Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Interests
Languages
Timeline
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Jeremy Micallef

Jeremy Micallef

Laboratory Manager
San Gwann

Summary

I am an experienced manager with over 20 years in the automotive and manufacturing industry. I am skilled in quality management systems, product validation, complex project leadership, lean and six sigma based business optimisation coupled with dedicated customer service. I have strong interpersonal skills in driving teams focusing on multiple and complex situations.

Overview

28
28
years of professional experience
13
13
years of post-secondary education

Work History

Laboratory Manager

Methode Electronics Malta
06.2023 - 07.2025
  • Currently I am managing a group of 25 engineers and technicians in the Malta Laboratory. The group is divided into four section, two teams designing the hardware and software that will control the mechanical movements on the DUTs as well as monitor specific responses via CAN, LIN or directly via SPI, etc. These teams will assembly the test jigs and commission them before making them available for the testing engineers.
  • The other two groups are the testing engineers. These create and execute based on customer and international specifications the full test matrix and plan for the lifetime validation of the automotive product.
  • Within this group we ensure that the testing is to recognised international automotive standards, that the testing is completed on time and that any issues arising during the tests are fully analysed, flagged for improvement and corrective actions re-tested for effectiveness.
  • In the last year, the team has also been focused into the digitalisation of equipment handling and monitoring, digitisation of key data points and the establishment for the basis of data warehousing and data mining in the near future with the goal of increasing the efficiency of technical and human resources as well as reducing overall testing times.
  • During this period I have also helped out the Program management department in the design and launch of a novel internal lighting system for a well know automotive brand which will be in production in 2028. This involved aiding in the engineering of the product, the selection of technologies and suppliers being utilised for the manufacturing of the product, inputs into the assembly line build, relevant design reviews and the creation and execution of the overall timing plan with the various stages and gates throughout.

Special Projects

Methode Electronics Malta
06.2021 - 06.2023
  • From 2021 to 2023 I am leading three key projects for the Grakon division of Methode Electronics.
  • The first project involved the transfer of assembly lines from China into Egypt. In this project oversaw the buffer builds at finished good and component level and managed the transfer plan with our Chinese and Egyptian colleagues. I also managed the installation of the assembly machines remotely and on site as these arrived in Egypt, as well as building the first-off samples for testing in the Malta laboratories for the submission of the relevant relocation documentation with our customers. From the operational side I was directly responsible to ensure that the required knowledge transfer from China to Egypt was executed, the continuous improvement of the transferred lines, improving capacity and quality as well as establishing the relevant quality gates required at launch and the introduction of poke-yoke systems where problems are encountered.
  • The second project involved the introduction of two new processes into the Egypt facility - namely sputtering metallization and UV based lacquering. In this project I led discussions with potential suppliers on their technical capability, line capacity, cost and delivery lead time. Following the supplier selection and purchasing, I also managed the project through plant facility requirements, transportation planning, equipment release and the transfer of injection tooling from China to have direct control on the material supply and quality.
  • The third project involved the vertical integration transfer of all the injection molding tools (ca. 200 tools) from China to Egypt. This project involved the creation of material buffer, the selection and release of local plastics as opposed to ones sourced in China and the direct release of the tooling as per drawings and specifications.
  • For a short period of time I also helped the OPEX team at the Malta site taking care of Continuous Improvement, Six Sigma projects as well as product and process re-engineering.

Quality Director

STMicroelectronics Malta
06.2018 - 06.2021
  • Company Overview: STMicroelectronics is a major semiconductor manufacturer.
  • Within the Malta plant, ST's most complex Micro-Controller Units are manufactured in QFP, BGA and FCBGA packages for the automotive market, as well as LGA devices for both automotive and handheld portable devices and wearables.
  • Reporting directly into the local GM, as well as Corporate Quality, I co-ordinated the work of four teams covering:
  • Quality Engineering
  • Supplier Quality Management and Incoming Labs
  • Internal Quality and Reliability and the Material Review Board
  • Internal and external audits, accreditations and environment.
  • Each team is headed up by a Section Manager comprising of engineers, with an overall department of over sixty personnel.
  • Within the function, the major achievements have been
  • A steady reduction in internal and external failures with a focus on problem eradication
  • The successful introduction of digital Supplier Quality Management
  • Digitization & Digitalization of Department and other KPI data
  • Laboratory and manufacturing modernisations
  • The setting up of an Operational Excellence Group
  • Establishing and executing Quality Budgets for equipment additions and improvements to the Laboratories and Manufacturing.
  • Between local and corporate level a number of Quality Initiatives have been introduced aimed at improving the effectiveness of manufacturing in the areas of Lean Manufacturing, Problem Solving and Six Sigma, as well as defect eradication programs.
  • In this role, within ST Malta, I am involved in the setting up of Manufacturing Cells that are the equivalent of Kaizen work-groups. The final target is to have these Manufacturing Cells set up in a way that they become totally autonomous in the KPIs they are monitoring at Daily Kaizen and in the self-audits that will also monitor and improve these KPIs.
  • At a higher level, a number of VSM and SMED activities were successfully conducted within the Quality and Manufacturing Departments targetting Cycle Time and Change-Over Time reductions.
  • Apart from the above the role has led me to be part of a number of Plant Initiatives related to the integration of aspects of Quality Management into the IIOT platforms. In this aspect, digitization, digitalization and automation improvements have been leveraged to automate critical data collection as well as automate custom built IFTTT manufacturing control rules on manufacturing equipment.
  • STMicroelectronics is a major semiconductor manufacturer.

