Manufacturing and Engineering Blogs

Welcome to our Manufacturing and Engineering blog page!

Feel free to post comments and come back to share more experiences with our Manufacturing and Engineering graduates.

The Print Run

Posted by Kate on 07 Jul 08

I’m sitting at the gate in an airport after a very long day (it started at 4am this morning). I’m really tired but in a funny kind of way it’s been worth it. I’ve now been to my first print run. The print run is the final stage in the process for designing new artwork for packaging. We visit the printer and approve the final artwork copy which will be used for the first production run. It’s been good to see this final step as I have followed this particular project through from the initial concept. But after such a long day I’m now looking forward to getting home and going to sleep!

Greetings from Denmark!

Posted by Kate on 20 Jun 08

It is now 2 years, 10 months since I joined the Cadbury Graduate Scheme and I am on my 5th and final placement. Having worked in New Process Development, Process Engineering, Procurement and been a Production Team Leader, it was experience of the more commercial side of the business that was missing. So I am now working in the Supply Chain Project Team for Northern Europe. I work with practically every function from Commercial to Production and ensure all new projects are delivered to time following the correct development process. For this placement I have moved to the office in Denmark and I’ve been enjoying the strangely warm and sunny weather here this Spring (I’m told it has been raining at home)! Living in Denmark I get to experience a different country, culture and environment. Learning Danish is a real challenge, there are a lot of words or parts of words that you write but don’t pronounce. Luckily everyone I have met so far speaks brilliant English. I think there will be a lot that I can learn here (not just about the roles of the different functions but also ways of working) and take back to my first permanent role in the UK. I’m just hoping the weather stays nice as there are some really lovely beaches and coastline I want to explore!

A move to the dark side

Posted by Ben on 28 Nov 07

It is Monday morning and Week Two of my new placement as Procurement Analyst for Green & Black's in London. Since I last blogged I have moved from Bristol and have sidled across functions to Procurement.

Cadbury acquired Green & Black's in 2005 but it continues to run as an independent business to Cadbury in the UK, and I am now adjusting to different surroundings and acclimatizing to the fleet-footed pace of a small business. Whilst I settle in, I have decided to make my first project the sampling of our entire product range to find my favourite.

In a business that has grown considerably in recent years, there has been a lot of change in a relatively short time. My role here will be to support the Procurement Manager in developing our relationships with our current ingredient suppliers. This is a world away from my previous role managing a shift on the Cadbury Mini Eggs production line, but I am keen to learn about Procurement and there will be a lot for me to get on with here.

All Green & Black's products are Organic and so I will soon be travelling across Europe to visit suppliers and discover how they produce their goods for us using organic farming methods. This will be a new area for me and I am intrigued to understand that piece of the supply chain jigsaw.

So I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

And just for the record, my favourite so far is the Green & Black's Butterscotch chocolate bar. Try it and you'll see why!

On the night shift

Posted by Kate on 20 Nov 07

I've now finished my second year on the Cadbury Project & Process Engineering Graduate Scheme and find myself working a Sunday night shift on the Hollow Eggs production line. I have been on shift as a Team Leader for just over 9 weeks now and I am starting to feel like things are settling down. I joined the Hollow Eggs plant just as a new development project was in the commissioning stages so quickly learnt how it feels to be on the 'other side' (being part of the team that takes over the project once it has been commissioned rather than the one doing the troubleshooting on first start up).

My previous roles have included Development Engineer, Process Engineer and Procurement Sourcing Analyst but nothing quite compares to this - a room full of people, a challenging production target and a tight deadline (no one can move Easter for you!). I have not managed a large team of people before and have been picking up plenty of top tips from other Team Leaders on shift. I am lucky that the team I have joined has been very supportive and encouraging. I definitely think a Team Leader placement is the only way to really understand the day to day running of a production line, the problems faced and how what happens in the office directly impacts how the factory operates.

First project

Posted by Lucy on 19 Nov 07

Having been working for CTB for about 8 weeks I thought it was about time to get my experiences down on paper!

I'm part-way through my internship as a process engineer in Sheffield and loving every minute of it! When I first came into the business I wasn't sure I'd enjoy working on the shop floor, surrounded by humming machinery; but I've actually surprised myself and people are having to prise me out!

