As part of our Spotlight blog feature, we grab 15 minutes with a valued member of team Tong to highlight the invaluable role they play in ensuring we build relationships and equipment that lasts for generations to come.
We’re very proud of our friendly and forward-thinking culture here at Tong Engineering, and it is fuelled by the talented and experienced people we are proud to have as part of our workforce. We thrive on the commitment we share together at Tong; where it’s not just a job, it’s a shared passion to achieve the best for our company and our customers.
Despite these unprecedented times that we have all been experiencing over the last month or so as we carry on during a Worldwide pandemic, busy times have continued here at Tong Engineering. All departments of our production and manufacturing processes have continued to operate, albeit with necessary adjustments to keep everyone safe. Our workforce have responded amazingly to the challenges presented and orders have continued to progress to fulfilment on schedule.
So, in these somewhat surreal times, where every member of Team Tong is demonstrating such fantastic commitment to the job in hand, we have only just managed to grab our Factory Manager Jim Worley, for a quick 15 minute chat between his daily focus of keeping things moving, safely but surely, across all areas of production here at Tong. Despite the bustle; let’s get to know Jim a little bit more…
Job Role: Factory Manager
Number of years worked at Tong: 2
What does your day-to-day at Tong involve? I am responsible for the overall management of both factories, working with a variety of stakeholders to deliver what our customers require, when they require it, and to the highest standards possible. My typical day involves planning various factory-related activities, dealing with staffing matters, liaising with customers and suppliers, developing and managing initiatives to improve productivity and the flow of information, and generally coordinating essential activity across both sites to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. I also work with the senior management team to plan, develop and deliver medium and long term objectives
Describe Tong in 3 words: Absorbing, interesting, fun
What makes you proud to work at Tong? Tong is a family owned business that prides itself in dealing with its customers and staff in an ethical and compassionate way, this shines through in everything we do and makes me especially proud to be a part of.
What’s your favourite project you have worked on at Tong? The design and implementation of a factory-wide information management system that provides us with a real-time view of what is happening in every department, on every job, at every stage of manufacture. With over 700 concurrent work orders running at any given time, this has proved to be an invaluable tool for the planning, execution and review of the work that we do.
What’s the best thing you have learned on the job? That keeping a biscuit tin in my office fully stocked with milk chocolate hobnobs can solve many a staffing problem!
If you weren’t living your dream at Tong, what would your dream job be?! I would be the guy that walks up Helvellyn every day to report the weather conditions at the top for the Met Office!
Do you have any secret talents or hobbies? I play guitar, bass and piano, doing the occasional blues gig with a band led by an elderly minor rock star who still behaves like a hooligan teenager. I’m also a keen hiker and have walked Wainwright’s Coast To Coast six times. That’s 1,200 miles of walking (and all on the same pair of boots). I still haven’t visited all the pubs on the route, so I will have to do it again soon.
What’s your favourite vegetable? The humble potato, for its versatility.
One word to describe our home county of Lincolnshire? Underestimated.
Favourite place to holiday? Kathmandu, Nepal. Amazing, kind and trustworthy people, vibrant colours and culture, breathtaking countryside, the sunrise over the Himalayas from the Nagarkot viewpoint has to be seen to be believed. Inspiring and beautiful.
Well Jim, that was an extremely interesting 15 minutes with you! It’s been a pleasure!…
