Steve Wilson

Manufacturing improvement specialist who has achieved success in various roles and situations. Key skills include: 

2023-2024 (1 year)     Vita Group (Foam Manufacturing)

• 2023 - Operational Excellence Engineer - Improving efficiency of manufacturing plant.
• 2024 – Group Capex Manager – Developing systems for improving business investment.
• Reason for leaving:  Business reorganisation.

2021-2023 (2 years)   E&R Group (Web Machinery Manufacturing)

• Head of Assembly - Responsible for machinery assembly and installation with team of 40.  Culture change using lean and continuous improvement approaches.
• Reason for leaving:  Gap in sales order book required business downsizing.

2020-2021 (1 year)     John Lewis Partnership (Herbert Parkinson - Textile Manufacturing)

• Process Engineer with responsibility for Quality, Engineering, CI, and IT - Implementation of a new maintenance system (CMMS) and ISO9001.  Pushed continuous improvement (CI) culture and 5S during difficult COVID period.

2010–2019 (9 years)  Forbo Flooring (Textile Flooring Manufacturing)

   2012-  Process & Project Engineering Manager (2010-11 Process Engineer)

• Responsible for all factory capital investment for 8 years, delivering over £4m of projects that improved efficiency, capacity and quality.
• Process engineer identifying improvements to the carpet backing plant.  Use of process optimisation tools such as Design of Experiments (DOE) and Gauge R&R.
• Involved in lean implementation and embraced a culture of open communication.  Key driver of line balancing, bottleneck analysis, OEE, SMED and Root Cause Analysis.

Results:

• Site productivity increased by 30%.  Capacity increased by 40%.
• Product complaints reduced, moving from poor to a top site within the group.
• Site EBITDA moved from loss making to >10%.  Hard savings of >£1m/annum.
• Project skills utilised include:
• Identifying improvement areas and building business case for change.
• Presenting business case to senior management and peers.
• Project management of site capex, including 10 projects in £100k - £1.2m range. 
• Troubleshooting and improving performance post-implementation.

Projects delivered include:

• A mixing system that delivered £700k pa savings and increased recycled content.
• New cutting line that removed the site bottleneck plus improved labour efficiency.
• Transformation of factory appearance into bright and modern environment.
• Packaging line that resolved issues with product damage in transit and storage. 
• Revitalised a 20-year-old CNC ultrasonic cutter, avoiding a £750k replacement cost.

2006 – 2009 & 2000 – 2004  (7 years)     Yell Adworks (formerly Pindar Set)

   Business Analyst (2006-9); Operations Development Manager Six Sigma (2000-4)        

• Devised and developed a new performance management system for the business.  Resulted in a reduction in errors of over 70% and productivity gains of 20-30%. 
• Quality improvement owner, introducing Six Sigma to the business despite a great deal of initial reluctance from middle management. 
• Spent five months working in India (Bangalore) as the local project manager for setting up a design studio. 

2005 (1 year)      Exel Healthcare

   Business Improvement Manager (Quality and Continuous Improvement)

• Introduced an incentive scheme based on productivity, KPI and quality metrics.
• Responsibility for ISO 9001 Quality Management System; simplifying where possible.

2000 (1 year)      QVC UK

   Industrial Engineer 

• Project engineer working on the expansion of the main distribution centre.

1996 – 2000 & 2009 – 2010 (4 years)     Minky Homecare

   Industrial & Manufacturing Engineer

• Key individual in the commissioning of a new 70,000 ft² manufacturing facility.  Responsible for factory layout, specification, commissioning of new capital equipment and managing the site as production was built up. Still operational over 25 years later.
• Responsible for a number of product re-designs and new product appraisals.  A key project reduced material use by 25% and is still in production 25 years later. Saved millions over this period.

Masters Degree:         MSc; Manufacturing Management & Technology

Bachelor Degree:        BEng; Mechanical Engineering

A-Levels:                      Maths (A), Physics (B), History (B), Pure Maths (B)

GCSE’s:                         9 subjects passed including English and Maths