| After leaving school early, I went into the printing industry and spent 12 years on the presses. It was becoming obvious with the advancement of the digital age, that offset print was becoming something of a dying industry. I decided it was time to look at a new career path and retrained to qualify as a forklift driver. This new skill then brought me to Bullivants. I started in the Central Manufacturing department, but after a short time I was sent to the Wollongong branch for a training course to learn Hand Splicing of wire rope. I found this very interesting as I am always looking to improve my knowledge and skills. After returning, there was a lot of manufacturing orders to be completed which allowed me to put what I had learned into practice.
As my skills further developed I worked in other areas of the Bullivants business to gain experience and knowledge, making chain and wire rope slings, wire flat web slings, winch ropes, bridge support cables, dragline cables and the list goes on. Alongside everything I had learnt I also became a NATA signatory for both Visual and Mechanical certification enabling me to issue the test certificates for the tested items in the manufacturing department.
After 18 months of working in manufacturing I was offered the chance to work in a brand new department. The NATA accredited test lab was developed to allow Bullivants to improve their quality control processes on overseas product. I have been working in this area for a little over 2 years now and every day is different, from testing chain components, chain, shackles, synthetic slings, wire rope slings and even testing new product that is still in development stages.
The responsibilities of testing products are significant as the tests I carry out are a key part of our quality assurance process ensuring our customers are operating safely. I enjoy this responsibility along with having the challenges of meeting deadlines, communicating with suppliers and the constant change in the industry, it makes for a very interesting job.
It’s been nearly four years since I began my journey with Bullivants and as a business they have given me so much opportunity to improve myself and my skill set. I look forward to the future challenges that the business has for me.
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