I'm working on a project that aims to extensively reduce of our production - this is no easy task! Over the past few weeks I've been working with operators on a machine that gives us the biggest down-time, and looking at ways to improve its performance. One of my favourite things about my job is that I not only get to work with project engineers, but also operators and fitters; it gives a really good insight into the whole picture of manufacturing. Part and parcel of having to work with lots of different people, is the understanding that you can't please everybody all of the time! But by talking to people and considering everyone's opinion, you can mediate situations so that projects can go ahead fairly smoothly.

After Christmas I may be starting a new project on palletisers, which, if it goes ahead, I'm really looking forward to being involved in. Hopefully the New Year will bring more challenges for me to get stuck in to!

1 year on

Posted by Grace on 04 Oct 07

I have now been with Cadbury for over a year and the new graduates have all started, so I thought I'd try and think what I've done in a year...

- 1 placement as a site process engineer (Marlbrook) - learning the pressures of a 24/7 factory and longer term projects (process design, costing and specifications).

- 3/4 of a placement as a development engineer (at Bournville, in Manufacturing Technical) - Including:

visiting factories to see how new products might be made (providing mass balances, heat balances, technical support, spotting potential issues)
learning over 500 acronyms, none of which I can ever recall when required
working with a universities and industrial partners on a waste reduction project
working with a local school on a design project
picking up tips and pointers for project management (good communication, clear timescales and assigned responsibilities- attention to detail is crucial!)
discovering that finance is still a black art!

Is it what I expected?- Yes and a whole lot more!

Best time: running a successful trial for process development, than I planned, organised and co-ordinated (with a little help!)
Worst time: sitting in an airport in Germany at 11pm on a Friday night after running a successful trial!

Night shift adjustments

Posted by Ben on 26 Sep 07

It is 3am and I am sitting in my office, calculating how long it will take me to pack six tonnes of Cadbury Mini Eggs before the morning. This is not your average job...

It has been a long time since my last blog entry and since then I have moved to our Somerdale factory in Bristol, where I am a shift manager for Mini Eggs production. I have spent a few months getting to know my team and understanding the process, so now I think that I am in the position where I can start to work on the areas for development in the department. It feels great to be participating in discussions on issues that have dogged the department for years, but have never been properly addressed. I am certainly beginning to see where I can leave a positive impact on Somerdale, even if it's only talking about some of the previously undiscovered problems that operators face daily.

Having never worked shifts before I joined Somerdale, working a 12-hour day and night rota, I am now fairly well adjusted to my new regime. Breakfast at 5am one shift and 5pm the next - it does get rather disorientating sometimes! At the very least, I don't have to feel guilty for still being fast asleep at 2pm!

Summer Madness

Posted by Grace on 23 Aug 07

My boss has been away (and everyone else) for the last 4 weeks. So I have been pretty much on my lonesome doing really geeky stuff like heat balances, mass balances (did I say I'm not really an engineer!), and even a finance training course on CD. I've also been sorting through the data from the monster trials I ran back in June, picking out trends and trying to explain differences- now all I have to do is write the report... it's good to finally document all the months of planning, organising and re-organising and most importantly to be seeing positive results. No doubt the minute everyone is back in the office it will be back to lots of meetings and action - then I go off on hols!

New Beginnings

Posted by Lowri on 30 Jul 07

A whole chapter of my life has now ended and an exciting, challenging one awaits me at the beginning of September as a new process engineering graduate.

My initial Cadbury Schweppes (CS) interview took place when I was in the throes of an extremely bad bout of flu. However I was delighted that despite all this I was selected to attend the assessment centre. The final year at university is inevitably stressful and putting your mind beyond deadlines and final exams to a future career certainly adds to these pressures. However I was pleasantly surprised with the CS recruitment process.

At the assessment centre, those involved were approachable, helpful and put us at our ease; the factory tour certainly helped to stimulate and increase my interest and enthusiasm for pursuing a career with CS. The second day of the assessment centre, although extremely tiring, was very thorough and well organised. I appreciated too the swift response following the selection process. CS is an historical company, well rooted in strong ethical values and I feel that of all the various companies' assessment centres I had been to, this came across quite clearly at the CS centre. In fact I think it was probably the impression I was given of the company during that time as well as hearing the experiences of current graduates that encouraged me to accept the offer of employment. Of course what really swung it in the end was the goody bag we were all presented with! It was a good job I had the foresight to bring an extra large overnight bag!

