Production Engineer Intern Review

The role of a production engineer involved tracking and analysing data to locate improvement areas for the manufacturing process of instant coffee. Once those improvement areas are identified, continuous improvement methodologies are utilised to improve the manufacturing processes. You will also explain any production losses in daily and weekly OPS meetings, and any actions that are to be taken in order to mitigate them. Other areas for improvement also include: yield, safety, energy, and material losses. As an intern, you are also involved in the student charity, raising money for a charity of your choosing.

I was given a large amount of responsibility during my internship. I had ownership of an entire area since day 1 and was solely responsible for improving it, reporting any issues, and ensuring efficiency targets were met. The large amount of responsibility was definitely overwhelming at times, but good for developing a sense of ownership and leadership to apply to future roles. I was also responsible for many projects going on simultaneously that extended past my area of ownership, such as energy reduction projects.

I have learned new skillsets that exist in most manufacturing environments. For example, i have gained experience in Root Cause Analysis (RCA), problem solving, data analysis, 5S, Autonomous Maintenance, continuous improvement, Power BI, excel, and presentations. Presenting is a big part of the role, as you have to present production losses daily/weekly to management and explain what actions are to be taken to resolve them in the future. You also develop your communication skills by interacting constantly with operators, technicians, maintenance, engineers, and management.

I believe the support was lacking during the internship. FMCG manufacturing is an area that wasn't explored heavily during my degree, and so i joined with very little knowledge in the area, and as such felt like the support offered should have been much more than it was. I was given ownership without any real training and often felt the team around me was too busy to support, and so was often stuck on issues that could be resolved much quicker with a team, and without additional stress. I felt often dismissed during the year from the wider team as a whole. The team you're placed on in the internship will have a big impact on the level of support you receive, with some close to none, and some giving you great support.

The general culture is very fast paced and reactive, and can be quite hostile at times of high stress. I think this will apply to most manufacturing settings, however, there was a clear amount of continuous conflict that occurred with the shift teams and management teams. I found it difficult to ask for support from the shift teams, like technicians or operators, and were often met with no support from them. As an intern, the authority you have is little, and as such you can't do much to get them to assist you without management's support, which was also lacking depending on the team you were in.

Overall, I didn't enjoy my placement year at JDE. I believe the overall support was lacking for someone completely new to the industry, and could be improved massively. The issues i often had that i raised were not dealt with effectively. The overall culture of JDE was quite hostile in its manufacturing area, however, was a lot nicer in its R&D and office roles. The role was certainly made harder than it had to be from the lack of support from both management and the wider shift team. Despite this, I believe its prepared me for any future role i may have, and i've learned a lot about FMCG manufacturing and picked up some valuable skills to help me in future applications. I believe in any role the experience will heavily depend on your immediate team, but i can only review based on my individual experience. R&D, finance, commercial and IT roles will are a much nicer environment than the manufacturing side of the business.

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