Aerobloggen

Hello, dear blog readers!

My name is Emma Winblad von Walter and just like two of my trainee colleagues, I have my educational background from LTU (If you want to read more about us, check out our personal presentations HERE). I have studied M.Sc. Industrial and management engineering where I have been taught to view problems from a wider perspective and having a holistic view, this is probably the reason why a young graduate program felt appealing to me in the first place.

I had no relation at all to GKN or the aerospace industry before I started working here, so it is mainly my interest and passion for technology that led me to this position. During my first weeks, I have had a lot of new impressions, especially since my knowledge about the technical parts is limited. But at the same time I am learning a lot and having great fun while doing it!

I am selected for the local trainee program at GKN with Purchasing as my home department. Each one of us trainees are employed under different home departments, where we also have our home department manager. This is my second week at purchasing and so far I have gotten a good impression! I am now mainly working with two different projects, both of which are linked to the handling of spare parts at the company, we can call them: • Project Dropship • Project Balken

For my first project, I am investigating the possibility of taking spare parts from supplier to company and then to customer instead of sending them directly from supplier to customer (so-called dropship). In my second project, I am investigating so-called “unclean spare parts” (spare parts used partly in production and partly as pure spare parts) to see if the current logistics solution can be optimized. I will tell you more about this in my next blog post.

I will be at my home department now for 10 weeks, after that we will have an activity week and then start a second trainee rotation, and so on. The other rotations are done in consultation with the home department manager who can recommend people to talk to or which areas are beneficial for a future role at the home department, which, in my case, is as a buyer.

After a bit of struggling, we are now up and running with the blog. We are aiming to upload posts approximately twice a week in order for you to get to know us as trainees and hear what we actually do at GKN, so keep your eyes open!

Until next time!

Emma

My home department work with operational quality. We make sure we achieve and exceed our customers’ demands and expectations. It’s fun work! Therefore many of the employees at the department have been working at GKN for several decades.

There are many reasons why we stay that long at GKN. One major factor is the work itself. Everyone I talked to think their work is stimulating and varied; two days are never the same. In addition, the work is challenging, which means they continually develop and learning new things. This means the work is never boring.

An important aspect for a good workplace is the leadership. The leader supports and delegates us in our work. This is possible because we are competent; in most cases, a co-worker is better at his or her job than the boss. Instead, the role of the leader includes communicating vision and strategy, as well as coaching and motivating us.

Last but not least, we enjoy working together! Our corporate culture permeates all interaction between us. We share a strong trust that enables us to collaborate efficiently and deliver good results.

I am the newest addition to the department and have been welcomed with open arms. I really enjoy it and look forward to my coming decades here on quality!