UNIVERSITY: University of Wales, Aberystwyth. BSc (Hons) Behavioural Biology 2.ii

Post MDS Permanent Role -  New Product Development Co-ordinator - G's Marketing Ltd   

MDS EXPERIENCE:

G’s Marketing, Operations Role, April 2009 - November 2009

Responsibilities

• Supervision of residential workers on day to day tasks within the wash house/packhouse
• Understanding the product and making sure specifications are met, and the final product is of high quality
• Arrange extra workers from the agency or from other G’s sites, and to supervise these workers, providing the workers with everything they need to carry out the work
• Understand time sheets, fill out daily, making sure the correct times are allocated to the correct task and department
• Understanding the costing of every daily task and know where it is allocated and how it will affect the company
• Supervise the daily running of the machinery within the wash house/packhouse
• Be aware of health and safety within the work force and working area, making sure it is enforced at all times
• Organisation of the day, arranging breaks and lunch times, and working out weather we will need a 2 shift system on a particular day, and arrange this in advance

Achievements

• Picking up product knowledge quickly and being able to use this to assess quality control of the product. Within the first week I rejected a whole trailer of radishes due to internal damages
• Understanding a new system of working, not having the final product on the same site, the product gets packed at an alternative site. Looking at the machinery in sections to understand how each part works and connects together, between washing, cutting and grading
• Streamline the quality control checks, creating new sheets which are user friendly
• Understanding the time scale from harvesting to supermarket shelf
• Communicating with non-English speaking workers and making sure they understand the task in hand
• Continuing to develop management skills
• Took driving test to be able to drive the large transit van to transport the workers to fields for harvesting

Cornerways Nursery, Quality Technologist, October 2008 - April 2009

Responsibilities

• To ensure with the support of the QC team, the quality of the despatched product meets the standards demanded by the customer, especially during the late season
• Day to day organisation of the QC team, making sure all daily tasks are completed, including shelf life monitoring and recording and equipment checks
• Keeping updated on the customer quality service levels, keeping up to date with the QSL, and letting staff know of any rejects and reasons why for future reference
• Dealing with any QC issues and reporting to the technical manager
• Developing and managing quality control systems
• Organising and leading groups in specific tasks, especially during “turn around” when I supervised large groups of Polish workers to carry out specific tasks

Achievements

• Gained a huge understanding about tomatoes and product knowledge, coping with being thrown straight into the end of season harvest, I had to know all the specifications for all the customers making 100% sure the fruit was meeting this
• Understanding the process of the “turn around” period in the nursery, taking out all the old tomato plants and putting in the new plants for the forth coming season
• Developing management skills, with supervising the QC team as well as a supervising a team of up to 35-40 production staff (the majority being Polish workers) during ‘turn around’. This has been a big achievement to ensure the work gets done to a high standard and correctly, and gained advice from current supervisors
• Communicating to non English speaking workers, when explaining a task. I have learnt a few choice words in Polish

JP Fresh Ltd, Commercial Support, March 2008 - October 2008
                                                          
Responsibilities

• Completed various roles such as; Tesco and Sainsbury’s daily order sheets, carried out daily stock control tasks, and communicated this information to relevant departments, including growers
• Downloaded (EDI) / process orders, and communicated these to the commercial teams
• Updated the commercial support manual, so it was up to date for anyone to use
• Carried out WIBI (Would I Buy It), store visits to investigate the market in particular products, presented this information by PowerPoint with any taste testing results
• Assisted the commercial support team and with any marketing roles, e.g. trade shows
• Continued the Carbon Footprint project leading on from the last MDS trainee
• Checked invoices to make sure the prices and rebate is correct, spotting mistakes and informing the correct people
• Used Rubicon to a good standard to complete all tasks on it, for example setup orders and new lines, check consignments, and make amendments

Achievements

• Gained a huge insight into how the different departments work and how they communicate the different issues. Such as areas of company finances and packhouse costs.
• Confidently use the Rubicon computer system
• Gained product knowledge on new lines, pineapples, melons, citrus and bananas, understanding specifications
• Worked towards the Carbon footprint project, where I investigated ways to reduce this and calculated the overall footprint. The company had an ongoing target to reduce the carbon footprint, and this project I have used to count towards my PgC
• Helped to promote Pink Lady apples at the Spar trade show, representing the company
• Learnt more about QC/QA processes at a different company with different fruit; which has expanded my knowledge in quality control and learning a lot more about specifications for different customers. I’m glad I could carry my QC experience through from my first placement to JP Fresh. I have really enjoyed learning the in-loading and out-loading processes and applying my knowledge of QC

Empire World Trade, Quality Control, November 2007 - March 2008

Responsibilities

• Ensured all fruit brought into EWT is of high standard, specifications met for customers, which requires team and individual work
• Product knowledge gained, throughout the 6 month period, from the specification list
• Completed out-loading sheets to a high standard, reflected true standards of fruit on arrival. Decisions made on goods inward and outward inspections
• Flexibility was the key in this role, moving between the three QC departments (pre-pack and loose QC, organic)
• Taught agency staff, with limited English, to use different QC equipment
• Carried out tasks in both in-loading and out-loading of fruit with low supervision
• Responsible for labels being signed out, attention to detail high importance
• Responsibility of equipment checklists
• An ongoing project to streamline the receiving and logging of data from temperature recorders. The procedure was simplified and everyone was made aware of the correct way to collect temperature recorders, Temptales and Ryan recorders

Achievements

• Product knowledge gained, along with a better understanding of supplier sources and different characteristics within varieties/origins
• Gained the confidence to reject fruit when it did not meet specifications, and followed the correct procedure to complete a rejection
• Confidence gained to talk about fruit with other colleagues, answered questions with confidence from people in other departments
• Responsible for daily checks to ensure the overall audit of equipment met standards
• Completed quality control sheets for each truck inspected, with rejections highlighted
• Worked and communicated with people who did not speak English, being able to pass on information