How I got here
I started in a warehouse in 2015. Picking and packing pharmaceutical stock, learning GDP requirements, getting a feel for how a distribution operation actually runs when you're inside it. Not as a management trainee: as an operative, on the floor, doing the job.
The progression from there wasn't planned in a straight line, but in retrospect it makes sense. Each step meant a different kind of complexity: more people, wider scope, tighter regulatory exposure, broader commercial impact.
2015 – 2016
Warehouse Operative
Picking, packing, and replenishing stock in a high-volume pharmaceutical distribution environment under GDP controls. Where I built an understanding of what good operations actually looks like, from the ground up.
2016 – 2019
Warehouse Team Leader
Led a 40+ person multi-shift team across picking, packing, and dispatch. Owned daily KPI reviews and shift planning. Conducted GDP compliance audits. Trained and mentored new hires. First experience of what it means to be accountable for an operation rather than just part of it.
2019 – 2021
Warehouse Manager: Wholesale
Led a 40-person team managing UK and international export operations (including Controlled Drugs, cold chain, and ambient lines) under MHRA and Home Office controls. Coordinated daily with customer service and transport. Redesigned warehouse layout to improve accuracy and flow.
2021 – Present
Warehouse Manager: Regulated Distribution Operations
Directs a 150-person, multi-shift operation dispatching 300,000+ pharmaceutical packs daily to 750 pharmacies across the UK, under full GDP and MHRA compliance. Scaled from 100 to 150 FTE. Led operational workstream for automated pack-to-patient system go-live. Drove H&S audit score from 67% to 85% in 12 months.
How I approach the work
I try to look at everything logically and trace problems back to their underlying cause rather than fixing the most visible symptom. An absence pattern, a pick error rate climbing, a team leader's KPIs slipping: the data tells you something is wrong. The conversation tells you why. The intervention has to come from both.
Most operational problems that look like process failures are people or system failures in disguise. Embedding root cause analysis (Fishbone, 5 Whys) into how the team reviews problems, rather than just as a post-incident tool, changes what the data can tell you over time.
I invest heavily in the people around me. Coaching and mentoring isn't separate from the job. It is the job at this level. I've put six colleagues through Team Leader promotions via structured, bespoke development plans. Not because it's the right thing to say, but because a stronger team is a more resilient operation. The two things compound.
The goal I work toward is an operation that doesn't need me present on a normal day to function well. It sounds counterintuitive. It's deliberate. If the team can run the floor independently, I can spend my time on what matters next: continuous improvement, strategic planning, reducing friction in how the work gets done. That's how you scale operational leadership without being everywhere at once.
Why this site
OperationsEdge started as something else. It's evolved into what it is now: a place to document and share real operational experience, organised by the competency areas that operations management actually breaks into: people and performance, process improvement, labour planning, data and reporting.
There's a lot of operations content online. Most of it is written by people who haven't managed a warehouse. The cases on here are from situations I've actually worked through. The numbers are real, before and after, with the timeline in between. I write about what worked and what didn't because that version is the one that's useful to someone dealing with the same thing.
If something here is useful to a fellow ops manager, that's the point. If it gives a recruiter a more honest picture of how I work than a CV ever could, that's a useful side effect.
Development & training
Alongside operational experience, I've pursued formal development in the areas I think matter most at senior level: structured improvement methodology, commercial awareness, and people management practice.
- Level 5 Operations Manager Apprenticeship (in progress, EPA early 2027): operational strategy, finance, project management, and leading change.
- Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt
- World Class Manager Programme
- Finance for Non-Financial Managers, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
- Recruitment & Disciplinary Training, ACAS
Get in touch
If you're working through something similar and want to compare notes, or if you have a question about anything on the site, I'm on LinkedIn.
Connect on LinkedIn