GAVIN MILLS1 Sefton RoadSwindonWiltshireSN25 2BT

01793 73790507792 561462gavmills@hotmail.co.ukD.O.B. 10.08.1984Full Driving License

Personal Statement

A multi skilled, talented and enthusiastic, degree qualified Engineer; I have most recently been working as a Project Engineer within a large multinational automotive company. During my time with Honda I was regarded as the principal project engineer within the Engine Plant Projects team due to my knowledge, experience and understanding having lead several major capital expenditure projects. Having spent over 5 years with the company I have recently taken a career break in order to provide child care for my young children whilst my wife has completed her training to become a GP.

I am now looking to return to the engineering sector in a role that will allow me to fully utilise and further develop my skills and experience.

Key Skills

• Project planning: Identifying key tasks and critical paths within large projects enabling prioritisation and accurate scheduling.• Engineering knowledge: Enabling understanding of problems in order to work towards a solution.• Leadership: Ability to make decisions and motivate other team members ensuring that jobs are completed to a high standard.• Presentations: Confident to make presentations to Senior Management and Directors.• IT skills: Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications such as Excel, PowerPoint and Word.• Design: Competent in the use of AutoCAD and CATIA V5.

Experience

01/2008 – 04/2013 Project Engineer (Engineering Staff) – Engine Plant Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd., Swindon

Project Leader on the following major projects• New model introduction - 1.6 Diesel Block Machining, £3.5m budget, 2012/13

o First new model installation onto fully automated ‘renovation’ production line.• Block Machining Renovation, £2.8m budget, 2011/12

o Upgrade / replace obsolete equipment, relocate and automate production line, reduce unit cost.• New model introduction - 1.2/4 Petrol Block Machining, 2009/10

o Install jigs, fixture, tooling and machines to existing line and fully maturate quality via trial build process in preparation for mass production start-up.

Duties performed as PL within the above projects:• Presentations – both within the team and to management / directors to report on progress and to gain approval.• Budgeting and Budget Control – from the green light to completion, estimating costs and predicting spend patterns whilst achieving

project completion within agreed budget.• Concept – leading discussions with team members, customers and designers to set direction.• Specification – confirming concepts into standardised documents for sign off.• Design (CAD) – from concept through to production drawings and BOM (Bill of Materials) using CATIA and AutoCAD.• Design review – leading meetings between designers and customers to confirm expectations are being met.• Installations – hands on roll with both small (jigs and tools) and large (entire production lines and machine tools) installations.• Quality maturation – starting with a base machining programme working with production engineers or individually to achieve mass

production quality standards of machining using CMM and gauge data to achieve tolerance and repeatability targets (Cp/CpK).• Contractor supervision – confirm Risk Assessments, Method Statements and Site Inductions before work commences (including

CDM requirements where necessary), supervise and monitor progress of work and manage multiple contractors simultaneously.• Buy off – both on site following installation by others and prior to shipping from suppliers’ works.• Customer service – ensuring that customers’ needs and expectations will be met by project completion and throughout the project.• Supplier negotiation – achieve best cost and delivery whilst maintaining quality and specification standards.• Project control procedure – maintaining the procedures in place to ensure traceability and full sign off at the relevant stages of all

projects, these procedures are required for effective operation under ISO 9001.• Cycle time reduction / time and motion study – ensuring that the completed process and/or layout achieves the unit/shift targets as

set out at project kick off.• Start-up support – be on call or on shift with Production Engineers and Maintenance Team to increase production to full capacity

following any installation work.

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• PUWER – utilise training in PUWER regulations to sign off new or modified installations for compliance.• Project Handover – confirm all targets have been met in terms of Quality, Cost, Delivery, Management, Safety and Environment to

allow sign off from plant management.

Project Team MemberIn addition to leading the major projects I also had to fulfil the following duties as part of the project team

• Business Plan Projects – project manage smaller projects within Engine Plant, these projects generally had investment from £1k-£500k and would be assessed for approval based on improvements in Quality, Cost, Delivery, Management, Safety & Environment.

