team performance via regular performance reviews, training, coaching and mentoring Supervisors and Team Leaders whilst also recognising potential with a view to succession planning.  

Operational and budgetary planning experience will be essential as you will be a key member of the site leadership team.  You will also be an excellent problem solver, structured, systematic and logical.  This will be particularly important as you will be responsible for complex production scheduling of several materials and products.

The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical engineering and production background gained within heavy processing sectors such as cement, aggregates, minerals or steel.  

The Role:

• Operating a safe plant and production process, continuously driving towards sustaining a positive safety and health culture.
• Provide exemplary management and leadership, setting demanding standards and driving high performance from a production and engineering team of c35.
• Build a customer focussed performance culture within the business and a climate to inspire the team to achieve world class performance and reliability.
• Ensure that the production commitments in terms of volume, deadlines, and product conformity are met.
• Ensure the plant and production process complies with UK legislation, with specific regard to health & safety, environmental and employment laws.
• Be responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of the production performance plan, production and engineering team assessment and budget to achieve identified improvements.
• Ensure product quality meets agreed targets and ensure that production plant capability is sustained through optimisation of the process.
• Manage the operating and capital budgets, maintaining a vigilant approach to reducing costs.
• Lead and manage change programmes with clear goals, drive and engagement.
• Drive for continuous improvement.
• Ensure positive working relations with employees and their representatives within the plant.

The Ideal Candidate:

• University degree educated in Engineering. Must understand both engineering and business management principles. 
• Broad-based technical knowledge of mechanical, electrical, chemical processing and manufacturing, and modern maintenance technology and methods will be integral to success and credibility in this role. 
• Master’s degree/other post graduate CPD highly advantageous.
• Experience gained within heavy engineering processing environments such as cement, aggregates, mining and minerals or steel/metals industry would be particularly interesting and advantageous.
• Consistent multinational industry career history including existing or recent experience as a Production Coordinator, Shift Supervisor/Manager, Senior Process Engineer or Optimisation Manager or other similar Production Engineering leadership role.
• Track record of people development, engagement, change and continuous improvement leading to best in class OEE and safety standards.
• Ability to undertake complex production scheduling and planning with multiple materials and products.
• Experience in Project Management, business and systems analysis highly advantageous but people management and leadership will be key and foremost to success in this role.
• Experienced Lean or Continuous Improvement champion, including 5S, with track record of excellent team development and engagement in this context.
• Demonstrable experience of cross functional and multi-level interaction and working in a matrix organization.
• Proven skills and capabilities in leadership, communication, capability, collaboration and problem solving.
• NEBOSH Certificate and IOSH Managing Safety are essential
• Experience of financial and budgetary management, the budgeting process and CAPEX business case approval process would be highly advantageous.
• Fluent Business English both verbal and written.
• PC Literate. Particularly strong Excel skills.
• Resilient, driven, results focused personality - a high achiever.

In return our global multinational client offers a very competitive salary and benefits package the opportunity to make a real difference to a market leading operation at an exciting stage of its continued growth and development.
 

QUALITY MANAGER – MECHANICAL, METAL AND ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS 

“Career development opportunity for ambitious customer focused quality manager to drive operational quality for a diverse range of in house manufactured and third party sourced products.”

Salary:  c£45000 + Excellent Benefits 

Location:  Wolverhampton, West Midlands 

Commutable from Birmingham, Kidderminster, Stafford, Stone, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Bromsgrove, Lichfield, Tamworth, Stoke on Trent, Telford, Shrewsbury, Droitwich, Redditch, Worcester, Coventry, Warwick, Sutton Coldfield, Coleshill, Stockport, Crewe

Our client is a well-established and respected manufacturer of fixtures, fittings and components both mechanical and electronic in the home and building infrastructure products sector. Customers include national, regional and local DIY chains, trade counters, hardware stores, other manufacturers etc as well as B2C internet sales. Highly acquisitive and experiencing excellent growth, the company is based in brand-new offices, distribution centre and test centre complex in the West Midlands but has operational facilities and subsidiaries nationally and globally.   

Reporting to the Manufacturing and Technical Director. You will drive and develop quality management capability, cultural quality behaviour and operational quality effectiveness. You will manage day to day operational quality activities focused on delivering effective resolution, preventative measures, and the exploitation of continuous improvement opportunities throughout our client’s head office, sales, manufacturing, next day logistics operations and all sourced product groups. The focus will be on resolving issues involving both products and service. You will drive and develop operational quality activities, ensuring the effective management of customer complaint investigation, preventative action implementation, effective handling of incoming and returned product inspection and quality management support to manufacturing operations.

The Role:

• Promote and maintain best practice for safety, health and environmental factors throughout all Quality operations, and facilitate the development of the safety culture within the quality management team.
• Establish, maintain and develop appropriate quality management systems and procedures, commensurate with the company’s objectives, ensuring continued accreditation to BS EN ISO 9001
• Provision of management system expertise and support for safety, environmental and resilience management systems.
• Implement appropriate analytical measures for the prevention of defects, process improvement and business quality performance.
• Lead the management of product and operational performance related customer complaints, from initial receipt acknowledgement, through containment and corrective action, to resolution, including on-site support, where appropriate, using 8D methodology.
• Remotely facilitating and coordinating 8D activities with overseas sourcing operations and supply chain.
• Effective management of operational quality activities, including appropriate AQL inspection of incoming products & materials, product returns handling, including investigation, trend analysis and appropriate final resolution with relevant external parties.
• Drive the quality management of manufacturing activities, embedding quality assured processes and the provision of appropriate quality surveillance within production operations.
• Provision of support to the sourcing team for evaluation and qualification of new suppliers, and continuous improvement activities with existing suppliers.
• Support Production Engineering in process development, equipment selection, and process flow activities within manufacturing operations.
• Coordinate quality management planning for new product introductions and product modifications.
• Provide coaching to develop quality awareness and cultural improvement
• Management of a small team of Quality Engineers.
• Effective management QMS auditing.
• Producing monthly reports, including KPI’s & Trend Analysis. 
• Creating Standard Operating Procedures for relevant activities. 
• Producing Product Quality Plans & associated documentation and corrective and preventative action reports.

The Ideal Applicant:

• Prefer trained QMS auditor with six sigma qualifications
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in a customer focused quality role, ideally within a manufacturing environment, serving retail, wholesale, trade or consumers.  
• Highly customer focused with excellent customer relations skills and ability to bring issues to a satisfactory conclusion.
• High level of proficiency with MSOffice applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Proficient with FMEA process 
• Familiar with a design culture and able to read CAD / technical drawings 
• Experience leading problem-solving processes and use of quality tools
• Excellent team working & verbal and written communication skills