Aerobloggen

This is the dream. I want work to be this way every day.

Today that’s what it felt like! We were at the SAAB museum and talked about engineering with kids still in school. It went so well that afterwards we spontaneously did a high five. Luckily there was a photographer there that managed to capture this incredible moment.

 

Six months ago I landed in Sweden with no idea what to expect from life and work here. I didn’t know who I’d be working with, what I’d be working on, or what life would be like in Trollhättan. This past six months have been filled with all sorts of amazing experiences, but now it’s my time to go back home. All good things must come to an end, and that’s true for both my time in Sweden and for my time as a GKN trainee.

Learning about Swedish culture, at work and otherwise, has been an absolute joy. One of the advantages I’ve found by being in Sweden during the winter it’s, despite the bad weather, given me insight into parts of Swedish culture that would lost on those who visit during the warmer months. This includes the julmarknad, Christmas market, where one can buy gifts for the family as well a variety of food and drinks, such as; glögg (mulled wine), sill (pickled herring, a classic), reindeer, älgkorv (moose sausages) and other tasty treats. These foods might end up on the julbord, Christmas table, the traditional spread of foods families feast on during Christmas. We were lucky enough to join with our trainee friends, current and former, to try a julbord at their St. Lucia celebration, a two-for-one Swedish tradition learning opportunity. Another small detail of Christmas time were the lights almost everyone placed in their windows, giving every town in Sweden from Malmö to Kiruna a cozy Christmastime feel.

At work, I found many cultural differences. The first, of course, was fika! Fika is the wonderful Swedish tradition of a work group coffee break with cake and/or pastries. Time on Friday afternoons comes to a stop when everyone assembles for our weekly “Fredagsfika”. This is in contrast to the American tradition of Friday donuts or bagels, where no one is taking time off, nearly the amount of time it takes to eat a donut. Sometimes an enterprising coworker, or their spouse, will make their own cake or pastry for fika. I myself made brownies and snickerdoodles to add an American dimension to a Swedish tradition. All in all, my favorite fika treat has to be the kanelbulle, the Swedish cinnamon bun. Another cultural aspect is idea of the afterwork. I had never spent time with my coworkers outside of work, so the concept of grabbing dinner or going bowling with my fellow trainees was a foreign concept to me. This is one tradition I’m hoping to bring back to the US. I really like the idea of getting to bond with coworkers in a non-work setting, I think it promotes good teamwork. The last cultural difference isn’t so much a tradition, but more of activity. With a gymnasium on site, coworkers will gather three days a week to play innebandy (floor hockey). I joined nearly every time I could, and will tell you that despite being a technically non-competitive game, things get intense! I’m almost 100% positive this type of thing would never happen in the US, with coworkers getting injuries like twisted ankles relatively often, or using body defense against your boss.

Before this post gets too long, I want to summarize the places I’ve been to and the things I’ve seen. Over the past 6 months I’ve been to Gothenburg a fair share of times, Stockholm three times, Kiruna in Northern Sweden twice, Copenhagen, Oslo, and a whole slew of countries and cities on our Eurotrip. I’ve visited the SSC, OHB, GKN Fokker Aerostructures, ESA, GKN driveline in Paris and Safran on study visits. My sister and later some of my friends from home came to Sweden and allowed me to show them this amazing country. In short, it’s been an action packed and eventful six months. Six months I’ll remember for the rest of life.

Lastly, a small list of things that annoyed me about Sweden, because no where’s perfect. Number one, the prices. Good lord, living in Sweden is expensive. How does everyone dress so nicely and feed themselves at the same time? Is 80% of your income spent on food and clothes? Number two, speaking of dressing nicely, Swedes are too good looking. No one wants to feel unattractive for 6 months straight. Sometimes I seriously feel like the worst dressed person in this whole country. Lastly, topics of discussion. Yes, there are in fact things to talk about besides the weather and the “new” coffee machines they put in two months ago.

All that’s behind me now, for in a few short days I make my return to San Diego. Soon I’ll step off the plane into the warm Californian sun, and step forward into the next chapter of my career here at GKN.

