Aerobloggen

Happy Valentine’s Day, dear beloved blog reader!

In these times of love, I send you a warm and hearty greeting from Holland. I know you have all been wondering how I, Joel and Joakim are doing here. Unfortunately, I cannot speak on behalf of my dear friends, but they indeed seem to be on top of the world when we meet every now and then down here. Anyhow, here’s a long-awaited guest blog post from me!

Since the end of October / November, I am located in southern Holland, just outside the country’s second largest city Rotterdam. More precisely, I live in Dordrecht, which is actually the oldest city in Holland and accordingly very cozy. Right in the middle of the old charming neighborhoods, I live in an astonishingly nice apartment. So nice, that during the Christmas holidays I even went back here in time to throw an epic new year´s celebration together with Joel, Jocke, David, Neil and a crew of other friends we´ve got to know down here.

Every morning I do a five minute walk through the beautiful city center and then take the ferry across the river to Fokker Aerostructures in Papendrecht. This site constitutes the headquarters of the Fokker division and in the near future also for the entire GKN Aerostructures. Here I am involved in two projects that both concerns the production of fuselage panels for a new business jet. In one of the projects, we are developing an industrial infrastructure to handle the large metal sheets that are then assembled to the complete aircraft. With sheets over 5m in length, only 0.4mm thick and furthermore with a large amount of holes and perforations, you understand that it is clearly a challenge to lift and transport these fragile products. My role is project support, which means that I am responsible for planning and follow-up on the project, as well as ensuring that all deliverables are covered by the respective sub-projects. It is an interesting work and a very valuable experience for future project manager assignments. The second project is the manufacturing of the very first shipset of the above-mentioned panels, and in this work I am responsible for the daily planning of a segment of the production. A very much challenging task with virtually daily changing conditions arising from customer needs and internal production!

All in all, I am very pleased with life in Holland and I have met many nice people and spent some fun weekends with my Swedish colleagues. Now I also finally start feeling that spring is in the air, and since I will stay here all the way until the end of April, I’m sure that I have many wonderful excursions and adventures to come where I can discover even more of what this country has to offer!

On Monday it was once again time for some cultural exchange with our American graduates and this time Super Bowl was in focus. To not ruin our beauty sleep when the game was aired on Sunday night we saw it on Monday at Nick’s place instead. It was a chill evening with food, drinks and top class company. Maybe it was good that Philadelphia Eagles won the game since Nick would probably have thrown us out otherwise 😀 

GKN was this week part of the work fair CHARM which is held at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Next week on Tuesday are we going to be part of Linköping University’s equivalent, LARM. Come by and say hi if you are in the neighborhood! We will also visit GKN Driveline in Köping and the graduates at ABB and SAAB, but more on that next week.

Now it’s time to go out to the machines and listen to the Friday song!
Have a good weekend!
/Maria

Best blog readers,

This will most likely be my second last blog post in Trollhättan and now you are probably wondering where I’m going next but I will not tell you about that yet. So keep visiting the blog 😊

One of the benefits with being a graduate engineer is to meet with managers all over the organization. Personally, this is something I really enjoy and I think the rest of the graduate group agrees with me. You learn a lot about the organization and what each department is working with as well as seeing very different types of personalities. This is something I find very interesting and after reading the book “Surrounded by idiots” (I’m recommending everyone to read it!) it becomes even more clear how different everyone is.

/Signe

For more than 250 years, the fundamental drivers behind economic growth been technological innovations. The most essential ones have been innovations which economics referred to as general technologies, a category of inventions which includes the steam engine, electricity, internet and the combustion engine.

Each general technology has induced a wave of complementary innovations and possibilities. For example, the combustion engine have given rise to cars, trucks, airplanes, chainsaws and lawnmowers. These have in return enabled shopping centers, supply chains and even suburbs. Many claim that the most vital general technology today is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and in particular Machine Learning (ML), which is the ability of a machine to learn patterns based on large quantities of data.  

But why is this so important? Every day we perform tasks where existing patterns are too hard for the human intellect to discover. ML-systems are very good at finding these patterns and present correlations we have never seen before. Most often these algorithms achieve “superhuman performance”, which in short means that the algorithm’s performance outstand humans ability. 

GKN are actively working with implementation of Machine Learning in large parts of our organization. My focus right now is on AI initiatives within production, but initiatives has also started within our product development.

Hi again everyone,

It’s been a while since last time, so I was thinking that I would give you a small update of what has happened since then.

I have completed my projects during my first rotation at purchasing and now started at my new department, which is none less than Logistics Development! Here I have Martin as a manager, who actually is a former trainee. He knows everything about GKN and is a master of both excel and simulation tools, so I learn a lot only by being here. At logistics development I am currently working with two different projects:

For my first project, I will draft a layout for a department at the company to simplify packaging management. I will also review the fixture storage and see how we can streamline all this to make it easier for operators.

In my second project, we aim to optimize our industrial structure throughout our site in Trollhättan. I therefore work a lot with flow and coating data, trying to connect this to quality data, and identify any bottlenecks in production. It is similar to some kind of data mining, which I have never worked with = super exciting!

In addition to our rotations, we also have a little extra responsibility for all new thesis workers who come to GKN. Yes, you heard right, you can do your master’s thesis at GKN! In fact, many employees at GKN have actually started their career here as thesis workers and then continued as either trainees or took a permanent position. So if you have not finished your studies yet and are looking for a thesis placement, GKN is an excellent option.

