Tell us about your background
I grew up in Peterborough, UK as the eldest of 3 children. My primary and secondary education was focussed on sport and I left school at 16 with a small number of relevant qualifications and decided to follow my long standing ambition to join the Royal Air Force. My ambition was realised in 1986 as I entered service as an Aircraft Propulsion System Mechanic marking the beginning of an 11 year engagement. During my service I entered further education where I achieved a Higher National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering, and I left the service as an Engineering Technician in 1997.
I still live in the Greater Peterborough area and am married with 5 children with ages ranging from 23 to 8.
How did you get into Cummins Generator Technologies, and what is your current role'
I joined CGT as the Global Quality Leader in 2010 having spent the previous 12 years working in various roles within the Perkins Engines Ltd business (a part of the Caterpillar Industrial Power Systems business). From my first role as a Product Quality Engineer, my career at Perkins included 6 years in full time 6 Sigma roles (2 as a Black Belt and 4 as a Master Black Belt) so problem solving and continuous improvement is a core skill for me. I also had the opportunity to gain experience as a Product Manager and an Engineering Operations Leader gaining valuable insight and experience in Product Lifecycle Management and People and Operations management.
As the Cummins PGBU business developed I remained in roles focussed on Manufacturing Quality and Supplier Quality for both the CGT and CPG businesses, with a brief foray in to Business Planning and Analytics, before being given the opportunity to lead the CGT Aftermarket and Quality groups, a challenge which I accepted in January 2016.
What do you think are the most important factors when it comes to Aftermarket support'
Our Aftermarket value package consists of many elements and all have to be considered in the context of 3 main areas: Coverage, Capability, and Capacity.
In providing†Coverage†we ensure that we have global reach. This is achieved through CGT regional presence as well as through a global network of dealers, all of whom are selected and authorised by our own Aftermarket team. This approach ensures we are able to provide agile, responsive, worldwide service and parts support.
In CGT we strive to deliver effective, efficient and professional support to all of our customers. We demand high levels of†Capability†from our own people as well as our partners within the extended Aftermarket Channel. In having this capability we are able to provide customers with assurance that they are being provided with the highest level of technical, product support that is available.
Having established a global, capable network we need to ensure that we can provide continuity of support and this is achieved by effective management of the Capacity within our network. Whether this be supply of genuine CGT parts, onsite field engineer support, product training or extended warranty, we are confident in our ability to be able to effectively respond when the customer calls.
Our worldwide channel for parts and service is backed up by the factory based teams who are able to coordinate and manage our worldwide activity providing technical expertise and issue resolution support.
Can you describe how we ensure the best quality globally'
At CGT Quality really is at the heart of everything that we do. Whether we are developing new products, or improving the design of current products, we ensure that quality is not compromised.
Through product development, in to full production, we utilise industry standard tools, for example, Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Statistical Process Control (SPC). The application of these tools has been adapted to ensure we are able to apply the same approach across our entire product range; from high value, low variety to traditional engineered-to-order, ultra-low volume.
We assure the quality of our products through our entire supply chain through which we establish long term supplier partnerships, supporting a global network of manufacturing plants who produce our products to one global standard.
We also know that in a complex business like ours, problems due occur, in which case we move quickly to protect our customers and through the pervasive use of problem solving techniques we quickly deliver robust solutions. We strive to be proactive in our assessment of process capability and control and this is underpinned by our continuous improvement culture.
Anything further you would like to add'
At CGT we expect all of our employees to put the customer first. We expect our employees, and channel partners, to deliver Customer Service excellence regardless of their role, function or location. We know that our customers depend on us to deliver right first time, every time, and to quickly and effectively respond when an issue occurs. Every member of the CGT team is committed to ensuring we deliver nothing but the very best Quality and Aftermarket support for our customers.