PC&L Customer Analyst Review

Daily morning responsibilities included clearing any errors within the SAP system, authorizing and managing the PC&L VIMS, creating the EDM and PDP file for management. Then I would update the Key Performance Indicators for the department in time for the top 5 meeting.
Main focus for the rest of the day regarded ensuring the aftermarket demand was fulfilled for all customers. This included raising outbounds, arranging picking/packing of parts, and arranging transport.

Personally, I believe I was given too much responsibility within the department and too many roles to manage. Managing 12 different customer flows, as well as other student activities such as waste management, PRs/POs, booking and arranging transport, updating the CAT application was a daunting task, and at the beginning of the year I felt very overwhelmed.

1. Confidence – Within a year, my confidence has grown massively. I am capable at presenting meeting in front of managers, as every week I have been presenting the Aftermarket PDP meeting with the plant manager sometimes being in attendance. Being a customer contact, I have now learnt the ability to communicate effectively with those high in JLR, and now I am never afraid of escalating any issue.
2. Professional experience – Before starting at Faurecia, I was lacking professional experience within a field, but now after completing this placement, this has provided me with a solid foundation of experience to refer to in both my CV and future interviews. During interviews for a placement, I was drawing on university much more, whereas now I will be able to use the experience I have gained at Faurecia as a steppingstone in my career path.
3. Independence and autonomy – I have quickly been able to develop my own daily routine and structure. Forvia has taught me more independence in completing work through creating customer outbounds, updating customer portals, and organising transport in a self-sufficient manner.
4. Flexibility – due to the fast pace of the automotive industry, priorities often change and tasks would be swapped or put on hold in order to achieve the objective of the department. Before the placement, I would be rigid in my work style, completing one task after another, but Faurecia has taught me how to be fluid with both job roles and with customer demand.

Training was very limited, and was a 1 1/2 handover with the previous student, who (understandably) was often lacking motivation as they were leaving to go back to university.
Also once they had left there were often responsibilities where I was the only one who had training regarding this, so if I experienced any issues often my team/management were unable to help.

Some departments (i.e. Finance and Purchasing) were often happy to help, and as a team we would work well to resolve issues that affected both teams effectively. Other departments however were often difficult to work with and would openly ignore points raised to them, or would pass on the blame for issues into other departments.

During my first few months I very much did not enjoy the placement because of the workload and the stress of trying to learn vital operations independently with little help from others. As the year went on and I became more proficient with my tasks, the stress did reduce but I was still required to work many hours of unpaid overtime in order to just finish my essential roles. To be clear overtime was not mandatory, but with the responsibilities given to me it was unrealistic to complete in working hours.

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