PERSONAL statement
Director for UK plc plastics multinational, with engineering responsibility for facilities in Central Eastern Europe and India. Leading a team in each region in the development and introduction of technical injection moulding systems, in order to successfully commercialise plastic moulded components, across a broad range of customer industrial sectors.
The Automotive, PPE, Healthcare, Telecommunications and Mechatronics industries each bring their own standards, engineering capabilities and expectations which have to be tailored per region, application and customer. A multi-disciplinary and creative process is therefore necessary to cultivate customer and supply chain relationships; discharge project and advance quality planning management, leading eventually to volume production. Supported at each stage with robust technical, commercial and quality competence.
My current role is ownership of this development cycle including customer technical support; engineering, quality & commercial leadership for the regional teams; wider business engineering and problem solving capabilities. Working within regional, and where appropriate, global management in the identification, promotion and deployment of business-critical initiatives.
RECENT PROFESSIONAL Experience
Carclo Technical Plastics - Brno, Czech Republic
Key Responsibilities
Team member in the development of a purpose built green field factory in CEE region.
Lead role in deploying new business in order to successfully establish a commercially viable production facility.
Building customer relationships and playing a leading role in the on-going upkeep of key business relationships.
Supporting multiple expansions and modifications as our business has evolved.
Introducing challenging and unique projects associated with as examples, safety critical components / power cut off and control systems / optical quality plastic components including where appropriate specialised coatings / complex geometry high tolerance applications / fuel system applications including various leak test systems.
Establishment of Class 8 moulding and assembly clean room capabilities.
Development industry standard metrology laboratory.
CARCLO TECHNICAL PLASTICS - CZECH REPUBLIC. TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
[ CARCLO PLC ]
2003 - Present
Technical Director leading NPI activity for a sixty-machine injection moulding facility servicing a range of industries. A multi-disciplinary position translating customer expectations & specifications into efficient, & profitable production, within an operational environment subject to ISO13485 & IATF16949. As such technical leadership must be supplemented with knowledge & experience of technical sales; account & commercial management; quality systems; & production management. Working relationships at all levels in the supply chain from senior executives, product design leadership, quality teams, & commercial functions.
In addition to front end NPI I provide technical & engineering support to the business including problem resolution, customer support, manufacturing management, continuous improvement activity & as part of the senior management team, operational initiatives.
My position / role in the Czech Republic has spanned 17 years from a green field site through to a sixty-machine unit, generating EUR12million & a key facility within a listed plastics group.
Carclo Technical Plastics - Bengaluru, India
Key Responsibilities
Key member of small team charged with the initiating a viable business in India.
Lead role in the major transfer of business from Europe to successfully maintain a key global customer.
Building regional customer and supplier relationships.
Moving beyond cultural barriers to build trust and respect within the Carclo international team.
Taking a leadership role in the Quality Management System of the India facility.
Supporting the introduction of CNC machining capability to support regional customer expectations beyond injection moulding.
Technical Director for Carclo's India facility with responsibilities corresponding to those of the Czech operation, specifically leading NPI activity but with additional authority for Quality Assurance. A major part of the remit is to supply technical leadership, support and guidance to the local team both when on site and remotely, requiring a total front to back understanding of the business. Customer interface is also a critical part of the role in this region.
Problem resolution, manufacturing management and continuous improvement activity are the major day to day activities necessary to sustain the India facility.
My position in India has spanned almost 10 years contributed to significant business growth from a very small entity to a major injection moulding facility in the region.
notable ACHIEVEMENTS
GREEN FIELD FACILITY IN CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE
An integral part of the team establishing Carclo Technical Plastics first purpose built, low cost region, technical injection moulding facility. Upon completion, transitioned into a technical management role through the first stages of operations, with eventual promotion to Technical Director as a permanent member of the Czech senior management team. Initially as the only re-located expat team member, responsibilities were, and remain varied. Beyond specific technical authority, key roles included ensuring integration within the wider Carclo family, setting a personal example of Carclo values and learning from the regional culture. Assuming support for all aspects of the operation, and providing where necessary the technical skills and experience to help advise the team. Building relationships with the customer has been a key thread throughout my term in the Czech Republic, and I remain a key customer contact point for many aspects of our business links. The Czech facility has grown from green field to a 60 machine unit, EUR 12 million annual turnover, a great team, and a senior member of the Carclo group of companies. My contribution to its growth and welfare remains my most gratifying and notable achievement to date.
