5:50 am
My dreaded alarm goes off and I crawl out of bed to start another working day. I have a quick shower, shovel down 4/5 Weet Bix and I begin my 30-35 minute commute from Kangaroo Point to work in Redbank. With our new state of the art facility, parking is never a problem and I always get one close to the warehouse, which is always a bonus.

7:00 am
We begin every day in the warehouse with a 7am prestart where our Manager Brendan will go through any issues from the previous day, how we performed in our duties, any safety concerns or general challenges we have to raise with him and assign everyone their daily tasks. This is a great way to start as it gets the team together first thing and if anyone does have any issues or feedback, good ideas etc. we get to air them with everyone else in the warehouse.

 
7:30 am
I go to my desk and start my day of work off by checking my emails of which there are usually plenty, mostly from my fellow staff in different departments looking for parts they may have been waiting on to arrive or things they need to ship out! The warehouse is made up of many different roles in which we change every 3 months to ensure everybody gets extensive exposure and training in every aspect of the job. At the moment my role is dealing with inbound goods and outbound also.

8:00 am
Today there is a flurry of early deliveries, which means I am in between unloading trucks with the forklift and trying to check off what has come in already. It is a process of checking off the paperwork to ensure everything has arrived, then figuring out what project the parts are for and where to store them in our large warehouse. After the goods are put away, I then have to do the systems work to put the goods into SAP to ensure everything is ready for when we need to pick them for our production team or to send to the customer.

9:00 am
Dealing with both inbound and outbound, I have to try to prioritize my day so that what is most urgent gets done first. So around 9 am I usually deal with any requests to send products out from our warehouse. This process involves getting the digital request from our freight register then packing it to our high standards and booking the transport through our online portal.

10:00 am
It’s the part of the morning that keeps me going, smoko time!! We have a brand new canteen recently open onsite and they have the best of everything and do really good mates rates for Rheinmetall employees. Today I grabbed a sandwich, yoghurt and cereal bar keep the energy levels pumping!

11:00 am
Being sat at the goods incoming area I am constantly dealing throughout the day with delivery drivers and fellow employees coming down with requests and enquiries about different deliveries, time frames etc. it honestly makes the day fly by being so busy all the time.

12:00 pm
As I am currently doing my Cert III in Supply Chain Operations my Manager Brendan will take an hour out of my work day whenever we can both spare one to go over something in the course. Today it’s the chain of responsibility section, which despite having many years in warehouse under my belt, a lot of it is new to me so it’s good to be going over some new things I didn’t know beforehand and it is definitely improving my background knowledge in the warehouse.

1:00 pm
Training over and its back to the nitty-gritty! Today Ben and I have the challenge of wrapping a Millennium Gun, which needs to be ready for transport to Melbourne. It’s basically a giant piece of artillery that sits on the top of one of our vehicles. I’m not going to lie, this is a very tricky one, but we persevere and get it done via a lot of sweat, tears and swearing!!

 
2:00 pm
Lunch time for me and again I succumb to the lure of our canteen’s delights! Taco Tuesday was too hard to resist! As part of the warehouse we have to be functioning at all times because of deliveries etc, so we stagger our lunches to keep the place running effectively.

 
2:30 pm
I try get the last of the day’s deliveries put away and entered into the system, but the clock is against me and I put some aside for tomorrow. We generally have assigned different areas that we need to clean on a daily basis, so I make sure my area is done before I leave.

 
3:30 pm
I am out of here, usually home by 4pm, which gives me plenty of time to have a life outside of work.

The role as a warehouse employee in Rheinmetall is a bit of a different one than previous warehouse roles I have had, but it is so diverse that no day is ever the same. It is very busy and comes with a lot of challenges, but there is a really good team culture here where everyone will help each other out when they can. Having never worked in Defence before it has taken me a bit of time to get my head around all of it to be honest and there are still days I scratch my head and think “what the”?!! But it is a hugely exciting company to be a part of and it has plenty of ups and downs, but its one great ride!

 
4:30 am
I am a morning person so the earlier the better. My day starts at 4.30am with my alarm going off. I can confidently say that my dog does not have the same love of early mornings as I do, so he very happily goes back to sleep. I have a shower, get dressed, have a coffee and set some time to have plenty of hugs with the dog, before I leave for the day.

5:30 am
I am on the road and battling the 60 min drive to work, hoping that there is no traffic to slow me down.

 
7:00 am
Kickoff is 7 am and we always start with a Toolbox meeting. We get this brief from our supervisors every day. We always start with a safety moment, giving us the opportunity to discuss any ongoing safety points, and ways to reduce risks. It is a great opportunity to be focused from home to work and reminds us all to stay safe in our work practices. After this, our supervisor will allocate the tasks for the day, who is working with who, and the expectations for the day.

As a Heavy Vehicle Mechanical Apprentice, here at RDA I am involved in the construction and ongoing maintenance of the latest Heavy Vehicle Fleet for the Australian Army.

I team up with my supervising tradesperson for the day and we get to work. Today we are working on a 45M Heavy Recovery Vehicle, a large off road Tow Truck with Army requirements added. We are fitting some hydraulic pumps first up today; it’s interesting working on the different components that eventually go together to build these Trucks. On any given day, I could be involved in light fittings, hydraulics, fitting external parts, winches and more.

9:30 am
Its Smoko time! For me first break is a cup of tea and some crackers, I love the simple things. It’s a good time to have a quick chat with everyone, talk shop, catch up on social media; relax for a bit before we head back to work.

 
9:45 am
Its back to the Production Hall, the hydraulics are finalised now so it is on to mounting storage lockers on the back of the truck. We use a 15 T Gantry Crane to maneuver them into place; it requires great communication and cooperation from all involved to get this done well and safely. Once the lockers are bolted in, we work on the wiring harness and make sure the vehicle electrics are working correctly.

 
12:00 pm
Lunchtime! Lunch usually consists of a hot meal, which is leftover from the night before. I do a bit of cooking at home so there is always plenty to last. Once a week, I like to indulge and make use of the new cafeteria at work. Anything with bacon is a winner for me, and those bacon and egg rolls certainly hit the spot. I am usually on my feet all day, so this is a good opportunity to put my feet up. Today I catch up with some of the other Apprentices out on our lunch benches. We compare what is happening in each other’s training. There are a few different trades happening in the RDA Apprenticeship Program so it is interesting to hear how the other trades do their thing.

 
12:30 pm
Time for some quality checks on some of the installation work we did this morning. We installed some cables on the winch system so we take the vehicle to the Testing area to carry out the Winch Function tests, playing out the cabling and feeding them correctly to ensure correct function when our customers need those most.

There is a bit of downtime after the testing. I use the opportunity to go over some internal training Power Points we have for some of our Vehicle systems. I have Tafe next week; I am doing my trade at SkillsTech; I have Electrical Circuits training next week so I beef up on that, but it is also good to have a look at other systems. We are also building and maintaining some Armoured Vehicles for the Army here so I often use these opportunities to have a look at those. It is great talking to the various teams about how what I am doing in my trade equates to what they are doing. I do not think there are too many workplaces you can work on trucks in the morning and infantry fighting vehicles in the afternoon.

3:30 pm
Work finishes for the day and it is time to battle the afternoon traffic. My drive home occasionally involves a quick stop to Bunnings or Repco so I can spend some time on projects when I get home.

 
The highlight of my afternoon is coming home to my dog who is waiting for me at the gate with a smile on his face.