Production, control and logistics improvement student Review

As a production, control and logistics improvement student I carried out activities revolved around improvements in the whole plant. This includes layout changes, improvements in efficiency such as work around AGVs and pick to light to improve operator efficiency and working on lean manufacturing principles to reduce waste in the plant as a whole, this included wasted time through missing and incorrect parts, loss of money through scrapped parts and wasted time through unnecessary movement that could be improved.

At the start of my placement a lot of work was checked by my supervisors to ensure I did a good job, which was normal. As I started to grow in my placement role and gained trust amongst managers I was given a lot of responsibility especially with huge projects, layout changes and workshops that had a real impact on the business, not just in the plant but as a whole business group. The responsibility enabled me to see that the sky was the limit and helped me to gain knowledge within placement.

One of the skills I have developed through my placement was skills I had learnt at university, including theories like lean manufacturing, kaizen and Gemma theories that I had learnt at university I was able to apply them in a real life work environment and develop them to use to my advantage. Furthermore the new skills I have learned included inter personal skills, team working and just overall confidence enabled me to grow as a person.

I received a lot of support from the improvement engineer at the plant, he helped me to see a bigger picture, something I wasn’t able to see at the start. He helped me to grow my skills and helped me to grow as a person as he was a student in another country. Given the experience he had gone through he was able to support me, he gave me individual projects and would let me get on with it. Furthermore the support from the department and warehouse manager was also helpful as it showed me that I have what I need to grow.

The company culture and general atmosphere was dependable. Carrying out regular improvements was good for the office but a lot of workers in the plant were confused when changes were happening, meaning the culture and general atmosphere was changing on a day to day basis. This caused difficulties as a lot of workers would be frustrated understandably with change that was happening.

I definitely enjoyed my placement at Forvia as a production, control and logistics student working in improvement. Coming from second year university and being unsure what career path to follow it was difficult to pick a career path, but this placement helped me pave the way that I would like to follow my career path. I was given responsibilities that other students in other companies weren’t given, and I had to deliver for them, which helped me to see what it would look like a real life environment.

Yes