EXTENT CARCLO LOW COST REGION FOOTPRINT TO INDIA
Building on the success of the Czech regional facility and in direct support of a key customer requirement, extending our low cost region footprint to India remains a professional milestone. Significant differing cultural expectations have resulted in Carclo's India expedition as being a most challenging experience. Supported exclusively from the Czech facility with the stewardship of a small team, the India plant has grown exponentially into one of the most successful Carclo Technical Plastics facilities. The facility was constructed from the ground up installing operational capacity, developing an excellent local team, a localised supply chain as well as developing local customer relationships. The facility has been managed through several growth spurts from initial occupation of factory space, development of brown field facilities, and most recently a green field expansion. The India project has been simultaneously hugely rewarding and incredible demanding; a great experience and opportunity for learning.
RAPID TOOLING Stand Alone Business Unit & Profit Centre
This aspect of my career made it to this list as I was awarded an opportunity to run my own business within a business. To initiate and develop a small ring fenced business unit and profit centre, designed to offer rapid tooling solutions i.e. fully hardened production intent injection mould tools and associated components. A stand-alone self-sufficient venture; whose key objective was to deliver through technical sales and service at the front end of the product development cycle; a profitable enterprise in its own right, and create access to new business opportunities for the wider organisation.
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NOTABLE PROJECTS
COVID Rapid Response Face Shield
Rapid project responding to the particular circumstances of 2020, to launch a high quality CE certified Face Shield, supporting both CSR and commercial opportunities. The project required personal leadership to bring team members and vendors together from Europe, India and China, leveraging their respective advantages of know-how, lead-time and cost, to deliver first products within 6 weeks. The project remit covered the full spectrum of design & development activity including…
Identification of USPs & PDS; finally including low cost replacement anti-fog visors, comfort cradle, easy and secure adjustment with full 90 degree Visor rotation using ‘…place & stay’ technology.
Supporting Marketing to bringing the product to website, social media and direct literature.
Leading the Design & Development process including the prototyping phase primarily using 3D printing technology, and rapid tooling to support design iterations and initial market tests.
Project managing the installation of manufacturing capacity in both Czech Republic and India.
Product launch resulting in 20K units donated to various causes across the UK, US, CZ & IN; and commercial introduction via direct sales and Distributors.
Class 8 Standalone Fully Integrated Cleanroom Module
Designed & developed for Indian facility in conjunction with local partner vendors, a Class 8 assembly cleanroom with significant time & budget constraints and initial uncertainties regarding capacity and location. These challenges were met by creating a self-contained module featuring…
All required functions minimised within a uniform footprint to aid its deployment.
Standalone design allowing it to be positioned as freely as possible within a manufacturing space.
Providing rapid and immediate clean room access for up to 2 injection moulding machines from 50 to 350T, with Class 8 mould spaces.
Capable of disassembly and reassembly to alternative locations within 2 days, with minimal modification save to the ducting configuration.
Personal Protection Equipment
Challenging project to bring a sizeable safety critical and cosmetic product with low packing density, more than 80 different product variants (...colours, internal elements, etc) and a requirement for daily deliveries, profitably from CEE to UK, whilst realising a step reduction in acquisition cost for the customer. The scope of the project included sourcing and developing tooling in the UK and Portugal; upgrading of factory facilities including machinery, lifting equipment, storage capacity, bespoke assembly equipment. Integration into the Europe wide supply chain of warehousing and logistics support within 20KM of the customers facility. A successful application and strong customer relationship yielded further applications such that since 2006 this customer remains within the top 2 revenue earners.
