Welcome Dave Berry
Hi, Dave Berry here.
I’m the new Manufacturing Manager for the Ipswich site currently due to open on the 19th October. Here’s a quick rundown of my career to date.
I started as an Apprentice Patternmaker back in the mid-80s at Thompsons, Kelly and Lewis in Castlemaine. I really enjoyed my time learning about large Jobbing, IMF hard sand, fast loop and core shooters.
In 1997 I took on a role as the Pattern Shop Supervisor for the Bradken Salisbury plant focused on high-volume green sand moulding and producing mainly GET (Ground Engaging Tools) products for ESCO.
Two and a half years later, I moved into the role of Pattern Shop Supervisor at the Bradken Ipswich site, where I worked for over seven years, receiving experience in several roles including Pattern Shop Supervisor, Before Cast Supervisor, Estimating, Quality Auditing, Lean Manufacturing, Production Manager and then finally to Manufacturing Manager role.
I then moved to Bradken Runcorn, a high-volume Green Sand plant, casting 100T per day, employing 550 staff at its peak. At Runcorn I started as Before Cast Manager and again wore several hats throughout my 11 years there including HR, Safety and Re-Hab co-ordinator, Quality Auditing and lastly, Production Manager prior to the closure announcement. While there, I had the opportunity to spend 24 weeks in Xuzhou, helping set up a Bradken facility and training the supervisors and production teams.
My last two and a half years with Bradken was spent back at the Ipswich Foundry re-building it back into a profitable business prior to the closure.
After 24 years with Bradken, I am really looking forward to working with White Industries and expanding their footprint in Australian manufacturing.
