Global Manufacturing Engineer - Placement Review

My main role is to lead the teams understanding of the Business Unit's Industry 4.0 initiatives and technology's at both plant and corporate level. Further responsibilities include: Chairing and organising the Manufacturing Engineering I4.0 Meeting Global Manufacturing PowerBI dashboard maintenance ad upgrading Monitoring and managing the Global Manufacturing Support Team Microsoft Team Member of a UK based research and development project focusing on Augmented Reality hardware and software capabilities in manufacturing Tracking I4.0 projects through their progress and providing high level overviews of this to the corporate Manufacturing Team

Absolutely!! Regarding personal development we focused on improving the following skills in the first 7 months: Softskills Software (AutoCAD Mechanical, Teams, Excel, Powepoint and PowerBI) Time management Effective Communication I have then focused on the following skills for the second 7 months: Operations Excellence Global Manufacturing Standard Works (GMSW) Understanding Development Create a basic understanding of 6sigma and how to apply it Project Management Without having a specific personal development target I would say I have developed the following skills as well: Learning to negotiate How to create and apply manufacturing principles 7 step problem solving method

I have been made given rather a lot of responsibility considering the circumstances of my employment (14 month placement with no prior industry experience). This includes being responsible for tracking all of the business unit's Industry 4.0 project developments. Further I was given the honor of being the teams subject matter expert for additive manufacturing, augmented reality, remote assist and live data tracking technologies. This includes raising awareness, receiving training and providing training. I have also been asked on multiple occasions to be a representative of the whole business at multiple university open days.

The support and guidance from my team throughout has been great. Whichever area of my personal skills I have wished to improve they have been more than supportive in being so. As far as the whole business is concerned there is a real push on encouraging placements to look into other areas outside of their job specific role and also to attend training that is not directly linked to you. I also found the company have a very serious focus on reducing loneliness in this current climate which I'm sure all employees have struggled with through a very tough last few months.

The work demand can be rather difficult to manage if you are not willing to say no. This is something that I wish I had learned earlier. As with any workplace I came across members who wish to push you to your working capacity but I do believe most do this simply to help you improve and understand your own personal limits. When this happens it is very simple and easy to reach out to the support team who offer excellent time management courses. The fact that my placement has a flexi-time contract as well made the early morning and late evening global calls easy to accommodate. I have found them to be very inclusive of all and can genuinely say I have not met a single case of any kind of discrimination within my time with the company. The fact that employees are incentivized to spend half a day each year doing EEEC initiatives (charitable volunteering) on company time is something that I think should be done by all employers.

I find actual physical joy is difficult to come across when you are working remotely for your whole placement but this does not mean that I have not enjoyed elements of it. The fact that I have trusted with rather important projects and have been able to make decisions that have real monetary and efficiency consequences is certainly fulfilling. Within my role I have been able to pivot between multiple projects and also had the opportunity to be someone who attends meetings for nothing more than experience. This cases have very much helped me to decide which direction I want my carer to go.

Yes

Before you apply for the roll make sure that you are applying for the very specific one that you want. I applied to multiple roles but was asked to slim this down to just one. Where this is added pressure as you are made to put all of your eggs in one basket I found it to be a good policy as it meant I only had to attend one assessment day and complete one telephone interview. I would HIGHLY recommend reading the following book before starting a career in manufacturing: The Goal - A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox