A Day in the Life of a Works Manager

Richard Greeves has been Works Manager at Apex hydraulics for four years. His role requires him to keep the day to day activity of Apex running smoothly.

With so many different departments, all needing to be finely tuned and in synch, the role of Works Manager is a vital one. Richard needs to provide a smooth flow of work; calculating who needs to do what and when, so that all work gets completed to deadlines and everyone’s time is used wisely.
A typical day is made up of planning and problem solving. Richard has an overview of all the current and forthcoming tasks, along with their deadlines and levels of urgency so his role involves a significant amount of prioritising and planning. He spends each evening assessing all the tasks that need doing the following day. In the morning, Richard meets with the department foremen to explain the workload for the day, allowing the foremen to allocate roles within each department. In addition to this, he may need to give out new jobs as things change throughout the working day.

If there are problems within any of the departments, Richard is the first port of call. The problems can vary; from personnel management, to jobs just not fitting together as anticipated. When things go wrong, Richard needs to strategise with the foremen of the different departments to develop the best course of action.

Richard is also responsible for safety on the works floor, ensuring that the safety checks on all machinery are up to date. If there is ever an incident, he needs to make a record of it and clarify whether it is an issue with a machine, person or department. Then he will consider adjusting risk assessments and emergency procedures accordingly.

Richard knows that employees are one of the most vital assets of the company and so views personnel management as one of the most important aspects of his job. He likes dealing with people on a daily basis, ensuring that any issues faced by staff are resolved swiftly and fairly. He is also dedicated to the development of the apprentices, knowing that they represent the future of the company and devoting time to ensuring that they are trained in every area of Apex hydraulics, as well as being given specialist teaching in the areas that they are most interested in.