Tell us a little bit about you.
I’m Helen Wu from Metso Outotec Quzhou Foundry in Zhejiang Province, China. I’m from Suichang, another city in Zhejiang, which is around 100 km from Quzhou. I like reading and running. My motto is ”where there is a will, there is a way”.
When did you join Metso Outotec and why?
I joined in Metso Outotec Quzhou foundry in August ,2013, when Metso Outotec acquired QZ Juxin Machinery, Metso Outotec’s previous supplier of manganese wear parts. There I had worked as a sales manager for 6 years. My first position in Metso Outotec was assistant General Manager.
What kind of positions have you had while working at Metso Outotec?
About 9 months after joining Metso Outotec, I decided to join the HR team as HR manager of the company. The 3 years as the HR manager were one of the most rewarding experiences in my career, although there were a lot of challenges too. I learned the importance of having the right people in the right positions, and how to work with and respect people with different educational backgrounds, genders and characteristics.
After 3 years, I started my new career as operational planning manager. I was responsible for order management & foundry capacity plan with another 8 team members. In this position, I learned the significance of our commitment to our customers in quality and lead time, that we always aim to keep the commitments to our customers and by every means try to make it come true.
In 2020, I started also to take care of the production preparation team responsible for raw material warehouse management, preparing and transporting supportive material for molding process in production within the foundry, and collect and support HSE team to manage wastes generated in production. I had the chance to learn more about finished goods warehouse management and logistics.
In March, 2021, I was appointed as a Focused Foundry Manager.
What do you do in your current position as a Focused Foundry Manager?
I’m responsible for the management of moldig, melting and production preparation. In the whole team, there are 100 employees, including supervisors, engineers, team leaders and workers. In a typical day, I spend 2-3 hours in the workshop, having HSE, quality and equipment inspection, talking and listen to our people. The rest hours, I usually have lean or project meetings with management team or my team members. Meanwhile, I join in the lean meeting of melting workshop in night shift once a week.
What do you enjoy in your current position?
In Metso Outotec Quzhou, I really enjoy working together with the team. When there are challenges, I feel it’s safe to share my concerns and seek support from my supervisor and other managers. They are professional and caring. I account on their opinion and advice from different perspectives. It is perfectly okay to share my disagreement because everyone agrees that this kind of ”conflict” brings the best ideas and solutions and it is good to the company and will eventually bring benefits to our customer.