From Oil&Gas to Retail
My educational background is in electrical engineering. I have a bachelor degree from Politehnica University in Bucharest and I chose to do my diploma project in the field of renewable energy receiving a Erasmus/Socrates scholarship to the University of Cyprus. Shortly after I was offered a job in the inspection and certification industry in Cyprus as a lift and elevator technical inspector. Working for this company, was a great starting point in my carrer because I had a lot of experienced engineers around me, who trained me and made me understand and appreciate the importance of the inspection and certification world. My main role was to check and certify elevators from both safety and legal aspects. After 2.5 years, I decided to come back to Romania where I took a job at a similar company. This new position allowed me to expanded my skills and responsibilities to include risk analysis activities in the oil & gas industry. With time, because I am naturally a detail oriented and structured person, I was asked to create the quality management system for the techinical department and become the quality management responsible. Years passed and I enjoyed more and more the quality world therefore I deceide to accept the challange and become a quality enginner in a very restless and fascinating industry as retail is.
I am a Sourcing Quality and Production Engineer- BBO
I am a Sourcing Q&P Engineer for BBO- Balkans Buying Office establieshed in Romania. I am working as part of the Near Sourcing team (Romania, Poland and Turkey) at Kingfisher for almost 3 years. The main responsabilities I have are those related to developing the Own Exclusive Brand- OEBs products of Kingfisher. Developing OEBs products is one of the most interesting journeys that a Q&P Engineer can have. It involves working very close with the suppliers, who ensure the manufacturing of the OEBs products, passing through all the stages on developing the product. It all starts with a product sample (Bronze sample) and moves on with production qualification stage Silver Sample ( Performance test and Fit for use, ease of assembly / installation including review against instruction manual content, appearance, look and feel versus the Brand position and perceived level of quality, proposals of modifications if necessary, safety and compliance, legal requirements, Kingfisher policies and specifications). The last stage is the Gold Sample which means the validation of the OEB product, starting the mass production and deliveries for Kingfisher banners. The journey is nicely spiced with Factory Approval Audits and Final Random Inspections of products. Another good part of it is the opportunity of working closely with the Sourcing Team, Range team, Packaging Team, Supply Chain Team etc. and getting a good experience of a diverse world
Participating in very interesting projects with great collegues
What I like most about my current position is the opportunity of being a sort of entrepreneur. I have the flexibility of organizing my work in order to accommodate the job responsibilities and the requirements of Kingfisher. Working with product development helps me learn all the time about different categories of products, legal compliance expectations for different countries, testing protocols and many other technical aspects. At the same time I enjoy working in a very diverse and multicultural environment. I'm really driven by results. I like it when I have a concrete goal to meet and enough time to figure out a strong strategy for accomplishing it. Sometimes the times is not enough for me to figure out a strong strategy from the beginning but working in this position makes me become more agile and discover new types of approaches.
Believe in yourself and you'll get there
Believe in yourself, fight for your values and try to be independent in everything you do. When I say independent I am thinking about continuous learning, knowledge gaining and hard work. Sir Francis Bacon said "Knowledge is power" and this is my advice for me and why not for you. Never stop learning, apply what you learn and teach your peers and friends based on your knowledge and experience. Working in Quality for so many years I always have in my mind some words of Aldo Gucci "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten", therefore try to do everything being responsible, being true and with "quality" and your value will be noticed all the time
I manage to always deliver my projects OTIF
To deliver projects on time in full is not an easy task. For some may sound easy, but actually it's not. This is something that I was always paying attention to and focused on. In Kingfisher I am a part of many projects, therefore it is very important for me to do my part in due time and properly, work in harmony with my colleagues and together as a force to deliver the project on time and in full. It requires from my part a lot of energy, attention, motivation but I enjoy it. I was once told that as a person I am intrinsically motivated, and this is something that I am really proud of.
