Week 10 Coyote Logistics

Week 10 at Coyote Logistics is coming to a close. Yesterday I had the opportunity to present my intern project to upper management, and I am very proud of my performance. We did a mock QBR for the customer accounts we have been working for this summer, and I think this project really helped to give me a full understanding of my customer.

One challenge that I had with this project was learning how to cater it to the customer, rather than to Coyote. Focusing on how we can better service the customer allowed me to use my creativity, and I think that I came up with good solutions to improve our business with them. I was also able to connect market trends to this QBR, and I did this to show how the market does affect our service with our customer. This wasn’t required in our QBR outline, but I think that management was impressed with this connection.

I am extremely grateful for the time I have had at Coyote Logistics, and I truly believe that this internship is setting me up for success in my future career path. I am keeping an open mind to my next steps, and I am excited to get back to school and finish my last year at MSU.

Week 10 Advance Auto Parts

This week I wrapped up my project and presented to my superiors. This was a cool experience and I am very glad I had this opportunity. After the presentation on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet with the highest up person in our region, the regional vice president. This was very cool because he worked his way up in the company from a retail salesperson to the regional vice president. After we met up with our regional vice president, we spent some time with our human resource guy. This is a position that I had not considered but him going through his day sounded quite interesting. He told us that he spends most of his day answering emails and following up on complaints, but he also does investigations of HR issues. The investigations sound interesting because he gets to travel around to stores and investigate the issue, find out what’s true and what’s false, then make a decision on what to do from there. After that I had a day off and I spent that interviewing with companies I applied at. I did two interviews and I have one follow up interview as a result, so I am preparing for that. On Friday I spent the day doing a ride along with a salesperson in Novi. This was a very wealthy market and it is relatively easy to upsell, but these markets are hit by a number of sales people so it’s hard to get your foot in the door sometimes.

Week 10 – DHL Supply Chain

This week, my primary focus was on the capstone event. This was a two-day event where all the executives VP’s, and managers meet with the summer intern class. Each group of interns presented their summer projects to these individuals with the hope that the company would implement their solutions. We also participated in speaker series, site tours, and networking events. My group was scheduled to present the morning of the second day of the event. I believe we practiced the presentation for a total of 30 hours, so we were very confident, leading up to the presentation. My group also had one intern who completed an internship with DHL last year, so we knew what to expect and the overall logistics of the event. We received great feedback from all of those who watched our presentation and were mentioned by a number of individuals for having the most successful presentation. Overall, I think this event/project was a great learning experience and helped me become more confident with my ability to deliver an excellent presentation as well as my ability to network. This event was a great learning experience that allowed me to connect with other interns across the country. All of those whom I talked to had different perspectives on the supply chain industry, and I am very fortunate I had the opportunity to be a part of an organization that hosts events like this. Next week is my last week, and I am going to look for any opportunities to challenge myself and learn more about the supply chain industry.

Week 8 Kroger Co.

This week, the In-Stock Flock (our group name) have been working on our project for the executives of Kroger. Our experiment to this point is working, and I am excited to see our results. Also, we finally had our volunteer event, which took a lot to plan and prepare for, but it was all worth it after learning we raised over $2,000.00 for a food bank named Gleaners. As a field coordinator, I was delighted to see our plan come together and people enjoying themselves at the event. My job during the event was to manage the mini-games with Jenna (a fellow Spartan in the supply chain management program), and it was fun to see all of the families enjoy themselves.

P.S. I am in the upper left hand corner in the picture lol.

Week 10 Michigan Sugar

This past week was a big week for Michigan Sugar because we dug the first pre-harvest samples in about nine different areas in the state. These pre-harvest samples consist of us digging 10 feet of sugar beets, cutting the tops off, and putting the beets into a burlap bag. When we get to the field, we walk in on the very edge of a field and count 40 rows from the edge of the field. Once we are standing over the 40th row, we walk in about 50 feet from the headland rows. We do it in this specific way because there are more pre-harvest samples that are done every two weeks after the first samples are taken. The following samples are done 10 feet down in the same row as the previous sample was done. Doing things the same with every field makes it easy for us to remember where our previous sample was taken. I rode along with one field consultants and sampled about 30 fields for our area. This process is done by all of Michigan Sugar’s field consultants.

On Friday, we also visited the Michigan State University farms to hang out at their Ag Innovations field day. There were nine different stations that we visited throughout the day and there was a lot of good conversations about precision agricultural technologies. The presenters talked about soil sampling, drone technologies, agriculture apps for smartphones, planter calibrations, sprayer technologies, and much more. We looked at different drone images that use 3D technologies to create a map that shows water flow and different water retention zones in the field. This technology is helpful for making decisions to tile fields. It is also good to know where the water tables in different areas of the field are so that fertilizer applications can be made in an efficient manner. Overall it was a fun day and we learned a lot about the advantages to having precision agriculture on the farm.

