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Autonomus Production Unit Manager (APU)

Sophie Verescence Orne (France)

FIRST FEMALE MANAGER OF AN APU AT VERESCENCE

« I came to Verescence Orne 24 years ago as an interim worker on a frosting line, and held several very different positions, initially providing replacements. Each milestone in my career corresponds to a proposal that I accepted to try, in order to test my ability to evolve and to make sure I had no regrets. My advice: don’t put any limits on yourself. After many years working with numbers and in shop administrative positions, I wanted to manage teams, as I felt drawn by the human dimension of this challenge. I was a supervisor when, in 2017, I applied for the position of Manager of the Autonomous Production Unit; but I didn’t have the required diploma for it. My chances of getting the job were anything but certain. I had to prove my worth and follow a training course that involved working in tandem with my predecessor.

Becoming a manager was a career move I’d been hoping for. It was a real turning point. I took several coaching training courses. Knowing how to communicate and giving meaning to what is expected of each person is something that can be learned and the training course offered by Verescence helped me a lot.

Becoming a manager was a career move I’d been hoping for. It was a real turning point. I took several coaching training courses. Knowing how to communicate and giving meaning to what is expected of each person is something that can be learned and the training course offered by Verescence helped me a lot. This training is ongoing: most recently, a two-day seminar on team cohesion. A very exciting topic!

After heading up the last APU set up at Verescence Orne for the last two years in a gluing/acid-etching/sand-blasting workshop where 50 to 60 people work, I am now a manager and learning new things every day while working as closely as possible with the teams. Contrary to common belief, my job isn’t about "making others work”. It’s about working as a team, to move forward and help us grow. No two days are alike. Every day, I start by checking in with each person to find out how they’re doing. First the person, and then the machine. And of course, we talk about performance because that’s also our motivation. It's incredible to make progress together! APU organization demands versatility and fosters a spirit of mutual aid – an attitude that encourages people to look at what’s happening upstream and downstream from their job position in order to function better. Together, we contributed to the success of a memorable launch: Yves-St-Laurent’s “Y”. It was my first in this position and we knocked it out of the park. Glass is a noble material, and satisfying luxury brands is a source of great pride. »

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