At Cepac we're incredibly proud of our people. This is one in a series of staff focus articles where we shine a light on the many faces who make up our team.

We speak to Joe, Grade Two Engineer at Cepac Rotherham, straight off the back of a recent award win to discuss his role and progression within Cepac.

Can you describe your job at Cepac?

I’m an Electrical Engineering Apprentice but my actual title is a Grade Two Engineer, as opposed to an apprentice. I finished one qualification a few years ago and completed my HNC (Higher National Certificate) in January. But Cepac are supporting me as I continue to work and study.

Is there such a thing as a typical day in your role?

My main responsibilities are the maintenance and repair of machinery on the Rotherham site. It’s quite a versatile job to be honest and you’re never doing the same thing day in day out—there’s always something new happening!

There are standard elements to it. You’ll get PPMs (Planned Preventative Maintenance) and regular maintenance but when breakdowns happen you obviously don’t really know what’s going to hit you. You might get project work and/or installations in the mix. And it’s nice to mix things up.

My first year at Cepac I was all over the place getting a feel for everything and being involved wherever I could help. We also had a big project on, so I was involved with that too.

Following that I was stationed mainly on the corrugator where we had weekly meetings on a Friday morning to discuss operations, so there was a little routine there. Big maintenance jobs tend to happen at the weekend as we’re producing all week. The Friday meeting was about planning what had to be done and how, ensuring as little downtime as possible.

I’ve recently moved sides of the factory so am learning all over again. Now I’m working all of the conversion machines and I’m still getting familiar with everything.

Can you describe any standout events or achievements?

I think it would be too easy to pick on one standout event which would be a disservice to everything that goes on every day here. I could think of numerous occasions where people do seemingly small things here and they have huge positive impact.

That’s probably not what you want to hear.

So as an example, I was learning from a guy on the corrugator last year and he had to take some time off to get knee surgery and I took over. That was one hell of a step up, from coming out of an apprenticeship to that and then dealing with breakdowns. It was a lot of progression in a short time and really showed the faith that my managers had in me. That was one of a handful of occasions when I knew I had everyone watching me. That’s great because you know you’ve got support, but it also made me a bit nervous!

It’s an achievement both because of the responsibility I was given and because of the support I received, which was great.

What about some of the challenges you face at work?

With electrical engineering, when something happens, it isn’t always obvious what the problem is. You can’t see the issue so you have to inspect a lot of things. You might find yourself tracing a circuit finding out where the voltage drops off. Or sometimes there can be a program fault which is something that I’m interested in getting into.

That’s the PLCs, software on the computers. Those faults can be tricky to deal with particularly as we’re talking about new technologies so you’re forever learning and trying to keep up with developments.

Generally, we can deal with most problems that come up in-house. But sometimes we’ll call in external specialists when there’s a particular challenge that requires a bit more support. Last year we had experienced an ongoing problem with one of the machines, and we just couldn’t figure it out.

We’ll always contact the specialists if we’re struggling and before we call them to the site they might have an idea that solves the problem without them being in attendance. This example was a weird one because it was a machine that might cut out, but would restart again with no issues. That was causing an issue for the operators though as stopping and starting is no small problem and can cause waste, which nobody wants. So on that occasion we needed a third party visit to solve the problem.

Has there been a particular project that you’ve been proud to be involved with?

There’s actually a project that’s on hold currently that I’m involved in. So I’m looking forward to picking that up at the end of the year.

There have been a few since I started actually. We installed the Ultima a while ago. That’s a conversion machine which shapes the boxes and prints on to them too. That would have been three years ago, but it stands out for a few reasons.

I was working with contractors, so it was a real team effort. First, we had to take the old machine out to make room for the new kit. We had a team in from Ecuador but they didn’t really speak any English. That didn’t stop us being able to work together and understand each other through expressions and hand gestures which was quite amazing!

I was quite new when we installed the new machine. So the second part, bringing in the machine, was great experience. I fitted some of the supply cables and helped out with installing the machine too. It’s a big job which took months to complete and involves a lot of people, so you’ve really got to be able to work well together.

Finally, you have to be able to work around a working factory. So we had to keep out of the way of production and ensure we were working safely and cleanly. The bulk of the work took place at the weekends and some of it was fairly substantial. Putting the main supply in meant knocking all of the power to the factory off, so obviously that had to happen at the weekend.

There are times where engineering needs to go on during the week. So we need to plan around that, sometimes keeping production running over the weekend to get ahead of demand and create a gap for us. But that’s the exception not the rule. Obviously working like that can have a knock-on effect on other aspects of the factory.

What does Cepac do particularly well?

Cepac have been really good to me for training, and I don’t think I’m unique in that respect. As it happens, I’m on a course for the rest of this week getting a first aid qualification. My manager Craig intends to put me on a PLC course (the software I mentioned earlier) which will benefit both me and the wider team.

All of the apprentices get trained to HND (Higher National Diploma) level which is pretty good. A lot of companies these days will train their engineering staff to level three, or HNC if you’re lucky. Cepac go above and beyond with that the HND level because they clearly believe in investing in their people. This kind of commitment really stands out.

That’s part of the reason that I want to stay with Cepac for a good while. I enjoy it here and I feel like I’m really valued. I also like and respect the people that I work with here which is very important to me.

Can you tell us about your recent award recognition?

My manager Craig nominated me for Apprentice of the Year in engineering and when I found out I genuinely thought ‘no way’ so it was as much a surprise to me as it was to everyone else when I won. RNN Training, who partner with colleges in the local area, presented the award at a ‘black tie’ event so I had to stand up in front of a room of people which was pretty daunting! I’m over the moon, and it’s a great accolade for Cepac too—I’m really grateful to Craig.

We spoke to Craig Burton, Joe’s manager, who had the following to say—

“Joe has been with Cepac throughout his apprenticeship and has shown nothing but determination since day one. Completing his level 3 apprenticeship, then a Level 4 qualification before moving onto a higher apprenticeship at level 5.

His commitment to Cepac is admirable and he is a vital part of the team. Joe stepped up when required to support some of the most critical equipment onsite. He has currently moved to a new area onsite to ensure he gets a full variety of experience, and to broaden his skill set before finally completing his apprenticeship.”

Hear more from our people, check out our staff focus roundup here.