Aerobloggen

Hi dear readers!

As Merim described in his post, I am also on my last rotation of the graduate program, my abroad assignment. I am on a site located in Papendrecht, a small town in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands,  the products GKN manufacture are categorized into three different segments; Lightweight Aerostructures, Electrical Wiring Interconnections and Landing Gear Systems. These capabilities are distributed over four different sites, but there is currently a project of moving operations from two sites to Papendrecht to create a multi-technology center.

I am at the quality department in Papendrecht, working as the project lead for implementing new production requirements. These requirements are usually called SMS-requirements, where SMS is short for Safety Management System, and are a part of the regulation to obtain a Production of Approval (POA) certificate. To obtain a POA certificate means that the products produced are “approved of airworthiness” and the requirements are focused on introducing a proactive way of working to increase safety of products produced. The period for implementing these requirements is two years and my goal has thus been to gain momentum in the project.

In Papendrecht I am not the only graduate from our cohort, Amy and Erica from USA are doing their abroad assignment here as well. I have really appreciated them being here and it has been a lot of fun getting to know them better. About a month ago, we gave a presentation about the opportunities at GKN Aerospace and our experience of the graduate program to students from the university TU Delft during an on-site visit. Erica and I also went to TU Delft for a career event the other week where we had speed dating with several students and got to review their CVs. It is great fun to mix such activities into your work schedule.

A lot of fun happens outside of work as well. Since the flight from Sweden only takes about an hour, I have had the luxury of friends and family visiting regularly during the spring. Together with them, I have visited several different parts of the Netherlands, and of course seen TULIPS in abundance. Now there are only a few weeks left and even though it has been a lot of fun to experience all this, I am excited to go home to Sweden.

Until next time.