The start date is now drawing near and my precious last summer holiday is flying by. I have recently returned from Malaysia where I have been eagerly researching the presence of CS by sampling the whole range of their products. In fact it was probably CS chocolate which helped fuel my climb to the top of Mt Kinabalu! I noticed that the variety was quite different from that on offer here. Obviously the products are designed to appeal to a different population and climate.

I have recently learnt that I will be based in Birmingham for my first placement and so will shortly be starting my search for accommodation. I am looking forward, with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, to all that awaits me in my new career!

Raring to go

Posted by Andy on 19 Jul 07

I seems quite a while since I was in the Cadbury Schweppes assessment centre way back in February but I am still just as excited and raring to go at a new role within the business. Going through the Cadbury Schweppes recruitment process was quite a pleasant experience. It was really good meeting some of the current graduates and employees to get a good picture of what life will be like within my roles. I also thoroughly enjoyed the factory tour; I've been in a few factories and warehouses but nothing quite on the scale of Bournville. It was fascinating to see how the products come to life.

I'm really looking forward to the challenges and experiences that I've heard so much about and I'm relishing being part of the production process for some of the nations (and worlds!) favourite confectionery.

Life's Good!

Posted by Grace on 03 May 07

I've started my next placement on the engineering team and have settled in well in the last two weeks. My current placement is with the Manufacturing Technical team at Bournville. Projects I have been given so far are looking at designing processes for production of chocolate, supervising a university project on minimising waste from cleaning, and reducing waste from Creme Egg production. Life's great- I cycle to work, have just been given training on sensory evaluation of chocolate (so I tell if what I make is any good!) and will soon be off to deepest central Europe to run some production trials.

Life here is never dull

Posted by Ben on 22 Nov 06

It's astonishing how three weeks has turned into more than three months at Cadbury Schweppes. I'm now settled into my role as a Production Scheduler at Bournville and spend my days steering Assortments through the most intensive period of the year. With Christmas hurtling towards us, the UK business is looking forward to a strong performance from Heroes, Roses and Milk Tray at our busiest time. There is pressure from all sides for us to meet our customers' demands, so it is my job to make sure that there is enough of every different type of chocolate that goes to the packing departments and then onto the shelves.

Since I joined I've quickly had to learn how to perform my new role and now seem to be standing on my own two feet; able to understand, challenge and impact upon what goes on around me. Crucially to this role, I've learned to manage multiple crises, which always seem to erupt when least expected. One could never be bored in this role, and furthermore my manager and I have put together some aggressive objectives for me to accomplish before I move to my next placement. Any idea that things would get easier now have been satisfactorily quashed.

Away from the factory it's also been busy, with visits around the country to see our many factories, labs, offices and distribution centres. Together with other graduates, I've made a bar of 'Cadbury Dairy Milk' by hand, seen the birth of a 'Bassett's Jelly Baby', spun a liquorice 'Catherine Wheel', and failed a taste test to become an official Cadbury's taster (perhaps the most heart-breaking failure in my life to date).

Life at the world's most famous chocolate factory is never dull. I'm still getting to my desk at what seems the middle of the night, and my early finishes have ceased; but the weeks are flying by, we're making more chocolate than I've ever imagined, and every evening I'm still wondering what the next day will bring.

Keeping fit at work

Posted by Grace on 22 Nov 06

I knew I didn't want a job that meant I was based at my desk all day and provided me with variety. Well I got one! Yesterday I have spend the whole day up and down the 100+ stairs of the factory (many times), following process lines to ensure diagrams are correct, peering inside milk tanks and measuring cleaning chemical strengths in the lab. The day before that I was in and out of meetings all day. This included reviewing contracts with different suppliers and then meeting a project team discussing how to make even better chocolate.

As a process engineer one of the key attributes is to be accountable; never believe what you are told, always go and check it yourself and always follow up the work you start. I have become a very proficient list maker to ensure that (hopefully) nothing gets forgotten and that things get prioritised. It's fun having a number of different projects on the go.

Launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk with Creme Egg

Posted by Rachel on 16 Oct 06

Finally, I can tell my friends and family about my involvement with Cadbury Dairy Milk with Creme Egg. I was so excited about the product this time last year, enjoying eating samples and running factory trials and yet I couldn't tell anyone.

Now that it's launched, I feel proud of having been part of the team and pleased that the concept has made it out of the meeting room and onto the shelves of my local supermarket. It's really nice to be able to have something tangible to tell people about when they ask what I do and of course it's good to know that the engineering behind the bar works and we've managed to make it successfully.

Four suppliers in eight months

Posted by Rachel on 11 Oct 06

I finished the graduate programme on 19^th May. I handed over my role to another graduate and packed up my desk to move two floors up to the Process and Technology Development Group, where I am a 'Process Development Manager'.

My eight months in Procurement were very busy - not in the least because four of the suppliers I was responsible for ceased trading! Fortunately, I know that I made sure that all the invoices I had outstanding for them had been paid so I don't feel responsible. When a supplier ceases trading there's so much to do - all the internal customers have to be informed, they have to be removed from our systems so no new orders can be placed, any outstanding invoices have to be paid and of course alternative suppliers need to be found (if there aren't any already approved).

During my time in procurement, I had the good fortune to have 25 days training (I think this could be a record) and I have been awarded a Level 3 Introductory Certificate in First Line Management from the Institute of Leadership and Management. This is something that everyone who completes the internal 'Leading To Win' scheme is awarded and I'm pleased that I managed to fit in the time consuming training (four separate modules and project work) into an already demanding role. I've also been trained in financial analysis and contract law, but the best training course has to be negotiating skills, as this course has enabled me to save money outside of work!

I'm glad I chose procurement for my last placement and it has met all my expectations, but I missed being in the factory and so I'm still convinced that I chose the right function. I'm really enjoying being back in a factory environment, helping our next Wave of innovation to hit the shelves.

The first six weeks fly!

Posted by Grace on 11 Oct 06

I've been with Cadbury Trebor Bassett, CTB, as a Manufacturing Graduate for nearly 6 weeks now. The time has flown, which must mean I'm having fun!

WEEK 1 - Arrival on site at Marlbrook (my first placement as Process Engineer for apx 9 months) meant meeting lots of new people. I was shown around the site by a number of different people so that I could understand the process (making chocolate crumb- which looks like broken up biscuits!) from different angles. There was a lot of information to take in, but it was very interesting and quite different to the milk factory that I had previously worked.

WEEKS 2-4: Over the next few weeks I spent the odd day off site on Manufacturing Graduate Visits, these included a trip to Chirk (where the beans first arrive), Somerdale (home of the Crunchie) and Sheffield, the later defiantly the highlight as we got to see 'a day in the life of a Jelly Baby'! We also visited the Regional Distribution Centre for the Midlands where I've never seen so much chocolate!
The rest of my time was spent settling into Marlbrook, gaining further knowledge on the processes and formulating my objectives, which include:

Scheduling and implementing an improvement programme for the cleaning systems they use (called CIP, which you will no doubt hear more about from me...)
Liaising with different suppliers such as boiler maintenance, water and chemical suppliers, to ensure our contracts are delivering what they should for both quality and health and safety, and
Developing a revised mass balance, to help identify and minimise production losses.

WEEK 5 - Three fantastic days were spent at an amazing conference centre, with all the new graduates and the Graduate HR team. The aim of this was for us to learn about the graduate programme and reiterate some of the potentials and behaviours (judgement, drive and influence) that CTB expect from their employees, this was made fun by lots of workshops, challenges and discussion groups, with the odd 'energiser' thrown in case any one was suffering from the late nights getting to know the other graduates.

Now it's back to site where the real work begins...

3 weeks in

Posted by Ben on 16 Aug 06

It's Monday morning and now the start of my third week at Cadbury Schweppes. Within just two weeks I have moved from London to Birmingham, met hundreds of colleagues, started to learn my new role, and adjusted to being at my desk for 7am; a routine somewhat altered from my previous life as a Classics undergraduate.

