Manufacturing focus

In April 2019, Ruby met with Carl Arntzen, CEO at Worcester Bosch, for our article about apprenticeships for Business & Innovation Magazine as well as our regular business feature in County Lifestyle and Leisure Magazine. Ruby returned to Worcester Bosch last month to meet colleague David Hunt for an article commissioned by Business & Innovation Magazine for a manufacturing focus.

David Hunt is Head of Manufacturing Operations and Engineering at Worcester Bosch: which employs around 1850 associates at 2 manufacturing sites in the UK. In 2018 Worcester Bosch generated revenues of over £500 million and is now focusing on future innovations in manufacturing.

David has worked at Worcester Bosch for over a decade, starting as a production engineer in assembly and now as Head of Manufacturing Operations and Engineering. David took on the role in June 2018 and is responsible for the continued day-to-day output from the manufacturing site, ensuring the customer requirements of the right products at the right time at the best quality are met. The real challenge is the responsibility, David says:

Setting the long-term manufacturing strategy is complex, due to speed of developments in technology, customer requirements and in view of the current political landscape, also considering the complexities of existing within a larger organisation. As a team, we strive for continued improvement to exceed customer needs.

If you’d like to read the latest article in Business & Innovation Magazine, click here or to read the full story, read more below:

David’s love of engineering, making things and understanding how they work led him to study engineering via an apprenticeship. He then joined Worcester Bosch in 2009 as a production engineer in assembly, moved on to a role as planning engineer in the technical department (maintenance), followed by Operations Manager (manufacturing) and then accepted a position as Manufacturing Engineering Manager before working his way up to his current position. David notes:

I found I really loved having the opportunity to improve systems and organisation as well as an integral need to link with people and make their lives easier, better and more rewarding through my engineering work.

David’s first-hand experience of the roles has allowed him a unique understanding and a broad view of his current position. David has undertaken many of the jobs of the team whom he manages now so the development of their roles and improvement of the systems is a natural progression. David confirms:

Supporting my team in roles I was once in, providing guidance whilst giving them the autonomy for innovation in improving systems and driving change is a challenge. Plus, finding your place in a new peer group within a family organisation, which still exists at Bosch, understanding the value I can bring to the position is both challenging and exciting.

David’s career highlights include:

1. Production Engineer in Assembly, piloting the first ‘leanline’ assembly cell to be adopted across multiple sites in Bosch. Incorporating principles from the Bosch production System, embracing continuous improvement for high performance.
2. Planning Engineer in Technical department (maintenance) developing the ‘total production maintenance’ strategy and achieving the Benchmark within the division.
3. Operations Manager (manufacturing) Responsible for a team of 350+ David learnt to understand the importance of motivation, how individuals understand the scope of what they do, creating an opportunity to make a difference in leadership so the team could improve their work and their environment and in doing so, guiding business efficiencies and quality improvements.
4. Manufacturing Engineering Manager, David returned to the department as the leader and used his experience to support and share with existing and new engineers.

David continues:

Working as a team in an ever-changing environment, developing processes and striving for continuous improvement is our goal. The key to this is skilled and motivated associates, without this, the best systems and strategies will not work. The strength of our organisation is in the people.

With regard to the new 5G rollout, Bosch is all about future innovation, David believes that 5G can bring an increased level of flexibility and enable us to gain real time insights into machine performance. Indeed, 5G provides his team with live data so they can plan interactions, which will prevent machine failures. For more about innovations and business in Worcestershire, click here.