Catherine from Engineering

• • Engineering

  • Dave
  • Kirsten
  • Catherine
  • Scott

I studied Mechanical Engineering, Manufacture and Management at Birmingham University.  Before starting my degree, to gain a flavour of engineering I worked for the company as part of the Year in Industry Scheme.  I enjoyed the placement and even as a student I was given real responsibilities and genuine challenges.

I went on to spend three summers working at different AZ sites – Macclesfield, Alderley and also Plankstadt in Germany.  So even before graduating, I could see that there were many opportunities for engineers in AstraZeneca across a range of business areas and countries.

"There are many opportunities for engineers in AstraZeneca across a range of business areas and countries" Catherine

My current role is as a Plant Engineer.  I task manage a 2 shift technician team for a tablet and capsule production facility to undertake engineering activities.  The team aims to prevent breakdowns and minimise disruption to production.  We are currently working to improve our performance by charting the frequency of equipment failures & our response times, as well as reviewing the preventative maintenance carried out such as services and calibrations.

A large part of my role is ensuring that the equipment remains in compliant to health, safety and environmental legislation, and because its the pharmaceutical industry, also the guidance of regulatory bodies.  I have responsibility for the maintenance budget in excess of £200K a year, which means setting, controlling and monitoring spend.  

Plant engineering is a dynamic role; its never possible to entirely plan the working day as you never quite know what problem will present itself!  Supporting a production facility that runs 16 hours a day, occasionally means making out of hours decisions by phone as the plant continues to produce whilst you’re not in work.  You need to be flexible as production plans can change, the plant responds to real customer demand and doesn’t hold a large stock buffer.  You need lots of energy for the role and bags of enthusiasm.

For the most part I like the buzz of being ‘on plant’ and being constantly busy.  I enjoy working with the technicians and getting stuck into a major breakdown, helping with the fault finding and applying my problem solving skills.  It’s very rewarding to see the kit back up and running.

The role has given me the opportunity to improve my electrical engineering knowledge, which obviously I didn’t study formally, through training and real situations. To further expand my role, it’s expected that in the future I’ll gain line management responsibility for a technician team.