HADEN GRIFFITHS

From a young age I have always had a desire to know ‘how does it work?’. This sparked an interest in technology and learning through tinkering and hands on experience.

I quickly found a job at a factory that performed refurbishment of domestic appliances, among other services. I joined as a technician, testing, diagnosing and repairing domestic appliances, including vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, air conditioning units, gardening tools, power tools and electric scooters to name a few. Performing this work has given me insight into electrical and mechanical processes found within everyday products.

After a time working in production, I became dissatisfied with the slow pace and rigmarole of the required manual paperwork and legacy systems and decided ‘there must be a better way’. Over the following months, initially in my own time, I began to develop simple tools to solve these frustrations. Initially with a small scope, I worked on improving existing documents by building macro driven workflows, primarily in Excel, to automate tasks. These proved to be effective and were incorporated into the business, saving time and reducing human error.

Following this success, I began improving and extending the legacy stock control system, a critical system in the business. This system was functioning, but flawed, with overly complex processes and outright broken features. After some modest improvements, I was able to save hours per week of admin from the clerical staff.

From here the path was clear: to develop a bespoke system from scratch to consolidate every area of the business. This system is what became the backbone of the business, a complete end-to-end product tracking system including barcode scanning, printing, production terminals, warehouse management, pallet tracking, logistics management, KPI dashboards, complete audit trails, invoicing and more.

This project consolidated disparate systems, created paperless workflows, removed human error and resulted in a more streamlined professional business. The system was used by up to 40 staff simultaneously, processed 250,000 products annually, and was in daily use for over a decade.

Leveraging the skills of our technical staff, the company branched into product design. I was called on to run a small focused team of designers and engineers. Some examples of the type of projects we worked on are as follows:

• Our team worked with a company to design high-end light fixtures, constructed of investment cast brass and bespoke ground faceted glass.
• We worked with a company and designed a digital display cabinet that featured a cutting edge transparent LCD display.
• A company came to us with a request for a custom LED lighting solution for vertical farming utilising custom made LED panels and Bluetooth mesh controllers.

Sadly, the product design team was shuttered during the COVID pandemic and was unable to be restarted.

After this period, the opportunity became available to take the mantle as General Manager of the business, a further increase in responsibilities, which I accepted.

As General Manager I ran day-to-day operations for up to 40 staff across production, engineering, logistics and administration, looked after our key client and supplier relationships, and turned the company director’s strategy into action.

During this time, the daily business operations of the company were further optimised, reducing the headcount while maintaining the same production capacity. The company was able to diversify into other business sectors including automotive restoration.

Unfortunately, after 16 years with the company, the final 6 years as General Manager, the business is now winding down following the company director’s retirement.