Today, we raise our glasses to honour Atul Bhagalia’s outstanding commitment and remarkable journey with Nittan over 30 years. To commemorate this incredible milestone of three decades, we asked three questions to summarise his time at Nittan.
- How has your role at Nittan evolved during your 30 years at the company, and what significant changes have you witnessed?
I have had many diverse responsibilities during my time at Nittan, initially starting in 1993 as a young Design and Development engineer, after 4 years becoming responsible for the Production Engineering section. This then provided me with the opportunity to move into the position of Production Supervisor and then Manager whilst, taking on further responsibilities as an internal and external quality Auditor, and HR manager, whilst still managing the production engineering dept. I then moved into my current position of General Manager of Operations taking control of the Purchasing Dept and Sales administration Dept.
I have seen been a part of a transformation whereby the company has gone from being a Japanese owned UK design and manufacturing company, to a global logistics and processing function to better support our customers with premium Japanese designed products wherever they may be required.
2. Looking back on your 30-year journey in Nittan, what achievements or milestones are you most proud of, and how do you believe they have positively impacted the company’s overall success and reputation?
My biggest challenge was when I became a production supervisor and had to increase production, whilst maintaining the same number of workers. After considerable effort, we increased UK production by 350% in just one year, finally ending on approx. 600% of the initial volumes.
Another challenge that I was lucky to be involved in was when a major OEM partners came to Nittan asking us to help them improve and perfect their own products (ionisation and photo electric analogue detectors), which had considerable quality problems with extremely poor yields. After establishing there was nothing inherently wrong with the design, I was able to look at it from a “design for manufacture” perspective and improve the yields to near 100%. The resulting products were subsequently audited by the end user who promptly declared that they will only purchase the products if they are made in the Nittan UK factory. This was a proud moment for me personally, and it helped strengthen Nittan’s relationship further with our customer. In addition as a result of this valuable work I was able to implement enhanced production methods for our own brand detectors building on our reputation for reliable products working in harsh conditions all around the world.
3. What are some valuable lessons you have learned throughout your 30-years at Nittan that you would pass on to younger employees in the company?
For me Nittan has been like a second home, it’s a company that’s multicultural and has allowed me to obtain knowledge and skills in so many different areas of the business. Being a small company in the UK but part of a much larger global business also helps any young person who is looking to develop their knowledge of various types of jobs within an organisation. It is a place where if you have the desire to learn new things and diversify, then the opportunities to progress are available.
It is the people that I have worked with that make the company such a great place, 30 years has flown past, it seem like only yesterday that I joined the company.
So, for a young employee as I once was, I would say that if you are dedicated, hardworking and have goals and aspirations in life than anything is possible.
Here’s to Atul Bhagalia’s incredible achievements, and 30 years of outstanding service!