Stephan Klopper

• Daiken NZ's Sefton manufacturing plant operates 24 hours, 365 days a year and employs around 190 people directly.
  I started with Daiken NZ as a trainee production operator in 2004, was promoted first to production 2IC and then Team leader, and have been in my current role as TL / Site controller since 2011.
  Daiken Corporate is in the process of implementing some strategic changes to its New-Zealand operations and as such have recently retired the older of our two production lines at the Sefton facility.
  Prior to this shutdown I had 21 people directly reporting to me.
  After the loss of some production roles due to the shut down, I now have a crew of 15 people.
  
  I. I believe in leading by example.
  II. I believe in being punctual, reliable and completing duties to the highest possible standard.
  III. I am calm under pressure AND PRIDE MYSELF ON BEING A VERY CREATIVE THINKER.
  IV. I believe that good performance comes directly from good leadership, and that skills and knowledge need direction and motivation.

My key day to responsibilities are to lead and develop my production team in the manufacturing / processing of quality MDF panel while adhering to our core principles of SAFETY, and supplying our product to the customer IN SPEC.....IN FULL.....AND ON TIME.

I also act as SITE CONTROLLER where I coordinate responsibilities for site safety, site security, fire prevention systems management, environmental incident management and to lead any and all actions during an emergency evacuations or notifiable incidents.
I have extended experience leading the site during several critical fire evacuations, medical incidents, loss of power and evacuations due to earthquakes.

My duties include, but is not limited to:

⦁ Ensure adequate quality control is taking place and recorded as per our site ISO and JIS requirements. Inspecting finished products for quality and adherence to customer specifications.
⦁ Act as liaison between production and technical (Kaizan - continuous improvement) team to streamline operations across materials handling, production, and shipping.
⦁ Evaluate employees' strengths and assign tasks based upon experience and training.
⦁ Use issue-resolution skills to promptly and successfully address production problems arising from personnel.
⦁ Mentoring individuals with lagging skills.
⦁ Prepared reports and technical documentation of day-to-day production processes such as Quality Alerts and Root Cause Analysis.
⦁ Minimizing resource and time losses by addressing employee or production issues directly and implementing timely solutions.
⦁ Meeting production targets and shipping deadlines by collaborating closely with the logistics department and my team members.
⦁ Promoting / Ensuring compliance to safe work practices and site health and safety SOP's.
⦁ Hazard management systems compliance.
⦁ Issuing of site wide confined space / working at heights / hot work permits.
⦁ Management of crew training plans.
⦁ Involvement in effective recruitment and retention of crew members.
⦁ Leading and participating in effective problem solving of process or machine breakdowns.
⦁ Crew leave management.
⦁ Coordination of resources to maintenance and log-yard

Some key achievements while at Daiken NZ.
Selected as part of a team that traveled to Japan for 2 weeks to train in lean manufacturing (5S) and implement the learning's into our site processes and culture.
Implementation of 5S became very necessary for Daiken NZ to remain competitive in the export market and the involvement of all staff members were crucial to its success.

Development and implementation of several key quality audits and production check lists which became key to our plant achieving and maintaining the following certifications.

JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) - Required to be able to sell our product into the Japanese domestic market. This certification demands that MDF panels are made a very strict set of quality and technical requirements and also requires rigorous after production quality assurance testing.
ISO 9001 - Production ad operations compliance.
ISO 14001 - Environmental management systems compliance.
ISO 45001 - Occupational health and safety systems compliance.

Part of WIP (work in progress) and grading improvement team. The team was compiled in an effort to reduce our quality complaints and claims by pinpointing the root cause of a defect and then implementing an effective countermeasure.

In our first year we managed to:

⦁ Reduce sanded long length WIP to below the aim of 2000m3. Previously WIP was sitting around 4200m3 due to unresolved efficiency and reliability issues with both finishing sanders and the Cut To Size Saws.
⦁ 13.7% Reduction in accepted quality claims.
⦁ Lifted the production output of saleable Premium panel from an average of 14200m3 to between 18000m3 and 19000m3 per month by streamlining the crating and shipping process.

• Promoted an environment of interpersonal communication and customer service.
• Served as principal stakeholder over organization's complete operations.
• Prepared bank deposits and handled business sales, returns and transaction reports.