The power of self-improvement
Marco Buthelezi has been with Kemtek since 2006, and he attributes his career trajectory to his refusal to limit himself. As a result, he has now reached a place where he is able to inspire and enable his team members to emulate his success.
Throughout his time with Kemtek, Marco has seized learnership opportunities to add to his skills. In combination with his formidable natural energy and his focus on meeting the needs of customers, this has greatly added to the ongoing success of the Ribbon Plant.
A key part of Marco’s very full days is checking in with each of his team members by visiting the plant floor. This helps the team plan the day’s production (and plan around loadshedding). Just as importantly, it gives Marco the chance to understand each person’s lived experiences, including their journey to work and the challenges they may be facing.
As the leader of a production team, Marco finds that he has very little time to relax – but it’s clear that he greatly enjoys being on his feet, and keeping his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in every part of the plant.
Jobs that have been completed are captured on the system and dispatched, and then the new day’s work can begin.
Watch this short informative video:
Values-based leadership
Marco’s personal values of honesty, integrity and respect are very much aligned with Kemtek’s corporate values, and help Marco nurture customer relationships – a key part of his role. His contributions have been recognised through invitations to participate in Kemtek strategy sessions, during which a few of his ideas were adopted.
Marco has a deft touch when it comes to managing people. He’s helped in this by being able to recognise where colleagues are having a similar life experience to his own. Moving from department to department as he was promoted, Marco gained deep insights into every aspect of Ribbon Plant operations.
This is something he’s keen to replicate for more recent hires, and his insistence on exposing them to different parts of the business, and to implementing skills transfer programmes, is already bearing fruit.
Understanding comes first
Conscious of his responsibilities as a manager, Marco always observes before intervening, and always looks to see how he can help people achieve their full potential. One of his personal initiatives has been to increase engagement between management and the shop floor, and to break down any traces of silo mentality.
Working around power outages
The impact of rolling power outages (loadshedding) is certainly being felt at the Ribbon Plant. While generator power enables production to continue, the intervals between mains power being lost and the generator kicking in can result in lost production, mechanical breakdowns, and increased wastage and costs.
Having built up a great reputation for quality, reliable, locally produced TTR labels, the Ribbon Plant is now facing this major challenge to meeting its commitments to customers. Under Marco’s leadership, innovation and agility are flourishing and the team are using advanced work planning and scheduling tools to optimise production and avoid interruptions.
Limitless energy
In his spare time, Marco Buthelezi taps into his incredible reserves of energy to both play and coach soccer multiple times per week. He also enjoys road running and trail running, and describes himself as a very active person – which could just be an understatement!
This is why he maintains that production management is the ideal role for him, as it always being continually on the move: coaching, mentoring, influencing and encouraging. Whether on the production floor or the soccer pitch, Marco has all the energy he needs to make a difference in people’s lives, customer and players alike.
To learn more about Kemtek’s range of TTR solutions, contact Marco Buthelezi, Ribbon Plant Production Manager, on +27 (0)84 753 3421 or by email at marcob@kemtek.co.za
