Studied for a Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath                                             

Simon successfully applied and completed a one year industrial placement with AkzoNobel after seeing our stand at a careers fair, held at the University of Bath. He was then invited to join the Supply Chain Graduate Programme and he has just completed his first year of the two year development scheme.

‘‘When I joined the company it was still known as ICI Paints, but has now since become AkzoNobel, although a name I wasn’t familiar with it is a highly successful global business. I wanted to join the graduate scheme as my industrial placement had given me the opportunity to work in all areas of the supply chain which I’d really enjoyed. Also unlike the oil and gas industry, which I would have considered given my degree, the locality of the business’ factories meant I would not have to work in remote locations such as the coast of South Wales or Scotland and instead could live within easy reach of London. On the graduate scheme I have been particularly impressed by the organisations’ emphasis on future career development.

In the first six months of the scheme I worked at the Stowmarket factory as a Projects Engineer and was heavily involved in transferring filling operations from Europe and commissioning Stowmarket filling lines with new containers. In the last six months I have been working in the Slough factory running projects designed to reduce the manufacturing cycle time to enable increased plant capacity. My typical day starts with a check on emails and factory logs to see if there are any overnight production issues I need to investigate and resolve. With market leading brands like Dulux and Hammerite and high customer demand we cannot afford to have delays in manufacturing! I may attend project meetings, recently I have been part of a cross-functional team investigating an issue of foreign bodies in solvent borne paint manufacture. When I have plant work projects on the go I also check in with contractors or colleagues to ensure work is going to plan and resolve any issues.  Once a week I collate manufacturing cycle times for publication across the site.

My highlight so far has been identifying a method of improving manufacturing that allows an additional 1.2 million litres of water borne paint to be produced each year. I designed a solution and implemented it for a cost of £25,000. Critically I was able to demonstrate that the installing the solution would pay for itself in just over a year, making it an excellent cost saving initiative.

Not only has the work been challenging but I am impressed by the level of support the company gives graduates. They really care about your development and are quick to address and resolve issues.