Right now we have a total of 25 thesis workers here who write their theses in different areas. Quality development, AM, industry 4.0 and welding operations are just a few examples of all the exciting focus areas you can dig into. Many of the students who come to GKN for their master’s thesis do not have any connection to Trollhättan but have a burning interest for the aerospace industry. Many therefore travel all across the country to do their theses at GKN. Some come two and two while others come completely alone, and it is our mission to make them feel welcome here. We do this by arranging a thesis lunch every other week and also organizing other activities outside of work every now and then. Many of the thesis workers started last week or the week before that, so we took the opportunity to organize an AW this Tuesday. We met at a tapas restaurant in Trollhättan where we ate lots of good food and got to know each other. We were over 20 people who stayed until late at night. A well-organized event can be said, and more will come!

/Emma

Hi there dear blog aficionados!

Now in the early morning as I am sitting on my commute from Gothenburg to Trollhättan, I am in a reflective mood, and with a smile on my face thinking back on the previous week. Of what one might wonder? Well, it certainly included intermingling, laughter and lots of pizza – in other words, the Inspiration Night!

Last Tuesday, 23^rd Jan, we young graduates arranged for an Inspiration Night for the local ITU-programme (High School programme of Industry & Technology). Over 30 interested pupils and parents joined us at this event, where they got the opportunity to ask questions, learn more about the GKN enterprise in Trollhättan and simultaneously get to know what opportunities and what the ITU-programme offer.

The evening started with an inspiring (of course) presentation held by our graduate Lisa, on education in general and within technical fields specifically, as well as sharing insights into the operations and enterprise of GKN – what we do and why that is important. Two outstanding teachers from GKN were also present – Magnus Ek and Per Ingemansson. They described the ITU-programme, shared interesting statistics, answered interesting questions and also presented what opportunities there are before, during and after ITU. Jonas Velander, a former student, was also present at the event and shared his colorful experience of the programme, which has led him to his interests and work today involving the RM12 jet engine for JAS Gripen.

Something that actually caught my attention, which I appreciate, is the flexibility in choice that ITU offers with both qualifying towards higher education as well as providing good practical hands-on experience during the time that you’re studying.

The evening was concluded with some fun intermingling and lots of pizza! It was nice to be able to speak with both parents and students, discuss education and listen to their thoughts and opinions in the matter – and gobbling substantial amounts of pizza while doing so!

We graduates are definitely repeating this event due to the positive response of the evening. Onwards, we are planning to also invite all pupil classes in secondary schools that wishes to join, and ignite even more interest for technology and spread the inspiration!

Until then,

Mr. P signing out!

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

Hello again blog lovers,

I have now left my project at the Quality department for a new project within Production. It’s so fun to gear up with steel hood shoes and safety glasses and to hang out with some machines! For the next 10ish weeks I’m going to run a project within Statistical Process Control (SPC) in one of our workshops. At Chalmers I did a Black Belt Lean Six Sigma training which reminds me, methodically, a lot of what I’m doing right now. It’s fun to see a real applicable connection between what I’ve learned at university and my actual job 😛

Besides the work I’m doing at my new department we graduates are in the middle of planning the spring with everything from company visits, internal meetings with managers to work fairs. A real mix of assignments!

Don’t forget to apply to the Graduate Program 🙂

Click here to apply to a Engineering position

Click here to apply to a Economist position

Dear blog readers.

Do you also want to be part of the exciting graduate program you’ve read about this last fall and winter? The applications for one of Sweden’s oldest, well reputed and prestigious graduate programs are now open.

As you’ve earlier read on this blog, GKN Aerospace Graduate Program offers an individual and special career path within an internationally respected company. The program lasts for 18 months starting in September 2018 where the first 12 months are performed at the Trollhättan site and the last 6 month somewhere else in the world. The time in Sweden is divided into 4-6 rotations within different departments of the company.

The graduates makes study visits, have their own “Graduate project” and attends various leadership courses. The last six months are sited somewhere abroad, at any of our own sites, suppliers or partners. The program requires strong motivation for the participants to plan and implement all activities themselves, while providing each graduate with a great opportunity to shape their future within the company. For more information about our activities, education and individual work, please read previous blog posts

As an applicant, you are:

• Determined to one day have a key position within your area
• Recently graduated from a masters program in mechanical engineering, engineering physics, industrial engineering or equivalent .
• Recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance or related majors.
• Interested to work with product or production development, technology, purchasing, logistics or quality.
• Fluent in Swedish and English.

Please apply to GKN Aerospace Graduate Program 2018 here. Good luck!

Click here to apply to a Engineering position

Click here to apply to a Economist position

As you have read in previous blog posts we graduates had the opportunity to visit interesting companies around Europe before going on Christmas holidays. We have travelled countless miles together in our mini-van, closer to 4000 km (!), where our second stop was in Papendrecht, Netherlands.

Of course, we wanted to take the opportunity to visit Fokker Aerostructures which have been a part of GKN Aerospace since 2015. We were met by Leo Mujis, Senior Manufacturing Engineer and general go-to-guy, who has a long and impressive experience within Fokker. He told about the company and its history and showed us around the production area. Fokker are leaders in manufacturing of empennages for business jets which we also got to see, impressive!

 Not to forget, Kasper and Signe also held a presentation about GKN Aerospace Sweden! Fokker wanted to hear about Engine Systems and what we do, which we more than happily did! They made a poster prior to our visit, look how dashing ;). We also got to meet Tim Jansen, Senior Engineer Specialist Stress, who very kindly had organized for the presentation. Around 30 engineers participated and asked a lot of curious questions. It was very much appreciated to meet colleagues from Fokker we must say!

During this time, Netherlands got an unexpected winter and raised a red alert, which unfortunately meant that we could not meet our graduate colleague Andreas Åhwall, who works at Fokker in Papendrecht at the moment, since he was stuck elsewhere due to a cancelled flight. We had all looked forward to be his guests, but instead had to rent a small holiday house close by. Despite all, fun adventures!

/Lisa