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.
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.