APT Sauro International Ltd. - Production Manager
(Apr 1997 - Nov 2002)
Responsibilities:
Achievements:
- The first great achievement of my career was basically building a Factory from the ground, when I was only 23:
- Technology improvement and development:
- New product development:
- Other changes implemented:
- Settings up the factory, starting from the ground, and later on manage all production aspects from human resources, and cost analysis, to a 24/7 system supply and production planning.
- Preparing the logistic and the documentations for the factory start up (factory licenses, product approvals, job descriptions, recipes, product specs, staff selection and training, etc.).
- Work on the first product recipes and develop new products.
- Organize and supervise the Quality Control Department and the Maintenance team including the execution of the yearly maintenance shut down program (hands on).
Achievements:
- The first great achievement of my career was basically building a Factory from the ground, when I was only 23:
- I have been in charge with setting up the new factory including installing all the plant and machinery in position following an initial outsourced project.
- Few months after the start up, due to some technical problems with the original project, we’ve rebuilt the technological pipelines using my own design in order to solve some of the issues and to make it more efficient and flexible to use (following the changes, the start up and shut down time was reduced considerable).
- I have hired and trained more than 100 staff into their new jobs over 6 years.
- Technology improvement and development:
- As the initial factory project was designed to do mostly plain chocolate, I adapted the existent production line, adding new components in order to be able to make filled bars;
- I have adapted the technology in order to manufacture chocolate with solid inclusions.
- I have set up a new line for manufacturing chocolate spreads.
- Adapted existent machinery to be able to manufacture a variety of other products.
- Worked together with an abroad company on plans to improve the chocolate manufacturing process (change that was implemented later on and it is functional today)
- I've made the design for a new special molding head to be able to do 3 flavoured centers in a single chocolate bar.
- New product development:
- I was involved in developing the first recipes. We’ve started with a basic recipe but soon I learned more about ingredients I started to develop our own chocolate recipes and from there on, in the next few years, more and more products emerged. Some of these products have been highly rewarded with Gold Medals at National Trade Shows.
- Products developed were ranging from plain chocolate tablets to filled bars and chocolate with inclusions, to chocolate spreads, enrobed products and hollow novelties to ice cream chocolate coatings.
- I have developed about 30 new products in about 6 years, covering all aspects from conception to “ready for market” stage. I was involved in all technical levels of product development including recipes, sourcing ingredients, developing Product Spec Sheets, developing and implementing associated procedures, adjusting or up-grading the technology when required, training people, evaluating product costing, and even working on some packaging designs.
- I have gained a very good understanding of ingredients functionality due to the fact that the product development was more focused on recipe development using specialized ingredients specific for the industry in order to achieve the desired outcome.
- Other changes implemented:
- I have developed a system for wage payment based on production targets and rejects management, reducing the waste considerably, improving product quality and increasing the productivity by about 10%.
- Due to the market volatility at the time, I have developed a system for interactive costs calculation, making it easy to react in sensitive time to any cost fluctuation in the market.
- I have developed and implemented a basic computerized stock management system and trained somebody to use it (at a time when computers were not that popular).