Aerobloggen

Hopefully, nobody has missed that GKN Aerospace is visiting Chalmers career fair – Charm!

Its high time to apply for the next year graduate program, so come and visit us and bring as much questions as you can. On place, we have both current and old graduates who will help you to answer all your questions. They will try to help you with all your thoughts and concerns. They can also tell you a lot about the company and all the different ways that are going to be working at a company in one of the coolest industries!

See you there!

Hi!

My placement here in Trollhättan is quickly coming to an end my next placement got confirmed last week! I´m going to Shanghai in the beginning of April! 😀

My international graduate colleague David has already fled the country and kick started his placement in the UK were he seems to be settling in well. And soon it is my turn to start the same exciting journey!

In Shanghai I will be working at an IPO (International Purchasing Office) office in the city center. As an international graduate at GKN I get the opportunity to work at the four different divisions of GKN. The site located in Trollhättan belongs to the Aerospace division whilst in Shanghai I will be working in the Driveline division. It will be incredibly exciting and educational to get to work within the driveline industry which has a much higher tempo than the aerospace industry. The job will be focused on the forging industry in Asia and on how we can get Europe and America to choose Asian suppliers. I will be working within purchasing and business development where I will be digging into understanding the Chinese and Korean markets. A bit of focus on Japan and Thailand will also be within my job description. There will be a big focus on investigating and visiting suppliers as well as building and maintaining already existing contact networks, which I think is a very rewarding part of the job and I am looking forward to it a lot! Now the bureaucratic part of the process begins, namely applying for a working visa, finding a place to stay etc. I really excited! To be continued in future posts 🙂

Hello world!

I was thinking I should write a blog entry about the lectures that we’ve held for the ninth graders of Trollhättan during January. As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, each year the graduate engineers has a specific assignment. This year the purpose of that assignment is to increase the number of applications to the ITU-program, a high school program which is held in part here at GKN in Trollhättan. The ninth graders are currently choosing which high school they will go to so as a part of our project we’ve been visiting the schools of Trollhättan. During these lectures we have been trying to inspire the youth to choose a path towards a profession in engineering or technology. A great start on such a path is the ITU-program.

There has been groups of students who are very interested in what we have to say. These people are already considering studying to become engineers when they are grown up and this is very nice to see. There are of course also students who are completely uninterested in engineering and technology. These students are very hard to reach and to sway. However, there is also a group which is un-sure of what they would like to do. Some of these people show some interest and it is that group of people which we are trying to reach out to and inspire. We want to help them become more confident in trying out a path towards working with some kind of technology, for example engineering. We want them to apply to the ITU-program, which is a great start on such a path.

Yesterday a colleague pointed out that the statistics concerning the applications can be followed live and that you thereby can see how many has applied to the ITU program. One can then compare that number to that of the same period last year. The number of applications is currently doubled compared to last year. It pleases me to see that what we have done is reaching through to the youths and to know that we’ve succeeded in inspiring quite a lot of them to enter a path towards working with technology. We hope the number of applications will continue on the forecast that the number will be doubled. If the total number will be doubled compared to previous years we can be really proud of what we have accomplished!

 

Over and out

Joakim

Hello again readers, in my second guest blog post I want to share a bit more about what my current work, as well as reflect a little on the past few months, and look to the future for where I might be going next.

The present:

So, to business: what is it that I actually do here? I work in the engineering function, space rotors department, aerodynamics team. If I had to give my placement a title, I would call it something like “Product development of computational design tools”.

The first of my two primary objectives is to create a design tool to rapidly evaluate the robustness of concept turbine designs. To do this, I am automating the turbine design evaluation process in multi-objective optimization software. This involves building an automated workflow, which integrates our turbine performance analysis code with various processing scripts I have written. The idea is that the user can choose a base turbine design, and the tool will run a large number of slight variations on this base design through the performance analysis code to establish how robust the base design is (i.e. how sensitive the performance of the base design is to variation). This should greatly improve our ability to select robust concept designs, and should help GKN respond to our customers’ design questions faster.

My second main objective is to create a platform-independent gas state data processing program. This program can then be integrated into various other design tools and methods we have. For example, we could call the data processing program during an aerodynamics CFD simulation to analyse the gas state properties over time.

I have enjoyed these main objectives a lot over the last few months, as they have involved a great deal of problem solving and learning new things – skills that I love to use and make me excited to get up in the morning! The rest of my time is taken up with admin, graduate development tasks, and preparing for an upcoming new objective of running computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations on one of our components.

The past:

A lot of interesting things have happened over the last few months, the most interesting being the graduate visit to Europe in December. During this trip, we visited Fokker, ESA, and ASL in the Netherlands and France. I greatly enjoyed these visits, as well as the team building aspect of spending a week on the road with my fellow graduates. Perhaps surprisingly, we managed not to kill each other despite spending a full 9 days with 8 people in a minivan driving across Europe. I think I speak for the whole group in saying that we had a very positive experience and are grateful to Magnus Hallberg and others in GKN Sweden for facilitating this week.

