Industrial Manufacturing Engineer Review

I worked under the Production/Manufacturing Engineering department and this department consisted of multiple subdivisions including: operational engineering, industrial engineering, projects engineering, controls engineering, and VPI (value package introduction). At the start of my placement, I was given the opportunity to shadow these divisions and learn more about them before specializing in the one that I am interested in.
Doing so, I gravitated towards projects and industrial engineering. So on a day-to-day basis, in terms of projects, I worked on a long term project of procuring an engineering turbocharger core testing machine and lifting equipment to place the cores into the machine, followed by another project to bring in automation on specific stations of a manufacturing/assembly line. This would include daily tasks involving project updates, hardware shipping, supplier meetings, preparing the site for introducing this machine through customer approvals and engineering specification testing. As an industrial engineer, I worked on utilizing existing processes on the current manufacturing lines by performing time studies, highlighting and improving areas causing delays, creating capacity models using PowerBI which display the time taken for manufacturing, and working on continuous improvement for the site. I was also a part of the ergonomics team and helped improve work place ergonomics using ergo tools.

Absolutely, I was. Throughout my placement, I felt and was treated like an existing employee rather than an intern. I was assigned a long-term procurement project for a new engineering testing equipment and guided by the team to perform the required tasks independently. This would include tasks such as hardware shipping, meetings with suppliers, redesigning the existing layout of an assembly line, and more. Despite the responsibilities, I always felt like I could rely on my colleagues in case I needed help or was unsure of what to do.

The skills that I have learnt/developed range from technical skills to personal and transferrable skills. During my project related tasks, I worked on creating 3D CAD models of turbocharger cores, 2D Layouts, and programming software used on the engineering machine. Industrially, I worked on a lot of microsoft tools, becoming proficient in PowerBI, Visio, Power apps, and Excel. Throughout this all, I developed project management skills, collaboration (by interacting with different department and working on projects together, learning how different departments contribute to a project), lean manufacturing skills through better process utilization, and lastly problem solving skills through identifying manufacturing rate issues and solving it by adding automation, better processes, etc.

Throughout my placement, I had monthly one on one meetings with my manager regarding my placement progress, any issues I might be facing, and any requests I had for the upcoming months. These meetings were really helpful for me as I would ask for feedback on my performance and apply that to my ongoing/new projects. Similarly, Cummins also offers a buddy/mentor system where you are assigned a buddy outside your department to discuss any issues you might have in your department, to seek advice from, and to learn more about other departments.
Apart from this, I also felt extremely supported by my other senior colleagues as they were always willing to help me with my projects.

Cummins has a great company culture and it is directly reflected through the employees. I truly enjoyed going to work everyday since everyone was so amicable and helpful. I made a lot of friends who were also on placement/ in similar roles as me. This made it much easier for me to fit into my placement and this job role due to my colleagues. The training I received from my seniors were extremely informative and played a huge role in me deciding which sub division I would like to specialize and continue working in. I, also, felt that Cummins had a very social workplace since everyone was very welcoming and patient with me as a placement student still learning about the company.

I enjoyed every single bit of my placement. Working on various projects with different departments and observing how it contributes to the company was so interesting to me, as before this I had only seen the workplace through the lens of my degree in engineering. Moreover, we would also have fun workplace events like Christmas dinners, volunteering together, etc., all of which made my placement a memorable and valuable experience. I knew, almost immediately, that I would want to come back here for my graduate job.

Yes