I have started my graduate scheme in Bournville and my first placement is as the Production Scheduler for Unit Manufacturing. This factory-based role means that I'll be responsible for planning the production of the chocolates that go into Heroes, Roses and Milk Tray, as well as ordering the necessary materials and ingredients. Every day there is a list of tasks to perform, suppliers to call and schedules to check and, since the business relies on a productive plant, the plan has to be flexible enough to cope with stoppages and technical glitches. There is plenty to keep me busy all day, and, since my day begins at 7am, I am still able to leave the office well in advance of the rush hour and hit the supermarket before the rest of the city.

This role is a very big challenge and, especially for someone with no prior experience of manufacturing, there is a very steep learning curve. But since I never wanted a job that I could learn in a week and be bored thereafter, this placement will definitely provide me with the test that I wished for myself.

My training began in earnest last week and I am now able to take responsibility for much of the daily role. I'm three weeks in and I'm already receiving calls from suppliers and queries from colleagues and, occasionally, I can give them an answer.

My initial experience of life at Cadbury Schweppes has been very positive indeed and I'm relieved that it's an environment where questions are encouraged and people seem to enjoy helping each other. Now that I'm beginning to understand what will be expected of me in the coming months, I'm itching to acquire more knowledge and start to make my own mark on the role.

Life on the line

Posted by Kate on 15 Aug 06

I have now been working at Chirk for 3 months in the role of Process Engineer. After spending some time learning how the processes and factory organisation fit together, I am looking at optimisation of specific items of process equipment.

I have finished the benchmarking stage (logging throughputs, feed conditions, exit conditions and physical properties) and I am now looking at trying to further understand all aspects that contribute to equipment performance. To get to this stage I have worked closely with quality control in the lab, operators on plant, shift managers as well as obtaining additional advice and guidance from other process engineers.

A definite plus (and challenge!) of my current role is the exposure to a working factory. I attend morning meetings where any issues in the previous 24 hours production are discussed and it's only by being here that you really understand the daily challenges a production site faces.

My Palletiser

Posted by Rachel on 16 Jun 06

One of the challenges with work, as opposed to University type work, is that you often have to wait a long time to see your results. About a year ago, I was responsible for specifying and buying a palletiser as part of the £40 million investment in the Bournville factory. Today, for the first time, I saw that palletiser stacking pallets in situ.

I spent many hours in meetings discussing conveyor routings, box speeds, access points, fire doors and the like and now to walk into that room and see the conveyors where they were drawn and to see it all working is fantastic. I'm pleased that it looks just as I thought it would (that means I can read engineering drawings) and pleased that it works! I was always slightly worried that there might be some problem I hadn't foreseen and it would always be known as 'Rachel's palletiser' for the wrong reasons. Now that I've seen it stack a perfectly square pallet, I'm happy to be associated with it and see the physical manifestation of many weeks work.

Gardening and Guinness

Posted by Peter on 22 Nov 05

Not being an expert gardener by any stretch of the imagination, I was relieved with the success of my first environmental community project last week. As the project manager, I organised for the management team from Chirk (the cocoa processing site in North Wales were I am based for my first placement) to spend a day at a nearby junior school undertaking a range of gardening, building and decorating work. Though the day was bitterly cold, the team's hard work resulted in an interior makeover and a transformation of an underused, overgrown garden into a tidy, manageable garden, with which the school was delighted.

When I applied to Cadbury Schweppes last year, the strong tradition of community involvement was an attraction. It was therefore good to experience in practice the encouragement from the business and support from my colleagues on this project.

Part of the week was also spent working on information and ideas for my technical project, which I gathered from my visit to the Cadbury Trebor Bassett factory in Dublin the week before. My project covers process optimisation, and includes development and justification of new equipment installation. The site tour of the Dublin factory was one of the highlights, with the Cadbury Flake production line being a 'must see' in my opinion!

Time Pressures

Posted by Kate on 17 Nov 05

Returning from a 3 day Graduate Induction covering topics such as Leadership Imperatives and Career Development my drive and optimism has increased. However as urgent lab work on characterisation of a new product is required and the deadline for one of my main projects analysing benefits of introducing new equipment is bought forward, my optimism has begun to fade a little!

