News from our apprentice – blog 7

This month I finished off my time in the Sales and Marketing Department. I continued to work alongside our estimators, where I found some of my QA experience useful by helping to gather some information regarding some samples coming to their approval stage. Our customer required some feedback and I was able to compile a response. I was also involved in some calls our estimators had with customers about their applications, material specification and how we would process it. It was amazing listening to the amount of experience they have between them.

I was involved in some marketing projects including reviewing our list of ‘go to’ materials that we wish to keep in stock at all times. I looked at the materials we keep in stock that we have a reorder level on and prioritised those. I chose a specific ‘lead product’ per product group such as double sided materials and single sided materials etc. Once we had the lead product we looked at why people would deviate from that product, for example requiring something similar but with plasticiser resistance for bonding to low surface energy plastics. This project really helped with my material knowledge and I’m now identifying the materials I’m working with by their name.

Following this I took part in another material related project, for our website that we are updating, which includes enhancing our product selector tool. For this, some work was required on the master file of products, their attributes and other information as we wanted to include more manufacturers’ products and more detailed information that the user could filter their search by. I found this fun as I had to convert imperial to metric due to products coming from America and other countries, as well as data sheets being in different formats. I was combining data from various sources, which was tricky as I had to categorise different suppliers’ materials that were graded 1-10 for specific performance attributes, such as their ability to bond to metals, plastics etc.

This month I also got to visit my old school, The Sir Robert Woodard Academy (SRWA). The Lancing Business Park were hosting their AGM there, which included an inter-park trading event prior to their meeting. For the event we went along and set up a stand to showcase what we do at Parafix. I attended with one of our BDMs, Andy and our Marketing Executive, Louise. This was the first time I had to talk about what Parafix do so I was a bit nervous. We had a lot of sample components with us and I was unsure about talking about them as I didn’t know what they were all for. It was a good experience though and also good to visit the school and see some of my teachers, as well as meeting people from other companies on the Business Park where Parafix is situated.

I’ve learnt so much in the Sales and Marketing Department. I did too in QA, but I feel I’ve learnt just as much, but in a shorter space of time. Our Commercial Manager, Steve, explained everything very well and made it really interesting. It was great to see the different side of things; I’d already learnt about what we do with the tape, so it was good to learn about these products and why we choose certain materials over others. This will really complement what I’m doing in R&D.