Broanmain Plastics offers moulding careers sans frontiéres

Surrey-based injection moulding firm, Broanmain Plastics, is hosting two French students as part of its succession planning.

The technical trade moulder says that with the skills shortages in the plastics industry, involving interns in major projects gives the firm a chance to showcase the opportunities a career in the industry can offer.

“Given the current skills shortages in plastic moulding, it’s important to give interns a real taste of the work environment and allocate major projects that push their skills and help them develop,” said Broanmain’s Production Manager, Thomas Catinat.

Projects and Process Improvements

For three months, 23-year-old Guillaume Bouvier, who is studying an engineering degree in plastics processing at the Institut Superieur de Plasturgie d’Alencon (ISPA), has been assigned a project in Broanmain’s tool storage area to oversee a relocation and introduce process improvements.

Two years ago, Bouvier completed an internship at the Dorking family firm whilst completing a technician diploma in plastics processing.

Additionally, Benjamin Boitout arrived at Broanmain in July to complete a two-month programme. The team assigned Boitout, who is studying Mechanical Lean Manufacturing at Ecole Centrale in Nantes, a Value Stream Mapping project across the whole factory, with the objective to improve production efficiencies and reduce waste.

"A great experience" 

Commenting on the summer work programme, part-funded by Broanmain, Bouvier said: “It’s been a great experience and good cultural exchange. As part of a bigger operational move around within the injection moulding workshop, my project has involved me organising and relocating the tool storage area.

“I’ve been able to simplify and update how equipment is stored within the tooling area and we are now going through the process of seeking approval to scrap obsolete tools. The team has been extremely welcoming and they are very dynamic.”

Bouvier’s internship forms part of his plastics engineering degree. His long-term ambition is to source work in continuous improvement. Boitout,meanwhile, has focused on lean manufacturing, analysing processes, workloads, plastic materials and productivity using the Value Stream Mapping methodology.

“I am very interested in asset care and the Kaizen-inspired 5S pillarsand how different factors like having an organised and clean workshop can result in better Overall Equipment Effectiveness, higher performance and output and reduced waste,” Boitout explained.

Because Broanmain has shorter product runs, Boitout is also currently introducing Single-Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) to facilitate faster tool changeovers.

Broanmain’s Operations Director, Jo Davis, commented: “Unfortunately the pool of talent for plastics processing in the UK is quite sparse, with limited higher education opportunities. But as a company we are pretty multi-cultural – 40 per cent of our team are non-British - and as part of our succession planning we firmly believe in offering opportunities to all who express an interest.”