Well Guys …..Let me first tell you I m not very sure whether I am the right person to write on this topic. But yes of course, I can definitely share few things, which I believe, have helped me in getting PPO.
Deal coolly with ambiguity: Generally processes which are followed in industry, be it production/logistics or even IT, are complex (considering the fact that you have only 2 months). What one should do is, before summers starts, read as many articles as you can about the company. This will help you in getting familiar with the company. As far as processes are concerned, be practical. Don’t go into details of everything. But have an idea about all the processes, which you think, are going to have an impact on your project.
Theoretical knowledge always helps: Yes. It helps. By knowledge I do not mean one should be an expert. But at least you should know the tools & techniques in industrial engineering (Where to apply & how to apply). E.g. SWOT, FMEA, DMAIC, RCA, Process Mapping, Cost Benefit Analysis etc. These tools will help you in achieving the desired results.
Have Patience:At some point of time, I am sure, you will be blank. So was I.Don’t worry. We are not designed to do everything “First Time Right”. Check your basics. Discuss your project with friends. Talk to your guide. Most important - Talk to yourself. Apply your mind. You need to be patient coz only then you can apply yourself.
Communicate:Your problems, your approach, your solutions, your progress – everything needs to be communicated to concerned parties ( but professionally & through right channel , of course). Periodic communication will keep you visible (which is very much needed) & on track.
Be Presentable:in your work as well as your dressing sense. It makes easy for others to “receive” you.
Commonsense: Will solve majority of your problems. Be open to ideas. Don’t get biased. Let your opinion/analysis be logical, rational & based on facts.
Have faith in yourself.
So guys, gear up. Put your 100 %. Be true to yourself. Success is yours.
DO's Before Summers: Do a quick scan/revision of the relevant courses studied at NITIE which can help you during summers. It would be more apt if project title has already been shared with you. Otherwise also, you can brush through some important subjects like Material Management, Logistic Management, Statistics & Quality Management to name a few. The point is that you must know the common concepts & theory. Good command of Excel, PowerPoint & flawless Spoken English (used for day-to-day chit chatting) is always an add on. Impression Management: Its tough but that's how the world is. One need to show what he/she has contributed or is contributing (value creation/addition as they call it). So, first of all understand company's SOPs & Ways of Working & adapt as fast as possible. This will ensure you are following the right procedure to get things done in a hierarchical structure. All organization claim to have an open environment, flat structure, informal way of working etc. but these are not verbally true. You still need to be cautious and make your opinion about the real picture. Performance: No substitute for that. You must perform well (according to the expectations of the stakeholders) in given time & resources. Coz in the end, its only the Result that matters.
Make sure you are clear with the Scope/Deliverable of your Project Work
Most of the times, companies are looking for a fresh/innovative perspective from an intern to look at the present business practices. Whether possible or not, it should be registered somewhere that you have tried to do something new (whatsoever be the result).
Interact more with colleagues, even if its not required for the project. This will help in understanding the business & people of the organization.
Ask Qs: Don't keep your doubts to yourself. Identify some helping/capable people who can address your queries.
Keep checking your path: Frequent discussions with project team/guide/mentor will ensure there is no communication (expectation) gap in your project work. Keep your mentor/guide/coach in close loop about the proceedings of your work.
Alum Scan: Get information about NITIE alums working in organization, you can interact more frankly with them (generally). They can simplify things for you by giving important inputs about people, place & also your project work.
Try and associate yourself with the company. This loyalty would definitely reflect in your attitude towards the project work.
DON'Ts
Get caught Googling/Surfing non-relevant stuff on internet.
Pose you are completely ignorant of an important concept (subject/theory). It should be reflected through your gestures that you have a faint idea, but its not 100% clear. Show your pious intent to learn this thing to its depth, and get back with full information at the earliest.
Crib about company's work culture. After all, they have put in some amount of trust in you by selecting you as an intern.
Produce any fake/excessive bills. Travel, accommodation should not be viewed as a luxury the company is offering you, rather a business requirement; and hence same concepts of optimization & cost saving should hold good. However, nobody Qs this thing, but then its the ideal behavior one can showcase.
All the Best. Disclaimer: There can be more opinions & perspectives on such issues. Some of these are even derived out of the incidences that I had faced during my internship. There are two approaches: 1. Setting exceptionally high standards & try and move closer to them; 2. Set realistic targets and achieve them 100%. As per your convenience, you can choose either of these. But "be sure" about what you want to derive out of this 2 month association with the organization.
Warm Regards -- Manu Shekhar Post Graduate Student (Industrial Engineering) NITIE, Mumbai + 91-9833835041
Summers... This is a word which takes us in the different world when it comes to our mind. Whether it is loooong interviews during placements, or anxiety just before joining the company or hard-ships during the summer internship.
I am also not an exception in this case. I have also felt all these emotions and learnt lot of things from this. Here I am sharing few things which, I learnt from my experiences. There are few things which I followed and those helped me and there are things which I saw that was avoided to save my self during it.
Dos
Do Homework – The must one. Impress people with the knowledge about the company, products, locations or even share price. First impression remains in the mind of the managers.
Learn all tools you heard – Unless you know what they can do, you won't be able to use it properly in you project and it will be very difficult at that time to learn and deliver.
Be your own critique – Analyze your own solutions/ideas as it is worthless. You will come across lot of questions which are going to be asked by senior managers and before the final presentation, you will have the answers ready.
Practice the presentations – including running the projector – Remember, your two months work will be evaluated in 20 minutes only. Practice it multiple times and show it to your friends and buddies in your company. One more important thing, run your presentation with all stake holders before final one. So all doubts will be cleared and final one will just become the formality.