Week 10

As the summer comes to an end, I would like to take this blog to reflect on some accomplishments I have had this summer. Primarily, the multi-million dollar project my boss had me lead. This project consisted of the the reworking of 2 parking lots and a brand new front entrance. The parking lot portion is fairly simple in that there are not many trades involved with the process. First, a civil engineer was hired to help us gain a better understanding of the topography, codes, and irrigation standards. All aspects are required to meet city requirements and some things even require a permit. After the engineer became familiar with the land, applied for permits, and produced some drawings, we bid out 4 different contracts: site excavation, landscaping, asphalt, and concrete. My job is to ensure the job is done as quickly and with as little errors as possible. I feel we have done a great job in making that happen. Currently, we are getting set up to do the new front entrance. This is very similar to the parking lot job, but has one outside factor: there is a snow-melt system underneath. Because of this, we need a mechanical contractor, electrical engineer, and mechanical commissioning agent in addition to all the other trades that the parking lot had. I am excited to work diligently to ensure this project finishes in a timely manner with limited change orders.

Week 10 – Brose

Hello everyone, welcome to the 10th and final blog post of the class. Though the class is ending, my internship will continue until August 16th. This last week was a really busy week for me. Starting with the incidents we had: first we had trouble with a couple workers and their phones/social medias. Brose management had caught wind of some content going around of some employees doing some inappropriate things on the plant floor while they were supposed to be working. This breaks few rules. The first rule is that there are not supposed to be any phones out on the plant floor let alone during operation of production. Secondly, Brose is very confidential, therefore, you need permission to be able to take any pictures inside of the plant and not able to post them anywhere else. Finally, these employees were “horsing” at work and can give Brose a bad reputation if not handled properly. The next excitement took place when punishment had to be done. There were some minor threats from one party to another but had to be taken seriously and proper escalation and procedure was taken by Brose management/staff/security and the situation was taken care of. I like how quick and properly the Brose New Boston team reacts to situations like these to solve them peacefully.

This last Thursday, we had another ARGUS meeting. This time it was focusing on our Paint Line Area. During this, I was also assigned to do our next plant internal environmental audit on a production line and be able to present the results to the team the next ARGUS meeting. This will take place August 14th and I will be assisted by my boss Steve. On top of the ARGUS meeting, we I got assigned some pretty tall tasks for next week to prepare for our big ISO 14001 external audit. I am in charge of the battery change station and that was where we got hit with some non-compliances last year. Therefore, if we get hit for the same non-compliances, the minor non-compliance changes to a major. This puts a lot of pressure on me to succeed but I could not be more ready to take on this challenge. I am honored he gave me a pretty difficult area because that means my boss has faith and trust in me to get this done. On top of this, I was given some assignments to create a corrective actions excel sheet for our GEMBA walk findings, a plant environmental brochure for the auditor, my final internship presentation I am still in the middle of doing, as well as safety and security brochures for our plant. As you can see, I have been super busy but I absolutely love it. I have some important tasks ahead that will keep me busy until the end of my internship and earn me even more great work experience! It was awesome blogging my internship experience every week and thank everybody that may have read them, thank you!

Week 10

This has been an interesting week at Meijer being all by myself. My boss was on vacation so i had to find work for myself to do. I talked with a lot of the Meijer team leaders and they put me to work where ever help was needed. I did a lot of stocking because they were short handed on that and needed the help. My favorite part was working in the deli making pizzas because i could make any flavor i wanted to try and increase the sales. I made a bunch of bbq chicken because thats what the customers like and me as well. I also kept putting out samples all day to try and get people to try my pizza. Its the last week we have to work on our projects before we have to present to the executives at Meijer. Im just really looking forward to presenting so i can get it over with and tell them my ideas because i think i have some good ones.

Week 10 – Comcast

I had another great week at Comcast. I have become very comfortable in my role as a Fulfillment Intern and have learned a lot of useful skills that I can use in my professional future. For example, I have developed my communication, adaptability and multi-tasking skills. I am starting to prepare for my final presentation that I will give at the Comcast regional office in Plymouth. The other interns and I had a conference this week with the Vice President and Public Relations and she gave us a few tips on creating an effective presentation that gets the audiences attention. I have finished my presentation on powerpoint and have been smoothing out the details. The Human Resources team has scheduled one last networking event with the Directors and above of the Heartland Region of Comcast. I’m looking forward to expanding my network within the company and introducing myself to individuals who can help me with a full-time position after graduation. Overall, I have enjoyed my experience with the company and am excited for my future.

Week 10 – MSU Ag Bio Research

This last week was a very nice wrap to my internship. I ended the week with a three day course in holistic management that was open to the public to enroll in. it included and went over all of our holistic management methods that we incorporate into our farm and ways that people could take the same. Similar, or different approaches and still run a successful and efficient farm. There were lots of times throughout the course that I was teaching the class our grazing methods and ways we go about caring for the land and the animals. This was very unique and special to me because I had never really been in a position before where I was in charge of leading this many people and have them all be so interested and astounded at what I had to say. This was a good way for me to improve on my public speaking and my problem solving skills. I was speaking to a large group of strangers and also speaking to people individually when they had questions throughout the class. I found this to be of great importance to me because I was able to develop and improve on my actual job skills in a real life setting that will hopefully carry over to when I am looking for a career after I graduate. I was very happy and pleased tow rap up my internship on that note and felt that I left on very good terms with the company and the employees. I learned a lot throughout my internship and had a lot of eye opening experiences that helped me become a better and more rounded job candidate overall. Going into my senior year I feel that I am more well prepared for the job force and ready to seek out some jobs.