Quality Assurance Manager

Methode Electronics Europe
09.2013 - 06.2018
  • Company Overview: Methode Electronics Europe is a Tier I automotive solutions provider to major OEM's.
  • Methode Electronics Europe is a Tier I automotive solutions provider to major OEM's its customers including Ford, VW, Audi, BMW, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, PSA, Renault, McLaren and Aston Martin amongst others. It is also a Tier II supplier to best in class corporations such as Continental, Bosch, Schaeffler and Kongsberg.
  • The European branch incorporates three facilities in three different countries - Malta, Egypt and Belgium, all of these falling under the remit of the QAM.
  • Methode Electronics Europe's portfolio includes driver operated switchgear including full centre stacks, hidden switches such as brake, reverse light and ignition switches, sensors and power products.
  • Methode highly values vertical integration meaning that each factory manufactured and processed internally a significant amount of the supply chain used on the assembly line. The main processes under vertical integration were PCBA assembly, plastics moulding, terminal stamping and plating. The assembly lines are also built and released in-house.
  • Reporting into the VP Europe, I co-ordinated the work of five teams covering:
  • Quality Engineering and Warranty
  • Supplier Quality Management
  • Metrology and Calibration
  • Internal and external audits; automotive, rail and environment accreditations
  • APQP, PPAP and manufacturing line release.
  • Each team was headed up by a Section Manager and included engineers, technicians, environmental specialists and lead auditors. In total the department comprised over sixty personnel.
  • The Quality Department was also directly responsible for the Company's overall Cost of Poor Quality and within this role, I co-ordinated efforts with all stakeholders to focus on areas that need improvement and beat the pre-established targets.
  • I was also responsible for Operational Excellence leading Lean and Six Sigma training and projects within Methode Europe. This covered all the lean events and six-sigma training, project rollout and tracking within the Malta and Egypt factories. In 2017 I was also part of the team that led the setting up from scratch Kaizen events in the newly acquired manufacturing site in Belgium.
  • Methode Electronics Europe is a Tier I automotive solutions provider to major OEM's.

Quality Manager

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Malta
06.2007 - 09.2013
  • Company Overview: TSS Malta manufactures elastomeric material and elastomeric o-rings and other related sealing devices, predominantly for the automotive industry.
  • In this position I led a team focusing on these main roles:
  • The update and maintenance of the Quality System.
  • Internal and External Audits.
  • Customer complaints.
  • Customer visits on technical discussions and complaints.
  • Advanced Product Quality Planning.
  • Initial product sampling and part approval with customers as per automotive requirements.
  • Acceptance and release of customer drawing and specifications.
  • Part numbering management.
  • Part certification and cleanliness testing.
  • Internal non-conformity management.
  • Calibration of equipment and gauges.
  • Supplier management.
  • Continuous improvement (Lean Six Sigma) projects.
  • Lean and Six Sigma training co-ordination.
  • The team was made up of three engineers, a chemist, a certified Lead Auditor and five laboratory personnel.
  • At TSS, I successfully led the factory through numerous customer audits from the main players in the automotive marked such as Bosch, Siemens VDO, Continental, Magneti Marelli, Brembo and Ferrari F1.
  • I also visited many customers' factories for technical discussions covering customer complaints, customer support and future business.
  • The company's quality system was strong enough for the Malta plant to implement a significant change in its product portfolio, including the transfer of two production divisions from Swedish factories to Malta in the period of 2010 - 2011.
  • The work of the department in instilling and strengthening the quality culture throughout the shop floor and at higher levels of the organisation, led to a marked decrease in internal and external non-conformities.
  • Since 2009, during and after the completion of a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training, I led different teams in Black Belt projects that resulted in the company saving around half a million Euros annually.
  • Together with another colleague, I helped in co-ordinating the training of another 28 individuals, mostly graduates, in Advanced Lean, together with the deployment of Lean Activities, with half of these being trained to Six Sigma Green Belt level.
  • As part of the Operations Management team, I was also responsible for overseeing the implementation of Policy Deployment targeting the reduction in operating costs to reach the projected budgetary savings that were submitted on a yearly basis to Corporate Management.
  • TSS Malta manufactures elastomeric material and elastomeric o-rings and other related sealing devices, predominantly for the automotive industry.

