Welcome to another instalment of our employee spotlight series. This month’s spotlight is on our General Manager, Kate. We asked Kate a series of questions to get to know her better.
How long have you worked at D&M, and what brought you here?
I have been working for D&M for 4 years. D&M has always been part of my family, as the business is owned by my brother Dave and close family friend Mike and it is located on my parent’s farm where I have grown up. I remember helping to assemble metal products on evenings and weekends in one of our farm sheds when Mike and Dave were just starting up. Prior to joining D&M, I managed a team looking after HR systems and data analytics. Although I loved this role, my longer-term aim was to become a partner in the family farming business to support my parents. In 2020 I made the leap, working part time for the farm business and part time for D&M, 2 days a week, to develop their quoting software. Four years later, I now work 4 days a week for D&M and have taken on more responsibilities over the years.
What does your job entail?
It might be quicker to answer what it doesn’t entail lol, as my role has really expanded over the years! My main focus is to ensure that production is going to plan on a day-to-day basis – I work closely with the managers and teams to ensure works orders are on track and any problems are dealt with as efficiently as possible.
I also look after our Quality Management, working closely with our highly experienced Quality Inspector, Carl, to ensure we are meeting the quality expectations of our customers. We pride ourselves on our quality at D&M and it is of the upmost importance to ensure that we have the right quality control procedures in place to try and catch any non-conformances internally before they reach the customer. We work with the relevant teams to identify areas for improvement following any non-conformances.
I am also responsible for making sure we meet the standards required for our BS EN 1090 (structural) certification, including; making sure our welder tests and qualifications are always kept up to date, checking the materials we use for jobs have the relevant mill certs for tracability and preparing for our annual audits. I was very proud that we achieved a certification to Execution Class 3 in October last year.
HR and Procurement also come under my remit.
What do you like most about your job?
My commute time of two minutes! Only joking, but this is a huge bonus. I love working in a business where I can physically see a product go through every stage of the manufacturing process from an initial design/ technical drawing to a finished metal product. I enjoy the variation in my role – no two days are the same. There are always operational challenges to work through with the team and it’s great to find solutions.
I also feel empowered working in an industry where there aren’t many women! As part of taking on responsibility for our BS EN 1090 standard, I have had to learn more about welding. I set up a partnership with Jayne Taylor-Whitticks from Magna Inspections Ltd – Jayne is our Responsible Welding Co-ordinator, a role required to fulfil the requirements of this standard. She has a wealth of experience in the industry and has taught me loads about the standard since she started working with us.
What is working at D&M like?
We are an extremely hard-working group of people, who like to have fun along the way. We have a great team of people working for D&M who are very skilled, dedicated and take a lot of pride in their work.
It is a really interesting industry to work in, as everyone can relate to everything we manufacture. We take on a very wide range of jobs, including hydrotherapy pools, oil filtration equipment, parts for high end furniture, packaging machines and road tankers, door canopies and planter edging, to name a few.
We care a lot about the cleanliness of our workshop space and general working environment – a lot of fabrication workshops out there are not nice places to work in, but we really pride ourselves in offering people a great space to work in. The directors are very forward thinking and are always looking to invest in new technology and machinery to improve efficiency and promote a safe working environment.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I’m happy where I am now within the D&M business. I’m more of a “live for the moment” rather than thinking too far into the future type of person.
I would love to set up my own business on the farm one day.
What was your very first job?
I worked as a stable groom for a lady who bred racehorses, while I was at school.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I spend most of my free time hiking in the Dales or Lake District with two collie dogs, Betty and Doug. I love exploring new areas and landscapes. I am an OS map geek – I get satisfaction from plotting a route on a map and then seeing it come to fruition, preferably without encountering any cows or bogs on route!
I love hill walking and anything to do with mountains – I have completed 152 / 214 of the Wainwright fells in the Lake District and really want to tick all of these off in the next few years.
I am currently trying to train my pup in any spare time I have. I have just started introducing her to sheep – it would be great to have a working sheepdog on the farm one day! We are both complete novices, but with a bit of help from YouTube we might make a go of it. Watch this space!
Can you tell us a fun fact / fun story about yourself?
I love collecting different gins. My collection is now well over 100 bottles from many different countries and all over the UK.
What, if anything, are you currently binge-watching? Or reading?
The latest series of Outlander. It’s a great mix of time travel, romance and history. I loved the first few series, as they were filmed in Scotland with the stunning Scottish mountain scenery as most of the backdrops.
What’s one thing on your bucket list?
I would love to visit the Lofoten islands in Norway.
Another ambition of mine is to buy or convert my own camper van to go on road trips with my pooch. I have always wanted to do the North Coast 500 and incorporate the long walk in and climb up Suilven in Scotland.