Unit 7-11 Vantage Park, Coborn Avenue, Sheffield, S9 1DA, United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1709 918 120
Unit 7-11 Vantage Park, Coborn Avenue, Sheffield, S9 1DA, United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1709 918 120
Mark Anderson – Processor
Mark Anderson has been working as a Processor for ICD Europe since April 2018. In the first installment of our ‘Day in the Life’ series, he talks us through his role.
‘Prior to joining ICD, I was working as a welder for a company in Derby. ICD were planning to set up a new welding function as part of their processing department, so the plan was for me to join them and help train some of the other processors.
All the processors move around different jobs so we’re all trained up on every machine. It makes the job more interesting and gives us a broader skill base, plus we can cover if anyone is off.
We work on:
- Alligator Shears – for cutting and chopping metal
- Shot blasts – for abrasive surface cleaning of material
- Plasma bay – electric arc to cleanly cut thicker materials
- Abrasive Wheel saws – to cut long, thick lengths of material
Derek is the Warehouse Manager and he allocates the jobs. We use a production sheet to plan what we’re doing but priorities can change throughout the day, even on an hourly basis! In that situation, we get together and decide how best to fulfill the orders as a team.
I’d say the most challenging aspect of the role is all the paperwork that’s involved. Each machine has a sheet to say what the job has entailed, weights, labels to fill in etc. They have to be completely accurate to ensure traceability for every item. Materials can’t be mixed and all weights have to tally up – if they don’t something could have been lost in the machine.
The best part of the job is the atmosphere – ICD is very team and family orientated. Everyone gets on well and helps each other out, regardless of what job you’re doing.
It’s a really interesting and varied job, and there’s a lot more to it than you might think. We always know where the materials have come from, what it’s been used for and where it’s going. It helps with our training and also decision-making in terms of how to process it. It’s very in-depth at times – it’s not just a case of chopping things up!’
