Job Description:
The Production Management Graduate role is an important role which will help us achieve our ambitious profit and growth targets. apetito have seen year on year growth for over the past 15 years in sales value, volume and product ranges. Our manufacturing unit now operates 5 days a week from Sunday night to Friday night manufacturing 1.5m units of frozen meals a week across a variety of production lines with maintenance and deep cleaning taking place on the weekend as well as between shifts. It's a fast-paced environment with several product change overs per shift. The Production Management Graduate will gain experience of managing a manufacturing plant, process and people through a rotational development program. You will spend 12-18 months working across a variety of different departments in our Manufacturing and supply chain, for example you will work in areas such as Sweets, Meals, Procurement, Stores and NPD to gain an in-depth knowledge of our supply chain and apetito processes. You will start your journey in either our Sweets department (where we produce a range of desserts and cakes approx. 300,000 units per week) or our Meals department (1.2 million units per week) to understand the core processes within our manufacturing operation. From there, we will define a personal path to enable you to develop a thorough understanding of the intricacies of our apetito manufacturing operations (e.g. we have a 1,100 product portfolio, 150 suppliers, 700 different materials, etc). The role will be challenging, stimulating and varied, with exposure to the whole manufacturing process and specific projects in each area. You need to be hands on; lead, influence and support a varied team both in experience and competency to generate the right first time quality products safely and efficiently. You will be working on a variety of projects focussed on adding value and increasing efficiencies, dependent on the operational context. You will need to understand complex manufacturing processes and develop innovative engineering, or process solutions, to improve the performance of our manufacturing facility. You will be logical, results focussed and able to present your ideas both verbally and through written reports. The ability to influence at all levels will be essential to your success whilst working with peers to support the entire manufacturing arm of the business focusing on Safety, Quality, Delivery, Costs, Innovation and People. Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate with colleagues, from the factory floor to the exec, will be key. We’ll provide a high challenge, high support environment where we will coach and develop you as you work alongside both previous graduates and experienced managers in this role. You will gain experience in manufacturing principles, process flows, facility design, production equipment and refrigeration systems. There will be opportunities to learn and put in practice techniques such as lean, six sigma and PRINCE2. This role is part of our 2 year graduate programme, during which you will have exposure to mentoring, leadership training and support to achieve your full potential. You will present to the executive team on your work. The aim of our programme is to train and develop graduates into future leadership roles.
