Meet the Apprentice - Matt Wade

Matt Wade - Production Engineer

I started a 4 year BTEC/NVQ Advanced Engineering apprenticeship at Chemring Countermeasures in August 2011. My working week was split between gaining practical “on site” knowledge in different areas and aspects of the site, including maintenance engineering, product design and development, quality and production engineering. At that time, I attended Yeovil College where I was trained in basic engineering skills such as mechanical drawings, 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software and the use of milling and turning machines.

Following the success of the apprenticeship, I continued my studies with a 2 year HNC (Higher National Certificate) in Mechanical Engineering at Yeovil College. This went into a greater depth of theoretical engineering studies and application. I had settled into a Production Engineering position at Chemring, where I focused heavily on the improving the quality and efficiency of the production lines while maximising the uptime. My main areas of focus were the sub-assembly process lines, including the impulse cartridge auto line and M106 manufacturing.

In July 2018 I was reassigned to Alpha, Chemring’s automated MTV manufacturing facility, in the role of Production Engineer. I currently cover various activities at Alpha, including breakdowns, running the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system which controls the plant, reviewing the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and identifying areas for improvements.
Since moving to Alpha I have undergone a vast amount of training to help me perform in the role as Production Engineer, this training varies from Functional Safety, PLC (Programmable Logic Controllers) programming and my fork lift licence.

Alpha brings variety to my work, which I find really enjoyable. The challenges keep me focused while the known opportunity to further develop myself and the plant keeps me motivated.