High Vision Visor with Scratch Resistant Dip Coating
Part of a respiratory protection system for Firefighters. The Polycarbonate Visor is an optical and cosmetic moulding required to minimise visual aberrations, have sufficient mechanical integrity to sustain its life cycle, and be resistant to scratches and other blemishes it logically attracts through regular use. The latter requiring a special coating to be applied over 100% of the moulding surface, a new technology to the CEE team. The project team developed mould tooling and its specialist polishing in the UK, designed and built bespoke production units for dip coating and final product machining including integration of 6 axis automation. Commissioning the manufacturing system included developing internal toting, test methodologies for assessing component visual attributes, mechanical strength. The mutually exclusive competing product attributes ( optical, cosmetic, strength ), combined with the high number of manufacturing parameters ( moulding process, lacquer / solvent combinations, dip parameters, flash off times, curing time and temperature, etc ); required significant investment in statistical tools and in particular Design of Experiments ( DOE ) to optimise the final product properties.
Multiple Applications Including Gears & Drives for ATM
Complex electro-mechanical system requiring 1000's individual components to work together to aid the storage, handling, transport and accurate delivery of paper. The project required the on site production of technical mouldings; CNC turning of shafts; and assembly. In total the transfer of >100 mould tools into India from SE Asian toolmakers including Gears & Drives and other paper handling components. Five CNC turning centres and a significant uplift in demand within an existing assembly operation. All within a very constrained lead-time to support customer SOP in the region. The key attributes of the project included coordinating the transfer; balancing a very high incoming short term development work load with existing production commitments; completing an aggressive development and validation programme; considerable customer interface in problem resolution, negotiating feasibility issues not considered by the customer in their tool development cycle; training local Production and Quality teams to enable successful profitable production start.
Over-Moulded Air Bag Ignitors for the Automotive Industry
Automotive airbag systems are one of the key safety critical elements of a modern vehicle, and the basic technology has spread beyond airbags to include electrical cut off and other passenger and pedestrian safety features. At the heart of all the systems is the Ignitor encapsulating the energetic material necessary to full deploy an airbag within 60 milliseconds of trigger. The project including the transfer of 5 fully automated production cells with integrated moulding machines and test facilities to handle and over-mould in excess of 30 million units per year within a dedicated customer manufacturing cell. Wider project variables included upgrading of storage facilities for the safe storage of energetic materials, liaising with local authorities and fire department for statutory health and safety approvals.
Optical Grade LED Secondary Optic Arrays
Polycarbonate and acrylic secondary LED active optics for the managed distribution of light through a plastic moulded medium. LED Optics projects vary from single lenses through to arrays supporting street lighting, high-bay lighting and many other applications. Aside from specialist polishing requirements the mould tooling for optical applications can be relatively basic. However, the initial design reviews are critical as the required optical geometry pushes the boundary of established moulding guidelines requiring different approaches to traditional moulding concepts.
Highly Functional Tight Tolerance Complex Geometry Components
Technically demanding products across many applications and industries have been a constant feature of the majority of projects undertaken over the last 20 years. These typically are characterised as highly functional, very tightly toleranced ( <0.1mm ) components with complex geometries, significant variation in cross sectional area and a diversity of shrinkage behaviour associated with most types of engineering polymers and fillers. In each case successful introduction and SOP of a quality product, on budget, within the customers cost expectations and shareholders profitability demands has depended less on the source of tooling and more so on advanced technical and quality planning. The foundations of risk assessment and detailed feasibility evaluation ensuring common expectations between client and vendor have been critical; verification of expectations via computer aided simulation, through to rapid prototyping and tooling were essential components in successful project deployment.
Education
Introduction to Bookkeeping & Accounting
Graduated 2010
MSc Engineering & Management of Manufacturing Systems
1999 - 2001
BEng. (Hons)
Aerospace Engineering
Graduated 1994
HITECC
Higher Introductory Technology & Engineering Conversion Course
Graduated 1990
(...formerly Lancashire Polytechnic)
interest
publication:
Single & Multiple Fault Detection Along A Model Drive-Line
ISBN 0-88911-720-9 1995
Contact Details
email: jreyman01@gmail.com phone: +420 605 298206 linkedin: leedodd-engineer website: www.mouldpoint.com