Role Description
As an engineer within manufacturing you will also have opportunities to work with colleagues across Science & Technology and Manufacturing focusing on the development of new processes for new and existing products. Here you will work with our products to improve how they are made and packaged. This could involve taking a product from a prototype, through pilot plant trials to full scale production, looking at how we use work in progress or forming part of a team changing product characteristics to meet the changing needs of our consumers.
Process development engineers are responsible for translating the product characteristics into the specifications of a process to produce them. This department will then work with our project engineers to specify and deliver a production system which we can use in one of our world class factories to make the products to make these products
This role will enable you to work with a great variety of people from across the business at the cutting edge of what we do. During a placement as a process development engineer you will get exposure to project management, stakeholder management, budgeting and other supply chain considerations in addition to engineering issues. As part of a project team you will need to work quickly and decisively to solve problems and build understanding to bring our products to the market quickly and effectively.
Profile: Rachel Cooke - Process Development Engineer
"My placement as a Process Development Engineer gave me experience of developing processes and technology and the engineering systems and standards we use. I was responsible for four main projects during the nine month placement:
"Supply chain co-ordinator for the launch of a new variant of Cadbury Dairy Milk - responsibilities included running machinery and packaging trials, writing the capital expenditure proposal and designing the shape of the bar (and eating the test samples!).
Specification of equipment for a new production plant - this included writing the technical specification and supplier selection. Now I can enjoy the seeing the equipment (which cost about £500,000) working in production in the Bournville chocolate factory.
Developing a solution to increase the production capacity of Soft Mints in the Sheffield factory.
"Analysing the flow of product through the Sheffield sugar factory to improve adherence to plan and reduce working capital - literally following the life cycle of a Jelly Baby (and a Wine Gum and a Liquorice Allsort)!
"To achieve these projects I had to work with a wide range of people including brand managers, scientists, packaging technologists, schedulers, accountants and all of factory operations (team leaders, engineers, production managers, operators, quality managers and safety managers). I worked in and visited a number of different locations including trips abroad to France, Germany, Poland and The Netherlands. During the placement I learnt about project management, framing complex problems, generating and evaluating alternative solutions and then gaining support for the chosen solutions and improved my technical knowledge of chocolate, gums and jellies and mints production. The experiences I gained contributed to me achieving the status of a Chartered Chemical Engineer. The best aspects of this placement were the variety of projects and locations and the support of my manager in my personal development."