Andrew Dempsey is one of Allied’s many production line staff who build the wheelchair accessible vehicles that keep our customers moving and make such a difference to their lives. With a long career in production in manufacturing behind him, we thought we’d grab Andrew off the line for a chat about his time at Allied and to find out how he spends his spare time.
Describe what a typical day looks like for you.
First thing, we attend the morning briefing and get an idea of the previous day’s work. And then from there, I’ll go to my assigned stage and follow the build plan through, building the car to standard in an efficient manner to keep the production line going.
On the Horizon line we get 90 minutes a car, to push it on in the next stage. I’m doing double stages on the Horizons, which involves refitting the tanks that were taken off at an earlier stage and modifying and refitting the bumper, the rear parking sensors, and the exhaust at this stage as well.
It’s two stages that I’ve been on for a while so I’m confident with them and I’m trusted with them.
It requires good teamwork, and good communication.
How long have you worked at Allied?
I started in November 2024.
Before that I was with Scottish Leather Group in Bridge of Weir. I’d done a few roles in there, but the most recent one was the Health & Safety and Onboarding Coordinator, so I did all the training with the new starts.
When I came to the open day here and they took us round for the tour, it was quite interesting to be on the other side of that and see it from a different perspective.
Prior to the training job at the Leather Group I did quality control in there. Production and Manufacturing has been my bread and butter for as long as I can remember.
Coming to Allied, getting back into manual handling tasks after I had been teaching it to others, was a big change for me. Being back on the tools, actually doing it again, was a change of pace.
What is it that you enjoy most about your work here at Allied?
That every day can be different, you can be faced with different challenges.
As much as a build is repetitive, sometimes things can go wrong, and you’ve got to think about how you adapt and make sure we still get the car through on time.
What are some of those challenges?
I’m cross-trained to work across different lines, so I can find different challenges depending where on the line I am.
At the last stage, for example, you really rely on everything before being done and assembled perfectly. If it’s not, you can find yourself wrestling with chairs, when you’re fitting coach-built chairs.
If somebody’s missed something at a previous stage, it holds you up and causes a bit of frustration, because your time’s quite tight and now, you’re going to struggle.
Even when you hit those challenges, though, you’ve got Team Leaders there and you’ve got support. As long as you keep everybody in the loop, they’ll get you the support you need to get through.
How has it been working on the new Horizon build?
It’s been good. The biggest change from the stages I work on is the fuel tanks. Originally, we were building our own tanks in house and replacing the original tanks, but that’s now changed. We’re refitting the original part from the car, which is the result of a lot of work with our Engineering department.
It completely changed that stage of the build, but it’s been a good, smooth transition because everybody has been well trained in advance and briefed in and placed on the line where they need to be at the right time.
How would you describe the company culture at Allied?
It’s a people-focused business – people are the biggest asset in Allied, and they really look after us. I’ve rarely come into a business where there’s nobody I don’t get along with, the people here are brilliant.
I’ve worked for companies that have been about for hundreds of years, and I’ve never worked anywhere that I feel has had a modern approach like Allied. I’ve been at massive companies that make a fortune, and this is the first place I’ve worked with an employee profit share, where they take a chunk of that and spread it between the employees on top of their normal wages. I think that’s incredible.
As well as that, in Production we have a really great work/life balance with the four-day working week. It’s a physically demanding job, and that gives us plenty of time to recharge.
What does that recharging involve for you? How do you like to unwind?
Spending time with the family. Between myself and my partner I’ve got five kids, three are biological, and two I’ve been involved with for 10 years. From oldest to youngest we’ve got Harley, she’s 25 this year. And then we’ve got Aiden, who’s 18 this year. There’s Millie, who’s 15, Reece who’s 13 and Joshua, who’s 10. Everything I do is for them. They’re the reason I get out of my bed in the morning and come to work, to provide the best I can for them.
We’ve got a dog as well, he’s probably the most troublesome. He’s a wee French bull dog. We got him from a family that couldn’t keep him anymore, and he had some issues. He’s just quite anxious and he’s got to be looked after certain way and kept away from certain situations.
Outside of family, I’m a gamer, so I really enjoy streaming my games.
What type of stuff do you play?
I like my single player games, my role-playing games; the likes of Fallout and Skyrim, stuff like that. But I’ve also got a group of friends that I speak to online and they’re more interested in online shooter stuff, so I would say I’m a a variety streamer.
I’ve just put a bit more focus into that towards the end of the year. The Christmas shutdown there was a good time to dive in, and the four-day week gives me plenty of time for that.
What is something that not very many people here would know about you?
Most would probably be surprised to learn that I play baseball, which is not a common sport for men my age in the north of Glasgow.
That is definitely surprising! Tell us more about that.
I think we all played rounders at school, so I say to anybody that asks me about baseball that it’s just rounders with more rules.
I play for a team called Glasgow Galaxy, based in Tollcross. We play at a national level, so we travel up and down the country playing teams from different cities.
How did you get into that?
It’s a sport I’ve liked from a young age but never played. During COVID I downloaded one of the games on my computer and I started getting into it and watching some on the telly. I looked it up on Glasgow life, just looking for batting cages to go on my own and have a swing of a bat, and I came across the club I’m with now and got in touch. Now we’re coming into my third full season.
In my first season I won Rookie of the Year, which is the best new newcomer player within the club. I was nominated for the League Awards, but I wasn’t as lucky there.
What’s a goal that you’re working towards in either your personal life or your professional life?
Professionally, having come in from elevated and trusted positions in previous employment, my goal is to get back to that level within Allied. The next step on that ladder would be a team leader position, but I would certainly like to get myself back into a senior leadership position at some point in my career here.
I’ve done a few wee bits of training towards that through a step program that they encourage, so I’ve been delegated a couple of duties for the team leaders. I deliver most of the toolbox talks for the team, and I take charge of the fire sheets and make sure the tool cages are locked up at the end of the night. So, I’m getting a flavour of what the progression looks like.
If you hadn’t ended up in manufacturing, what career path do you think you might have pursued?
When I was younger, I wanted to be a mechanic. I always thought “what are jobs that people would need forever?” and car maintenance was top of that list in my mind. Undertaker was another one, but the older and wiser I got I realized I didn’t really want to be dealing with death every day, it’s probably not the best for my mental health.
I’m by no means a mechanic now, but my father-in-law had issues with his battery and reverse sensors and because of my experience here I was like, “oh, I might know how to fix this,” and I had a wee look and saw a connector was loose on a reverse sensor, for example.
So, I think being at Allied and working with cars and repairing certain elements in the build, I’ve found my home here.
