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Ian encapsulates the Alpha spirit, having led his team through the pandemic safely, producing thousands of hand sanitiser units whilst successfully operating a skeleton shift.
After starting as an Assembly Operative at Alpha Manufacturing three years ago, Ian quickly progressed into the position of Team Leader, responsible for one of our dedicated customer areas. Ian picks up his story from here: “I had heard about Alpha as the company is renowned for its Apprenticeship Scheme, so when I was looking for my next step, I knew Alpha was a place where I would like to work and would be supported to progress. |
“I spent the first two months of my time at Alpha working on an assembly line, completing customer orders and generally getting to know the production process. Working on each stage of the assembly line, problem solving and getting to know the team was definitely an invaluable experience to me – especially once I was promoted to the role of Assembly Team Leader two months later.
“Since then, I have been managing my team in one of the dedicated customer areas we have here at Alpha. My role generally involves; managing the order book for the customer, making sure we have all the parts we need to assemble the products, checking that each member of my team knows their role and has everything they need for the job in hand, working to produce the quantities needed for the orders, working with our quality team to make sure they are of the standard expected and finally, arranging delivery of the order.
“My role also involves liaising with many other teams daily, from welders and operatives on the shop floor to make sure we receive our parts to assemble on time, to attending management meetings where I update on progress of our orders. That’s one of the things I like most about the role, the team here are second-to-none and we always come together to get the job done.
“During the pandemic last year, we kept production going for essential customer products by operating a skeleton shift. As we were also asked to support orders of hand sanitiser units and COVID-19 screens for the hospitality industry and NHS testing centres, we used the assembly area to create two simultaneous assembly lines. One line produced the usual customer orders, whilst the other was dedicated to the production of COVID-19 safety products. This was quite a logistical challenge, trying to fulfil orders to the usual highest standards, producing products we had never assembled before, all whilst keeping our staff safe on a reduced workforce and social distancing.
“We managed to make it work though and are still producing large orders of hand sanitisers and COVID screens for customers now, with new orders coming in all the time. To this day managing that project is one of my proudest moments.”
As a busy dad of four, Ian has his hands full both in and out of work but is focused on his future career here at Alpha. “My eventual aim is to progress into the role of Group Leader and manage a larger team with more responsibility. But for now, I enjoy working with my team and the work we do and hope to have a long future with Alpha.”
Find out more about our Production Team such as Operations Manager Neal Lafford and Quality Inspector Peter Ricketts.
