The past few years have been ones of great change at ArcelorMittal Sheffield and 2023 has been no exception. “Our main changes this year have really been centred around people” started CEO, Tony Hinchliffe. “Over the past 3 years, we have undergone some major investment and production transformation work which has required us to re-align our team and resources to ensure we have the right level of focus in each area”.
Since 2020, ArcelorMittal Sheffield have decommissioned a steel fibres line, installed two upgraded steel fibres lines, installed a fixed knot machine, replaced and upgraded 5 high tensile barbed wire machines, installed 2 staple machines, and taken over a new site to enable them to increase their industrial footprint.
“We have expanded and strengthened our Engineering team to ensure we have the skills and resources to manage the extra machinery we have installed” explained Tony. “In addition to this, we have appointed Richard Procter as our Head of Fencing Production and Supply Chain”.
Until a year ago, fencing production was managed by Operations Manager, Andrew Lewis, who was responsible for managing all production on site (fencing and steel fibres). As Operations Manager, Andrew still has overall site responsibility for the Sheffield plant, but Richard now has responsibility for the management of the fencing production department.
“This change has allowed us to have a more focused approach to our fencing manufacturing and as a result, we have undertaken a deep analysis of our processes and have a clear road map on how we can improve our production efficiency, reliability, quality and ultimately our service” commented Tony.
Working alongside Richard, a new position of Quality Technician has also been created this year to focus solely on the quality processes of the company. Again, this was formerly carried out by the Operations Manager, but the growth of the company in recent years now warrants a full time, fully dedicated position to quality to ensure the quality goals of the company can be achieved.
“Kerry Jones joined us in July in the new role of Quality Technician with the remit of ensuring quality throughout the whole production and supply chain process is maintained to the highest of standards” Tony explained. “We have a good reputation for product quality, but we want to take it to the next level and having a team member dedicated and focused only on quality is going to help us achieve this. In the short time Kerry has been in the role, we have already identified areas for improvement and have implemented robust systems for the monitoring of our raw material supplies which is one of our key priorities. To ensure consistency of raw materials, Kerry is now responsible for the day to day running of the raw material supply chain”.
In addition to Kerry joining the team, ArcelorMittal have appointed Victor Salomia as their QHSE Coordinator to replace John French who retired recently. As QHSE Coordinator, Victor is responsible for the maintenance and continuous improvement of the quality, health, safety and environment systems, processes, and procedures.
“With an increase in equipment and production, we really needed to pump in some extra resource into the business. The introduction of Richard to oversee fencing gives us a more concentrated focus and is allowing us to develop our fencing production processes. Kerry as Quality Technician is allowing us to tighten up our controls on our whole quality process, right from the incoming raw materials to our product leaving our gate and beyond.
On top of these personnel changes, ArcelorMittal switched on a new ERP system in December 2022 which covers everything from raw material purchasing, to production planning, to quality test certificates to financial reporting. “The introduction of the new ERP has been a major overhaul for our business” explained Tony. “This kind of change doesn’t happen overnight and this is a project our team were working on for a good 18 months before we went live. This meant it was running alongside all the other changes we’ve made at the plant and what we have achieved is just incredible. We are in a really strong position now as a business and I’m looking forward to watching us capitalise on all the changes we have made over the past few years that I know are going to take our business from strength to strength.”
After a few years of big changes, will 2024 be a quieter year for ArcelorMittal Sheffield? “Absolutely not!” Tony answered. “What we’ve done over the last few years has strengthened our foundations for us to continue to build on moving forward. We’ve got lots of projects in the pipeline for 2024 so watch this space, it’s going to be another busy year!”