The future:

We are very fortunate to be planning a second visit week in late February, this time to the UK. Here we will meet Nigel Stein and Kevin Cummings for Q and A sessions, which I think will be an invaluable insight to the top flight leadership of the company. We will also visit various GKN plants across the country. Furthermore, we are being joined by our American counterparts on the graduate scheme, a good opportunity for networking and hearing about GKN across the pond.

I’ve now crossed the half way point of my time in Sweden, which has led me to turn my attention to placement number two. There are some interesting options being discussed, including joining the legal team, communications and marketing, or moving into the driveline side of the business. Last week I had a really positive discussion with our director of intellectual property in Redditch, so I could be working on protecting our inventions and overcoming patent infringement issues soon – watch this space!

Neil

Just as at the university, GKN Aerospace offers a broad range of societies to engage in outside working hours. With activities reaching from arts and equites all the way to floorball and orienteering, there is something to explore in all fields of interest. Moreover, GKN promotes and supports all employees to exercise by the means of providing a gym and a sports hall at our premises free of charge, together with a number of group training sessions held every week.

As a GKN young graduate, and also a part of the Swedish national team in athletics, I of course want to take part in as well as contribute to this exercise culture. For that reason, I will during this spring lead a series of core strength session, with focus on muscle groups crucial for long distance running. The premiere session was held last week and became a great success! Over fifty GKN employees showed up to sweat and have a great time together after completing the day´s work. A perfect opportunity also for me to get some discipline into the very much important strength training which otherwise is far too easy to miss out on. Four graduate engineers attended the first class, but I’ll leave it out for now which other four the dodging second half consisted of. Tomorrow, a new chance is given to everyone to prove their commitment when the second session of the year is scheduled!

Do you know what day it is today? The day when the career fair at Luleå University of Technology takes place – LARV!

GKN Aerospace is of course represented. Former graduate engineers Claire and Hanna are present at the fair. GKN Driveline in Köping is represented by Johan and Pelle. Do not hesitate to talk to them, ask questions and be curious! They will help you with all your concerns and thoughts. They can also tell you lots about the company and all the different roads that leads to the possibility of working at a company active in one of the coolest industries!

Hi

Last Friday, we had an nice visit of the young graduates at ABB from Ludvika. It’s very fun to meet other young graduates that are in a similar situation as oneself, to discuss and exploit each other’s experiences and learnings.

At their visit, we presented ourselves to each other, our companies and businesses, and also the scheme for our graduate programs. There were several similarities, but also some interesting differences which felt developing to discuss as it supported to develop a broader view of how we utilize the graduate programs in different ways. Afterwards, we got to participate in an interesting presentation about GKN Aerospace´s strategies and market we operate within. This was followed by a shop floor tour in the manufacturing facilities to present some of the products we manufacture here in Trollhättan.

To be a young graduate and have this possibility to meet different people feels very valuable, as one can continuously expand once national and international network. I am confident that this network will be highly valuable for my future career. Are you interested to also create one of these networks? Then you hopefully know that it’s time to apply for the young graduate program starting next autumn.

What happens this week you may wonder, and how does a regular week look for a young graduate? Well for me, this week starts with meeting and interacting with students in a junior high school here in Trollhättan to talk about technology driven occupations. This is followed with two courses I will attend within GKN, one about blisks and one of negotiation techniques. In addition I will also participate in a few internal interview meetings with some of interesting people within the organization. Furthermore I will meet with some people and try to plan the next intern period, and which learnings and assignments we hope to achieve. In parallel to this, I will continue to work with some of the projects I am involved within, so there is a lot to attend to – the pedometer in the mobile continues to tick on. It’s almost as if you don’t need to utilize the free fitness center available for all employees, but how can you pass out on that when some of the gym classes are held by our young graduate colleague and national team runner Andreas?

Keep following the blog, and I will promise you that soon it’s time for our British graduate colleague Neil to write another guest post.

All of the trainees each have a responsibility, something to keep an extra eye on, and mine is thesis works and career fairs. It is up to me to keep track of those things surrounding the fairs; making sure there is material to bring to the fairs and assist those who will represent GKN. The responsibility regarding the thesis works mainly concerns making sure the new thesis workers are welcomed to the company and providing them with the possibility to get to know each other (and the trainees). Every other week we all have lunch together and usually we are a big awesome group!

Many thesis workers have started now in January and it is going to be loads of fun getting to know them. Some of them may well be accepted to the trainee program and, in a few months, writing a blog post of their own to the trainee blog!

