Meet the team: Russ Heaton

Over the next few months, we’ll be introducing you to various members of the team on our blog.

Today we’re like you to meet Russ Heaton, one of our Production Technicians. He’s responsible for ensuring that our solutions, such as the Minutag™, Multiflet™, Pharmalite™, and Tech-Pack™, are used to create the best medical information leaflets.

Russ is a vital component in a production process that delivers an industry-leading level of service to our clients.

If you fancy yourself a career in production or pharma, or just fancy finding more out about Technoprint and our valued team members, then read on.

Russ’s role

No two days are the same at Technoprint. Every new day offers our team members something different, whether that’s processing an order for a brand-new customer or ensuring that everything is perfectly ready to head out the door to our existing clients.

One of Russ’ key responsibilities as a Production Technician is to produce the highest possible standard of work for our customers. In fact, he’s one of our very first multi-skilled operators – he sets up and runs both the printing presses and folding machines.

During his time at the company, Russ has been involved in a couple of our biggest projects too. Speaking for our blog, he said: “I have played a big part in the 5S project at Technoprint and have also contributed a great deal towards improving our standard operating procedures.”

The 5S project at Technoprint saw us implement a variety of organisational and manufacturing methodologies on site. The 5S’ represent Sort, Set (in order), Shine, Standardise and Sustain. Adhering to the 5S project has enabled our team to maintain a clean and functional working environment by deciding what’s necessary, putting things in order, cleaning, and going on to maintain these levels of cleanliness.

Russ was fantastic when we introduced the 5S system. He embraced the changes and introduced a number of visual aids around both the production and office areas, which helped show our staff members how to correctly tidy their workstations and in-house equipment. Russ also created shadow boards for desks that highlighted where certain tools belong, such as scissors. This has helped us operate an airtight health and safety policy as well as a valuable production line.

How it started

Let’s go back to the beginning of Russ’ job as a Production Technician. When he first joined the company, he received a multitude of training.

The most important job to get to grips with as a Production Technician is operating the machines. As a result, we enrolled Russ in a level 2 machine operation and scaffolding training course that taught him everything he needed to know about our equipment. Needless to say, he passed with flying colours.

Spare time

When he’s not working, Russ is still a man of many talents!

He says: “I am an avid concert-goer, Guinness enthusiast, rugby league fan, tattoo lover, and wrestling fan. I also love playing the drums with my band ‘Feel Something’, and we’ve recently uploaded our first single to Spotify!’

Advice and future goals

Finally, we spoke to Russ about his thoughts on starting a career in the print industry, and he said that “it is a valuable skill to have as it opens up opportunities in setting machines, maintenance and engineering. It’s definitely worth going for!”

There’s no question that Russ has made a promising start to his career at Technoprint, becoming a fully-fledged member of the team and getting stuck into everything he does. However, he isn’t stopping there – “in future, I hope to progress as much as possible, not just in work but in myself as well. The best thing about working here is the team! We’re a bunch of brilliant personalities and hard-working individuals.”