• Breakdowns and Route Cause Analysis (5Y) – assist the maintenance department with problems on new or modified installations or with long term issues which have the potential to become Business Plan items.

• Technical Festival – participate in this Honda event to showcase any new technology or ideas that may be of benefit to the Honda Company globally (see below Awards and Achievements).

• Energy Committee – represent Engine Plant at the committee set-up by the Facilities Department to reduce overall energy consumption.

• Honda Circle (NHC) – participate in a unique event to Honda which encourages small teams (Circles) to form across boundaries of job roles in order to roll out an improvement or new process.

• Kaizen (PDCA) – using the Plan, Do, Check, Action cycle to make small improvements to the work place, equipment or process.• 2-week plan – review workload with Section and Department Manager on a weekly basis.• 5s – contribute to maintaining the standards of cleanliness and order within the Engine Plant.

Awards and Achievements• Winner: Honda EU Technical Festival 2009 – joint inventor of a unique valve seat machining air gauge.• Certificate in Recognition of Technical Excellence: Honda North America Technical Festival 2010.

07/2007 – 01/2008 Design Engineer Britannia Kitchen Ventilation Ltd., Southam, Warks.

• AutoCAD designer: Specialist commercial kitchen ventilation solutions for customers including ASDA, Leith School of Food and Bella Italia.

Educational Qualifications

2009 – 2010 T398 Towards Chartership: professional development for engineers The Open University

Introductory course aimed to increase focus on Continued Professional Development to enable progression to Master of Engineering status and eventually chartered engineer status.

2002 – 2005 BEng (hons) 2:1 in Motor Sports Engineering The University of Central Lancashire, Preston

Modules included Mechanical Science, Manufacturing Technology and CAD alongside more specific Motor Sports subjects. During the final year, I played a major role in the completion of the Formula Student project, as well as completing my dissertation on the subject of “Comparative Design of the Internal Combustion Engine”.

2000 – 2002 GCE A-Levels in Mathematics (B), Chemistry (C) and Physics (C) The Rutland College, Oakham, Rutland

1998 – 2000 9 GCSE’s at A to C grade including Maths, Science and English Uppingham Community College, Rutland

Other qualifications

2010 3.5 Tonne Fork Lift Truck Licence Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd.

Voluntary Work

2013 – present Engineer / Team Manager Dan Ludlow Racing

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Rebuilt and race prepared a Honda Civic Type R race car for competition use. Set-up social media outlets for the team, liaised with suppliers and potential sponsors and organised further volunteer mechanics for race and test duties.

2010 – 2012 Mechanic ACE Motorsport

As part of a small team I was heavily involved in the modification of a road going Mazda MX5 for use in the Ma5da Mk1 Championship. Continued improvements to the car earned a best finish of 6th at the final race of 2011.

2008 – 2012 Chief Mechanic Synchro Motorsport

Responsible for the preparation of the Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type R and Jazz Type R+ race cars. Based at Honda of the UK Manufacturing the team utilises engineers during their free evenings and weekends to allow the team to compete in National and International endurance races.As part of this successful team we achieved 1st position in the class championship and 3rd in the overall Britcar production championship in 2009.

2002 – 2003 Mechanic UCLAN Racing

Member of the university racing team performing a variety of tasks in the workshop and at the track on Formula Ford racing cars

Other Employment

11/2006 – 07/2007 Hire Desk Assistant Hirecentres.com (Plantool Ltd) Warwick

01/2006 – 11/2006 Administrator (temporary employment) Rushmore Rehabilitation Unit (NHS)

10/2005 – 12/2005 Market Research Interviewer (temporary employment) Millward Brown International

06/2003 – 09/2005 Catering Assistant (summer job) Prykeman’s Catering

06/2001 – 12/2002 Checkout Supervisor (part time employment) Tesco Oakham Store

10/1998 – 06/2001 Car Valeter (Saturday morning job) Victor Wood of Oakham Ltd.

1998 – 2001 Machine Operator (school/college holiday job) JC Engineering (Precision) Ltd

Other Interests

• Travel• Motor Racing• DIY

Additional information

• Full clean driving licence (2001) plus MAC defensive driving certificate (2008)

References

Available on request

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