In our meeting, David Muncaster presented as genuine, mature, experienced, energetic and possibly “hard-headed”. He is a person who appears to be passionate about manufacturing; in a sense his Plants are his “workshops” – he delights in driving change, innovating, running improvement processes etc.
(An initial reference check on Mr Muncaster, via person who is known to both of us suggests he is quite effective in this Plant/Operations level role. He probably is not relevant to a role which also put him in charge of sales.)
Career Overview
Mr Muncaster grew up in the United Kingdom and completed his tertiary education there – a First Class Honours Science Degree and a subsequent MBA.
Interestingly, his…show more content… The Plant made Security Safes. As such it was a metal bending/fabrication/ finishing operation. (The ballast in a safe is concrete.) A discussion with Mr Muncaster about the role is instructive. By his account, over the nine-year period he was there, they moved the operation from third world status, to a world-class manufacturing facility, facilitated by extensive use of Lean manufacturing techniques. (Mr Muncaster attended Lean training, over the period in Singapore)
By the late 90s, the Asian crisis was impacting the business and Mr Muncaster decided he wanted a change. He moved to Australia and found work with Lockwood Security (later acquired by Assa Abloy) in its lock/door furniture manufacturing facility in Brisbane. This was a die casting operation which went on to press, punch, fabricate, assemble finish etc., a wide range of metal products/models/SKU’s. The sales value of production was $80 million, and it employed 410 or more people in the…show more content… Mr Muncaster therefore decided to leave the business and was attracted to a role at Areva, a French-own business which had acquired a business in Australia and manufactured high value “industrial” use switchboards for supply to major Utilities and Power generation sites. Whereas the traditional Australian business had been a manufacturer, the new business model was to specify and design the product here, have it manufactured overseas, import finished product to Australia, test it here and provide the installation service – which process still enabled the product to be labelled “Australian
