Choc and awe
Richard Bain, factory manager, Thorntons
When I left school I wanted to be a fighter pilot and decided a 'complete' education was important, so I chose science A-levels and a mechanical engineering degree ... as well as flying with RAF cadets.
However, once at university, I found my independence and the idea of being institutionalised was suddenly far less appealing! At the same time, I concluded I didn't want to be an R&D engineer so I started applying for production engineering jobs, which meant I got to see engineering in action in operational factories.
My first job was as a graduate engineer at CMP Batteries in Bolton, making lead acid batteries for forklift trucks: very different to chocolate! My priority at CMP was protecting the operator from the material, whereas here, I'm protecting the chocolates from the operators! Having said that, understanding the key process parameters is fundamental to managing a factory, whether it's the alloy percentage in lead for a battery or the temper of chocolate for confectionery.
CMP was a great experience because I got to do so much in a short space of time. My first assignment was a production line upgrade: replacing an old line with a higher volume, more efficient and safer plant in the 'negative plate' production department. I quickly learned that the devil was in the detail, and got involved with everything from functional design specs to invitations to tender, contract negotiations, off- and on-site testing and installation schedules. I was really enjoying it and the production commissioning period lead to my appointment as production line foreman.
After about 18 months at CMP, however, I saw that Thorntons was advertising for production leaders at its factory in Belper and after sending my CV to test my marketability, I was called up for interview.
During the selection process, a first line management position came up in our chocolate factory up the road and HR re-directed my application. This resulted in my appointment as process manager for the moulded chocolate production lines here at Thornton Park in charge of 100 shop floor staff through seven section leaders - so technically I was promoted before I even started!
Opportunity knocks
About 18 months later, an opportunity came up in engineering and site services. My predecessor had announced his impending retirement and with over 30 years' service, the management couldn't afford to lose his knowledge and expertise. I was tasked with 'soaking up' the details of the plant and site in order to take over his role. I remember my boss's pep talk: "Get into everything and make sure he tells you it all. By the time he's ready for his retirement party, he should have his feet up because you'll be doing his job!"
Just six months after he went, an even larger opportunity came up: to manage the relocation of plant, people and process from the satellite factory in Belper to a new extension at Thornton Park. A £3.5M project, the role was pretty daunting, co-ordinating relationships with and between architects, structural steelwork designers, quantity surveyor, process engineering consultants, notwithstanding the new internal connections required with managers and staff of the closing factory itself. I drew strength from my bosses as they believed in me or they wouldn't have asked me to do it.
When the transfer was complete, I was offered manufacturing responsibility of my newly created production facility. I was told: "You built it, now you can run it!" We moved Special Toffee and sugar confectionery production into our new extension, which contributes £12M to our turnover - another big responsibility.
In July 2005, Thorntons recruited Barry Bloomer as operations director, joining us from Black & Decker. As part of his supply chain improvement strategy, he restructured the manufacturing management team, and promoted me to factory manager in charge of the manufacturing plant. The packing operations are run by Damian Jeffrey. Together we make and pack 95% of the Thorntons range.
Managing complexity
Our extensive range of products consists of 800 finished good stock keeping units, up to 2,000 live recipes made up from 330 raw materials and 4,000 packing items. The factory utilises 24 cooking vessels (centres, toffee and hard boiled), eight enrobing lines, six moulding plants, eight in-line packing machines and across the road in packing, up to 13 packing lines. Our products include a full range of enrobed and moulded chocolates, Easter eggs, hollow chocolate models, seasonal/speciality packs, children's and adult novelty items, hard boiled style sweets and of course special toffee.
Although we have a fair number of production lines, 30% of our lines process 65% of the volume, so managing inventory between the processes (often regarded as a sin in these 'lean' days) is part of our business, with nigh on all our products being of a 'selection' nature.
However, smart production planning to avoid extensive product changeover times (we handle white, milk and plain chocolates through all our lines) coupled with 'little and often' batch routines allow us to keep pace.
Although we view every external challenge as an opportunity to improve, these opportunities often start by putting costs up, such as introducing non-hydrogenated vegetable oils or moving exclusively to natural flavours - all requiring extensive production trials to ensure the new ingredients work on an industrial scale.
The current challenge is dealing with low volume specialist demand, diabetic, single origin and possibly organic chocolate, fair trade ingredients, products with reduced fat and sugar, all requiring a very different approach to how our factory was first laid out in the 1980s.
We have some smaller production lines that can be converted to handle such demanding ingredients but there is a huge step change required if we decide to utilise the more sophisticated larger lines.
Our largest enrobing line is capable of 1,500kg/h, while our specials line runs at just 100kg/h. This raises questions such as: do we invest in more smaller lines to cope with these more sophisticated products and stay with the little and often programme? Do we commit to the volume and run the bigger lines less frequently but have greater capacity growth? Or, dare I say, do we discuss with third-party producers for the make or buy option?
Still, as with all factories these days, there are decisions that are almost made for you. Health and safety management is always at the forefront of our minds, and we're investing a lot to comply with the explosive atmosphere regulations (ATEX / DSEAR). The requirement for 'safer' food also demands continued effort to remove or declare allergens or society sensitive ingredients. Our customers, meanwhile, want their indulgences or gifts to be more stylised and meaningful. Couple all this with entering the world of retailing our products through the major supermarkets, and it keeps my job interesting!
Rod for your own back
I love my job and like to think I am customer focused, although perhaps I have made a rod for my own back as being 'happy to help' means people will come to you to solve problems 'because you can'. However, I have always made myself available for collaboration and feel that cross-functional working is the only way to get the win: wins ... so I'm not planning to change too much!
Working at Thorntons has taught me a lot about a business, mainly due to having all our divisions (accounts, HR, IT, marketing, NPD, planning, production, retail HQ, warehousing and distribution) all here on one site. On the plus side, this means we can make move quickly, which is great, but on the flip side it is possible to move too quickly and if it's all haste and no speed, critical factors get missed, which only ever stores up trouble ...
As for working in a chocolate factory, you do eventually get to the stage where you can sit through a meeting with a pile of chocolates on the desk without helping yourself every few minutes. But if I'm having a bad day, the caramel cups are always the ones I'll go for first ...
INTERVIEW BY ELAINE WATSON
FACTORY FACTS
Location: Thornton Park, Somercotes, Derbyshire, DE55 4XJ. Tel: 01773 540 550
Employees (factories): Seasonal from 850 to 1,100 across manufacturing/packing operations
Output: 15 - 20,000t/year (finished goods product weight)
Site: 65 acres
Customers: Thorntons retail outlets and the major supermarkets
Products: 800 finished goods stock keeping units (SKUs)
PERSONAL
Name: Richard Bain
Age: 31
Career highlights: "Probably being asked to manage the closure and re-location of the Belper factory processes to Thornton Park. I was only 27, so it was a big responsibility. After that, when Barry promoted me to factory manager. He didn't know me when he arrived, I worked for him six months and he felt that I was good enough to run his factory."
Domestics: married to Jayne
Outside work: "Boating. I own a 19ft speedboat in Cornwall."