Process Engineering Specialist

ST Microelectronics
09.2000 - 06.2007
  • Company Overview: STMicroelectronics manufactures and tests Integrated Devices for various markets including telecommunications, automotive, power control, computer peripherals and hardware.
  • My role at ST focused on the following main items:
  • Process development.
  • Scrap rate reduction.
  • Cost reduction.
  • Testing failure reduction.
  • Production management.
  • Manufacturing equipment maintenance.
  • Overall equipment efficiency increase.
  • Autonomous maintenance team management.
  • Definition and revisions of standard operating procedures, control plans and out of control action plans.
  • Operator training and evaluation.
  • In this role, I led a team of twelve technicians and twenty operators.
  • My assembly line was also one of the first that started to manufacture what was the next generation of devices, which significantly increased the complexity of the assembly processes.
  • Notwithstanding this, after seven years in process engineering, I managed to significantly increase the productivity of the manufacturing line by improving both the manning ratio (from one operator working on 8 machines to one operator working on 18 machines) and the reduction in overall scrap (from 2.5% scrap to 0.4% scrap).
  • In this position, I introduced the concept of standardisation of tooling. Whereas the rational thinking of the time was to have one tool for each assembly type, I challenged this by introducing one tool for all (or the majority of) the assembly types on my manufacturing line.
  • In this way, machine intervention was greatly reduced, machine changeovers were quicker and equally importantly, scrap was reduced. This was taken a step further when long life tooling was introduced, increasing the lifetime of these tools five fold. While also improving the product overall quality, this further reduced both the overall scrap and equipment MTBI.
  • STMicroelectronics manufactures and tests Integrated Devices for various markets including telecommunications, automotive, power control, computer peripherals and hardware.

Chemistry and Science Teacher

St. Aloysius College
09.1997 - 09.2000
  • In September of 1997, I entered St. Aloysius College as a teacher teaching Chemistry and Integrated Science at secondary level. During this time I also had the opportunity to coach the school's U-13 and U-15 football teams.

Education

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt - Distinction

SigmaPro UK
01.2009 - 01.2011

Prince 2 Practitioner - Project management

PeopleCert
01.2025 - 07.2025

B.Sc. - Chemistry & Biology (Second Upper Degree)

University of Malta
01.1994 - 01.1997

Sixth Form - undefined

St. Aloysius College
01.1992 - 01.1994

Secondary School -

St. Aloysius College
01.1987 - 01.1992

Skills

Quality Systems & Management

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Interests

Football
Formula 1
Reading
Current events
Cinema

Languages

English
Native
Maltese
Native
Italian
Fluent
German
Intermediate

Timeline

Prince 2 Practitioner - Project management

PeopleCert
01.2025 - 07.2025

Laboratory Manager

Methode Electronics Malta
06.2023 - 07.2025

Special Projects

Methode Electronics Malta
06.2021 - 06.2023

Quality Director

STMicroelectronics Malta
06.2018 - 06.2021

Quality Assurance Manager

Methode Electronics Europe
09.2013 - 06.2018

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt - Distinction

SigmaPro UK
01.2009 - 01.2011

Quality Manager

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Malta
06.2007 - 09.2013

Process Engineering Specialist

ST Microelectronics
09.2000 - 06.2007

Chemistry and Science Teacher

St. Aloysius College
09.1997 - 09.2000

B.Sc. - Chemistry & Biology (Second Upper Degree)

University of Malta
01.1994 - 01.1997

Sixth Form - undefined

St. Aloysius College
01.1992 - 01.1994

Secondary School -

St. Aloysius College
01.1987 - 01.1992

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Jeremy MicallefLaboratory Manager