Nick

We had the pleasure of meeting Didunoluwa Obilanade, a graduate from GKN Aerospace in Filton! He works with AM and has been in Sweden for a classified project. We will actually meet him again in a few weeks when we’re going to England.

I think Didunoluwa thought it was nice to meet us too, he wrote this on Yammer:

“Back in Filton AMC after a great week learning from the Prometheus Engine team in Trollhättan. Whilst I was in Sweden I arranged to meet with the GKN Trollhättan Trainees, my Swedish counterparts. They hosted me with some delightful ‘Fika’ as we discussed the range of project work that we’ve been doing during our graduate schemes, how they differ and the importance of taking time like this to network and learn about the activities of our sites. In fact two of the trainees are currently on the American GKN graduate program, doing their international placement in Sweden, hence this was a very global graduate networking session. The Trollhättan trainees will be visiting the UK sites in March and I’m much looking forward to hosting them during their visit to the GKN Bristol sites.”

Andreas, what do you think is the most important thing for a company? For a quality engineer, the answer is easy: the customer! In order to proclaim my love for the customer, I have composed a letter that shows my appreciation. (An owner usually thinks that return on equity or another boring figure is more important. But who would want to write a love letter to return on equity?).

Dear Customer,

We love you. We could not live without you. We do not know what we would do without you. You are the reason we exist. Our entire business aims to give you what you want. We start where you have a need and do not end until you are satisfied. All we want to do is to create value for you. We think of you every day, we worry about you and wonder how we can help you. We base our whole self-esteem on what you think about us. Please, love us back. Occasionally, we make mistakes which may disappoint you, but do not lose faith in us. We will reward you many times over if you trust us and give us the chance to perform. Please give us a second chance.

I would like to end with a quote from someone wise.

“[The customer] is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

Customer, we love you.

Forever yours,
A secret admirer

Andreas,

Have you ever wondered who’s making cars drive? Apparently it’s GKN! Like Aerospace is saying “making things fly”, Driveline’s slogan is “we make cars drive”. Can you guess GKN’s hypothetical vacuum cleaner company slogan?

“We make things suck!”

We visited GKN Driveline outside of Paris to learn more about our sister company. It was a great visit. Among others we met the site manager, a program manager, a commercial manager and an engineering manager. They told us about their business and showed us some of their contant velocity joints and drive shafts while providing advanced technical explanations for how they work. It was really fun to meet these inspiring people. We are forever grateful for their hospitality. I can recommend you go there.

You would recognize the atmosphere of the company well. Like Aerospace, Driveline emphasizes high quality, innovation and advanced technology. The biggest difference between companies, except the fact they make gadgets for cars and we for aircrafts, is the coffee. We were offered great coffee which was served with heavy cream. Be sure to get a cup when you are there.

I have spent the past 20 years of my life in school. I have learned a little bit about anything: everything between heaven and earth. “Knowledge is Bliss” as you know.

I completed my engineering studies a few months ago, marking the end of my formal education. However, it does not mean that I stopped developing. First of all, I’m still attending school of life, which I’ll never escape. Secondly, I learn new things every day here at GKN. Imagine the privilege of learning at work by working on fun and challenging projects. That possibility is one of the reasons I’m doing this trainee program. (As you know, the biggest reason is that I can kickstart my blog career through the program.)

This week I have been thinking very much about my personal development. This is partly due to the fact that over the past two weeks we have had Training Days here at the company. This means that we have attended a variety of courses and lectures. You can read more about that in Philippo’s blog posts a few days ago.

The second and more important reason why I was thinking about my development this week is that my dear fellow, Andreas Åhwall, left us yesterday. He has moved on to Fokker and will be gone for six months. It made me reflect on the wise advice Andreas has conveyed. He helped and supported me during my first time at GKN, and trained me to become a better runner (Andreas is professional runner. You can read more about Andreas here).

It’s always hard to say goodbye to a good friend.

Andreas, we miss you. Good luck in Holland!

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!