Aerobloggen

The first days in Newington has passed without any disasters for me and Anders. I have survived driving in five-lane highways, service visit from our Internet supplier since my router wouldn’t start and gigantic pasta portions at one of near located lunch restaurants. We came to the US Thursday evening after 15 hours of travelling. After a couple of days suffering from jet lag we were ready for the first day at our sixth, final and longest internship. We will stay for three months this time and I think I speak for both me and Anders when I say that it will be nice to actual stay a little longer at one place this time. It is harder than one might think to change work place, work task and colleagues every sixth week.

GKN Aerospace Newington, or GANE as it is abbreviated, is located close to the city of Hartford in the state of Connecticut. About 120 employees spend their days here so it is a much smaller site than Trollhättan. They manufacture among other enormous fan cases (the large parts in the very front of a jet engine). They also receive some products from Trollhättan, which they machine and then send back to Sweden. Here, I am working with the quality department and will work closely together with a guy called Ryan. Together we will perform a quality project which will continue when I have gone back home. I have these days taken some responsibility for the project leading, something I specialized myself within during my master and therefore finds really interesting! It is always fun to be using theoretical knowledge in practice!

Besides working we are off course hoping for some sightseeing in beautiful New England and experience some American social life. We have already been visiting Mark Twain’s house in Hartford and had an “Happy Hour” with some of the colleauges from GANE and the nearby site in Manchester.

Until I write here again, I wish you a good time!

Well, then it’s only me and Martin left.

Now taht the other trainees have left the country, it’s only me and Martin left in Trollhättan, if you exclude every other non-trainee. A little bit less stressfull, fewer meetings and perhaps a bit more boring?

But I believe we shall manage! Now that the visa application process is done, the accommodation booked, car booked and information regarding starting date and time, dress code etc. is sorted out, I believe it’s time to take a step back and relax for a moment. I’m ready for Cincinnati, the question is though, is Cincinnati ready for me?

The last few weeks have been busy with trips, meetings, planning and a couple of presentations.

Talking about presentations… We presented our trainee assignment for a group of people from various departments and positions within the company. The assignment we received half a year ago tasked us with finding out and investigating what trends in the society that affects the choice of employer for newly graduated young students, as well as what expectations they have on the company and how well GKN Aerospace in Trollhättan meets these.

I can’t say anything else but that the presentation was a success! We got really positive feedback from people from the shopfloor, from our departments as well as managers and company board members!

It will be most interesting to see what kind of changes the company will go through these following months and whether or not our analysis and presentation will have had any impact!

Next time you’ll hear from me will be from the land of the free…

It is now really close to departure to the great land in the west, as half of the young graduate group is leaving for the US in next week. Cecilia and I are going to Newington in Connecticut, where we will spend our three month long internship abroad. Everything needed for the trip should now finally be in order, after quite some time and effort to get apartment, rental car, internship position and visa arranged. The last preparation was therefore a visit to the US embassy in Stockholm for the mandatory visa interview.

The site in Newington has been a part of GKN Aerospace since 2005, but then under the Volvo Aero name. Due to this, many Swedes are working there on a permanent basis and it has been rumored that the site has been somewhat Swedicized, but I still hope to experience some American culture also in the office (read: doughnuts and Casual Fridays). The fact that the city is 1,5-2 h from both New York and Boston will probably not make the stay any less fun. The cultural experience is actually a major reason to our stay abroad during the graduate program.

Looking forward to reporting here again when I have been on-site for some time!

Last Thursday, something rather unusual happened here at GKN: 45 girls of ages 13 to 19 years came to the company! The mission of the day was to explain the question that always appear – what does an engineer really do?

The visit was arranged in collaboration with the voluntary organization IGE Day, where IGE stands for “Introduce a Girl to Engineering”. The purpose is, as the name applies, to get more women to the engineering profession. GKN is probably not unique with more male engineers and operators than female, and even if the number of female engineering students is growing in Sweden, the most people I have spoken with agree that we need more women in the engineering business.

However, the number of women in the business you can discuss forever, but the focus of the day was of course on the exciting girls that had arrived! Most of them were there together with their class and their teacher, but some of the girls were there on their own. At arrival at 9 AM they got some fruit and juice which they brought to the aula where I greeted them welcome. Thereafter some of our female engineers spoke about their background, their way to the engineering profession and what they do today. After the presentation we went together to our big gymnastics hall to find out how you can think when you are about to develop a product and produce it.

The girls were divided into teams and got instructions to fold one paper plane each. A deep concentration and silence appeared in the hall when all the girls got to work. Each team tested their paper plane and the planes that flew the longest were chosen to be further developed. The teams created a drawing of how their plane was folded and was then assigned to mass produce the plane according to the drawing. They also got to divide the folding among them and was asked to takt the production flow, all according to Taylor’s principles and the LEAN work of GKN. The teams also got to switch drawings with each other to try to understand someone else’s drawing, something that is not always that easy. After one hour the hall was full of paper planes and it was time to move one to the next activity…

Again our visitors were divided into groups, but this time the groups were departed. The girls in the ages of 12 to 15 were sent to our Industry School which lies in our manufacturing facilities where Magnus Ek took them for a guided tour. They were also given a metallic ring and got their names written on them.

The older girls went either to one of our lecture rooms with computer or to the material lab. The latter group were introduced to the microscopes and learned about how metals look like up close. The group in computer lecture room got instead to try our CAD software. It turned out to be harder than it looks like but most of the girls were engaged in the task with enthusiasm and talent.

After the group activities the girls were offered lunch and then the visit was over. Some journalists from the local newspapers were invited and interviewed some of the girls, who thereafter happy went back to their schools. Did we succeed with our mission to explain what an engineer does? We think so, based on what some of the girls commented in the end of the day. Hopefully we have inspired some of them to choose engineering or technical educations in the future!