I'm realising that due to the nature of the role I have in new product development, projects can be very stop/start so work load in this case can run in peaks and troughs. In a situation like this my time management skills are really tested and I will admit on this one it's all a learning process, something they don't teach you at University.

There have been a few low points this week where I probably haven't done as well as I could have done with prioritising which tasks I need to do next and I've sometimes found myself wishing the pressure to complete work would ease. I have to admit though that I tend to get complacent if I'm not under a bit of pressure to get things finished and I much prefer to have too much on than too little.

I'm a mentor!

Posted by Kate on 04 Nov 05

This week saw the launch day for the Engineering Education Scheme at the University of Birmingham. One of the things that attracted me to Cadbury Schweppes was the commitment to community work and I was very pleased to be asked to be a mentor for an Engineering Education Scheme project.

The scheme runs across the UK and involves small groups of sixth form students in solving an engineering related problem over a 6 month project period. Many different companies are involved and each present an original project brief to the students with a real engineering problem. My line manager and other members of the department were a great help in coming up with an interesting project brief involving transport of cocoa beans.

My role will now involve liasing with the school and students on a regular basis to answer any questions and offer advice or guidance where needed. My first challenge however is to obtain a sack of cocoa beans for the experimentation stage of the project!

The start of a new rotation

Posted by Rachel on 27 Oct 05

Cross-Function Placements

Last week I started my cross-function placement. In the two years that I've been with Cadbury Schweppes I've worked in Manufacturing and Project and Process Engineering. For the last seven days I have been working in Procurement Business Services, discovering that non-engineering work can be interesting too!

Moving Placements

This is my fourth placement and I have had the luxury of being based on the same site (Bournville) for this placement and my last placement. The last two times I moved placements, I moved country and so it was much easier this time not having to worry about unpacking, supermarkets and where the canteen was! The smooth transition was not just down to staying in the same flat, but also due to my colleagues in procurement who have made me welcome and answered my frequent and, what must have seemed at the time, strange, queries.

The Role

Of course, the reason why I'm here is to do a job and I'm really lucky that procurement have created a composite role for me so that I can get a good cross-section of procurement experience, rather than just being in one category. I'm picking up some local responsibilities for fruit and nut purchasing from a colleague who is leaving. Local in this context means UK and Ireland and includes Monkhill Confectionery, based in Pontefract and York, where they make own label sweets and popcorn (or did until the fire that destroyed the popcorn factory). I'm excited about this part of the role as it involves dealing with former colleagues in Sheffield, Somerdale and Ireland and will give me the opportunity to visit the Monkhill factories. I'm learning that there's a lot more fruit and nuts bought in Cadbury's than just those going into Cadbury Dairy Milk! Another aspect of this role is to review the scope and strategy of a central repro project carried out a few years ago - this could take me through the entire strategic sourcing process. The final part of my role is to facilitate the introduction of a print management agency to the Bournville site - a real test of my skills in stakeholder management! So I'm going to be very busy over the next few months and that's without all the training courses - I'm attending Financial Analysis in Paris next week.

Before starting this placement I wondered how I would get on in a new field. However, after seven days I'm really enthusiastic about it - at the moment it's everything I expected and more!

Contacts and projects

Posted by Kate on 26 Oct 05

This week began with a Manufacturing team day at a hotel in Stratford. This proved a great opportunity to gain insight into manufacturing and project engineering across Great Britain, Ireland and beyond. Although meeting so many new people in one day seemed quite daunting, I found everyone was very approachable as well as keen to share ideas and experiences. I made some useful contacts for projects I am working on which I will be following up in the coming weeks.

Next day I travelled up to Sheffield to meet with members of the gum manufacturing department and discuss a new project I am working on. This is my first 'project leader' role so it's a real learning curve for me, but getting out there on the factory floor today and talking to the people who work with the equipment everyday has definitely helped my understanding.

Almost time to return home

Posted by Hannah on 17 Oct 05

After a chat with my boss-to-be a couple of days ago, it's looking likely that I'll be starting my final placement in a month or so. For me, not only does this mean finishing off and passing over all my work, but also packing up my lovely little flat that has been my home in Warsaw for the last seven months, and returning to the UK.

