People Project - Meet Jamie

An avid gamer and film buff outside of work, Jamie originally joined Limbs & Things seven years ago in the role of Demo and Repairs Technician. As the workload in Quality increased, Jamie started assisting the Quality team frequently. It was here where his potential was realized, and a move into quality just made sense. Quality is where Jamie has remained ever since. Now, Jamie is not only integral across every project, he’s also relied on and used as a beacon of information by almost every department.

“It’s been quite the journey!” he exclaims jubilantly. Sitting in the office he shares with his Quality comrades, Jamie explains the role quality plays at Limbs & Things: “It’s a case of making sure the quality of the product is on point to keep the customers loyal and coming back to us. I like to think we resolve the issues quickly. If there are improvements that need making, we make the improvements.” Like Jamie says, at the end of the day it’s all about ensuring our customers get the very best from us every time, with no compromises.

Explaining his role specifically, Jamie says: “I check the production processes for our products, making sure the instructions are being followed and implemented correctly. Getting those instructions communicated across to our production operators is obviously really important to our success.” Jamie almost acts as the connecting mortar between departments; relaying the foundations for the next steps that await. That relationship with the production operators is absolutely paramount in ensuring every product is produced as it should be.

But production isn’t the only department Jamie has to work closely with. In fact, such is the unique nature of quality, Jamie is closely intertwined with pretty much every department across the business. Be that dealing with customer cases with Customer Service, website information with Marketing, problem solving with Product Management and Research and Development, tooling phases with Engineering or processes with Production. Despite the hectic nature, it’s an element Jamie enjoys: “I have had the pleasure of working with almost everyone here at some stage. I do like that. For me personally, my job isn’t solving problems by myself as such, but to be a part of fixing the problem and communicating it to the necessary departments; just making sure everyone is working together and making sure information is shared as it should be, and then as a group we can think of the best ways to deal with it and get it sorted.” As Jamie highlights, the collective efforts of everyone means everyone has a role to play, and it enforces that not one person or department is more important than another.

Much of Jamie’s time is spent running between our office and factory facilities, trying to establish the facts and implement a solution. The constantly busy nature of his work is never truer than when a FAI (Final Article Inspection) is approaching. Typically, an FAI is manifested when a new product launch is impeding, and it often falls to Jamie to ensure everything is in line ahead of launch. “A fair amount of work in a short amount of time is always required. We don’t know how to approach it straight away because you can’t do certain things before other things are put in place.” That explains the look of stress that is often permanently etched on Jamie’s face. However, he does have a few pointers that allow for some alleviation of the pressure. “You won’t get anywhere if you can’t communicate effectively. So, with that being said the most important things are communication, teamwork, patience, and time-management, because at the end of the day you have to pick up the workload for other projects and you try and deal with all the new stuff, but it’s not like all the day-to-day work goes away.”

Reflecting on his role and his career at Limbs, Jamie simply states “I owe this place a lot”. There is an element of truth in that; without Limbs, Jamie wouldn’t have forged an unlikely career in Quality and he also wouldn’t have met his partner. However, such is Jamie’s ability to go above and beyond, that it is now Limbs that equally owes Jamie a lot.