There are so many areas in which you can do your master’s thesis here at GKN. Just to mention a few there is design, quality and production. In addition, we have a materials laboratory where you can seek challenges as well as a research department located at PTC (Center of Production Technology) in Trollhättan. At PTC they, among other things, research and develop new production methods and especially Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an important part of their work.

As you might have noticed, we offer great opportunities to finding your area of interest – and it is not only applicable to thesis work but also when applying for a job! Thesis work can be a great way to a certain area of knowledge or a company, but it can also help you realise what you don’t find that interesting. Shortly, it is a chance for you to understand what type of job you want to apply for or which company you want to be a part of.

Do you want to work at the cutting edge of aerospace industry, with groundbreaking technologies in a global market? Do you wish to develop yourself in a grand and internationally renowned company, which at the same time is small enough for you as individual to make great impact?

If so, you should definitely apply for the GKN Aerospace Young Graduate Program in Trollhättan, a success ever since the start in 1986!

Have you been following the fortunate seven of us here on the trainee blog, and enviously wished you also were a part of such a wonderful group of young and enthusiastic engineers? Are you eager to test your skills in many different operational areas, to get to know an entire business from inside, to continuously grow and develop, to advance your leadership skills and last but definitely not the least go on exciting business trips where you get the chance to meet people from other companies within the aerospace business? Now is your chance to be one of the chosen few!

The application for the position as one of this fall’s young graduates is now open. Apply here!

We are looking for applicants who:

• Are recently graduated Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Material Technologies, Engineering Physics, Industrial Engineering and Management or equivalent
• Are fluent in English and Swedish, both spoken and written
• Have a high level of interpersonal skills and an ambition to always strive forward
• Previous leadership practices are meriting

The GKN Aerospace Young Graduate Program in Trollhättan started in 1986 and we now celebrate 30 years of success. During these years our graduates have continuously advanced to take management positions and key responsibilities within the organization. As you probably already have learnt by following this blog, the purpose of our graduate program is too give newly graduated engineers the best possibilities to grow both professionally and personally in a stimulating international business environment. As a graduate engineer you will be given the chance to work with product design, manufacturing engineering, material technologies, procurement, logistics and quality. The ultimate goal is to give you a broad range of experiences and the best possible preparation for a future position as a manager or specialist within you own area of interest and expertise.

Just as for us current young graduates, you will start your placement with 12 months at the Engine Systems headquarters here in Trollhättan. This first year will be equally divided among 4-6 work rotations within this facility. The individual placements are interspersed with so called activity weeks where the graduate group as a whole, on top of leadership training events, is given the chance to travel and connect with experts and managers from leading companies within the European aerospace industry. The graduate program is then completed with a 6 months placements at one of GKN Aerospace´s sites abroad, which gives you the chance to work throughout Europe, USA or Mexico.

We graduate engineers of today are highly delighted with the program so far, and we heartily recommend everyone interested in technology and leadership to apply. We are looking forward to receiving your application!

Hi

I have in earlier posts told you that I am currently working at the commercial military department at GKN Aerospace and since I am part of the International Graduate scheme I will be at this department until the end of March. That means that I am right in the middle of the export control project that I am currently managing. The project is going forward and we´re in a stage where the project team is mapping current state and future state of the processes, meaning that we look at how it is today and compare it with how we want it to be with a focus on export control and how the information flows through the company. This way we can identify holes in the processes that we need to fill, risks that we need to eliminate and unnecessary work that we can cut away. It is a great experience and sometimes a challenging task to manage a project.

Export control is a complex area that I am slowly beginning to navigate. On Monday the 9^th of January the export control society had invited its members to attend a one day education held by Scott Gearity. Scott has worked within the field of export control for over 20 years and has during that time educated and helped many companies and many people to get a better understanding of the complex, but very important, regulations that surround us who work with export control. The education was held in Odd Fellow´s building in Stockholm, a very old and beautiful building constructed in the 1620´s. The education focused on EAR (the European regulation) and ITAR (the American regulation) within the fields of crypto and the licenses and agreements that exist.

He brought up many interesting questions like how to handle the fact the more and more information is being stored in cloud based storage options. Within the area of export control it is very important to keep full track of which piece of information ends up where and who handles it. A cloud can have servers in many countries and it is practically impossible to keep track on who handles the servers. If a person stores data in a cloud that has servers located in several countries, can this then be considered an export of information? And in that case, who is liable for that export?

The Commerce department in the US decided that the servers’ providers cannot be held responsible for that export just as a phone company cannot be held responsible if one person decides to call another person and reveal classified information over the phone. Commerce also stated that it cannot be considered an export if a person sends, takes or stores data that is:

• Unclassified
• Secured using end-to-end encryption
• Secured using cryptographic modules
• Not intentionally stored in a country listed in the D5 country group

The D5 list of countries contains the US Arms Embargoed Countries:

Afghanistan, Burma, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, Cyprus, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Congo, North Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Belarus and Zimbabwe.