It really has been a great experience. In all honesty, Poland wasn't on my "must see" list, and I did wonder how I would cope with the cabbage, the cold, and the crazily difficult language (I knew I'd have no trouble with the vodka!). I soon learnt that Warsaw is a really vibrant city with loads of places to go out and so much history, albeit deeply troubled, to learn about.

In fairness, being so far from home has not always been easy. Fortunately, I have found that for every lonely night there have been more where I have been out meeting new people from many different countries. Whilst it can be hugely frustrating not being able to speak fluent Polish, the sense of achievement was amazing when I could ask for my fruit and veg from the friendly shop assistant without resorting to pointing and dramatic hand gestures! Equally, whilst I really Miss my friends back home, it is great when they come out and visit, and they are always a phone call away. Of course there have been the normal work frustrations, but I have always been well supported by my Polish colleagues, and have learnt so much in the relatively short time I have been here.

In all, I'm going to Miss.... the people I work with, my daily walk through the old town and tram ride across the Vistula river, Polish prices, and the friends I have made out here. I am, however, looking forward to coming home... a new placement, a good Birmingham curry, and knowing which way to look when I cross the road!

Community work

Posted by Rachel on 27 Sep 05

Visit to a supplier

Posted by Rachel on 07 Sep 05

The new 20,000t moulding plant to be built at Bournville was in the headlines in May and the approval of the project was the result of a lot of hard work from some of my colleagues, but for most of the Manufacturing Technical team it was just the beginning. The detailed design of the plant now needed to be done and the equipment chosen and ordered, not to mention all the other small things such as flooring, lighting and fire protection.

My part in the project is to find the best equipment to palletise the finished chocolate, that is a machine (or robot) to stack the boxes of chocolate neatly, on pallets, ready for distribution to our customers. And so it was that I found myself flying into Schiphol on Wednesday lunchtime with three of my colleagues. We were met by the English representative of a Dutch palletiser manufacturer and driven to their factory for a project meeting.

There is a trend for suppliers to standardise all their equipment - the control systems, motors, drives etc. - so that they can negotiate lower prices with their suppliers. However, Cadbury's also have preferred equipment, which we hold spares for, have experience in operating and maintaining and meet our best manufacturing practice guidelines. This has the potential to lead to conflict between the customer and the supplier and so at the project meeting we discussed how to address this issue and also the best machine for our application.

In the evening we went out for an Indonesian meal (something of a specialty in The Netherlands) and ordered a Rijstafel (a set meal consisting of lots and lots of dishes), which we struggled to finish. It's always enjoyable to spend time with people from work in a social setting and the shared experiences help to create a rapport that makes us feel more of a team when we get back to the office.

The next day we continued the project meeting and had a tour of the factory and offices. This gave me the opportunity to see half built palletisers and look around all the different processes that go into making a palletising machine - metal work, painting, assembly, control etc. - all of which are very different to the processes used to make a chocolate bar.
After lunch we saw two of the palletisers in action in a Dutch clothing warehouse. It was an interesting application and it was useful to have all the functionality of the equipment that had previously been just talked about demonstrated. I also enjoyed discussing the business model of the Dutch clothing company that we were visiting - it was clearly successful. Then it was back to Schiphol to fly to Birmingham and write up the notes from this visit and follow-up the actions we'd agreed.

Winding down into the weekend

Posted by Jools on 01 Sep 05

I'm today just enjoying winding down into the weekend after what has been a busy week and, in truth, a packed couple of months. In the UK we've just put in place a new integrated IT system which drives the whole business from procurement right through to sales, HR and finance.

I'm doing a new job very much at the sharp end of the implementation. As a factory scheduler I decide what we're going to make and when and deal with suppliers to bring in materials on time, which mean that most of the key transactions in the factory come through me.

I spent hours beforehand in a classroom learning a whole new system from scratch, and now get to see the training come together. The work I do on a screen comes to life in the form of lorries arriving and production lines starting.

Yes it's pressured - mistakes could mean lines stopping and the company losing sales fast - but the results of my work are real and there for me to see. Later I'm involved in training sessions for managers who are yet to understand some of the benefits of the IT we now have. Because of my background I'm well placed to explain the implications of using the system correctly, and incorrectly, to my colleagues, some of whom have barely used Hotmail before.

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