Discuss your knowledge and experience – Discuss your company matters with your co-interns, friends, seniors and company people. It will give you new ideas.
Be practical and be frank about your ignorance – People will like you to tell frankly that you don't know things rather than you make them fool initially and get caught later.
Make Buddies/Mentors in company – Buddies/Mentors in companies help a lot to know about company culture and style. Find any senior and ask them about company's work and style. They will love to give you "gyaan" J
Make relations with other interns – they tell more than your guide J – Other interns in different functions will be working in different areas. Sharing information with them helps you to get useful data when needed.
Try new things – stretch yourself – Don't be afraid of trying new things or work couple of hours more in office. You will be sure at the end of the project that there is no other solution better than yours.
Adopt company culture – Many companies take people whom they find properly adapted to the company culture. Behave as you are part of the company and you care and work for the company.
Give your 100% efforts – No comments required J
DON'Ts
Limit yourself to single solution – Usually the first solution what comes to our mind is the easiest, but not the best; and company want the best solutions.
Leave things for next days – Believe me, those works for those next days never ends and one fine day you realize that your project has been ruined.
Assume things about your project – Ask things which you don't understand or learn from other resources (company or college or Internet)
Pass time in leisure – These two months of experience takes you to your final placements also. My final placement has been 'won' on the bases of summer experience only.
Believe what company tell about practices – Some times company people just follow old facts/techniques or unpractical things. This step can make lot of changes in the company at the end.
Close your mind about the company – You may not want to join the company, but project will give you 'your' placement.
There will be more such DOs and DON'Ts for summers, but these are the points which I found helpful for my summers. Hope it will help people who are joining companies for summer internship.
Commonsense is not so common, be it a friendly discussion, a sarcastic comment by a high school teacher ... oops or a status message symbol on the chat window we all must have come across this phrase somewhere or the other. And like me, if you are also going back to find when did you last use this one liner, then nothing wrong in it. As this reminded me of an anecdote from my school days... During my early school days, a thought used to run through my mind quite often “why is it we are forced to mug up multiple definitions to understand one simple word, and that too if we have to write only one in the exam”, and I burst into laughter today unable to figure out how I couldn’t understand such a simple thing. The obvious reason was that in couple of years I could discover the basic fact, the reason behind it. The reason is same as we all know “to understand the multiple perspectives behind the usage of a word”. Really!! how dumb I was, it took me more than a year to get to the simplest fact.
Lately after reading the GOAL I realized that ...
The reason we are put across multiple perspectives is “When required try all the definitions one by one and if all of them are unable to give a suitable answer then it’s time to define a new one” And now I think is it always bad to be dumb? Set back with these thoughts I was wondering how at times the simplest thing solves a conflict, “yeah, it was conflict of thoughts with the present system and the system being winner I could easily align my thoughts”.
So here are the first 2 lessons that I learnt:-
There can be nothing called the best solution to any problem as long as it’s the last time one encounters that problem.
The change is the easiest thing in the world if we realize we need to change.
Well, the next thought that occurred to me was, 'Are we so gifted that we can always solve our conflicts autonomously?' and the answer was apparently ‘NO’. So the question is how to reach to a conclusion and this time without much thought, all cells of my central nervous system in chorus echoed “Go!! and find Johnah”. I silently nodded and I stepped forward but something pulled me back, 'Do I really know what the problem is?'
And the 3rd lesson came up:-
Until we know what the problem is, no Johnah can help us.
Then it was the time for me to follow the standard procedure... defining the problem, identifying the GOAL, choosing alternatives and blabbla ... by now we all engineers turning to managers are expert in this process, aren’t we? It’s just that, at times we forget few basic things like:-
The word “problem” has not been copyrighted by operations or manufacturing giants. Its definition holds true for a simplest task such as 'deciding electives' as well.(Lesson 4)
There can be multiple purposes associated with a task but ‘Goal’ around which the solution resolves should be unique and every other activity must be interrelated to it.(Lesson 5)
I think now it’s time to keep the pen down and give it a thought before we proceed further. These were glimpses of the learning that I could accomplish after reading one of the bestsellers GOAL.
I hereby, declare that the information shared above it true to my knowledge and I could very well relate all these lessons practically. But, no one knows, may be after few years when I think over these lines, I again realize “how dumb I was” .... :)
While successful entrepreneurs may tell you that starting your own business is hugely rewarding, and that everyone should pursue entrepreneurship as an ultimate goal, there are a substantial number of reasons for why entrepreneurship may not be the ideal choice for a large number of people. So before you ditch the salary, consider what it takes to be a successful and effective entrepreneur. Becoming an entrepreneur you have to comply with these essential factors:
Sacrificing Quality Time - As a new entrepreneur, you will find yourself sacrificing time with your family, your friends, your favorite hobbies and past times, and many other aspects of your life. Your new business will consume you for long periods of time, likely to the point where you go from the red to the black, which could actually take a number of years.
Hard Work - As an entrepreneur, you will find that the work load never ceases, no matter how many hours are in the day, or how many employees you bring on for assistance. Growth always leaves room for “more” - so don’t think that success will allow you to kick back. Furthermore, the more people you bring on board to take over you own responsibilities, the more people management you have to do, thus reducing your own productivity. You’ll want to find good, passionate workers who can manage themselves.
Difficulty Finding Investment - In order to become an entrepreneur and open your very own business, a substantial investment will be required, and many new entrepreneurs have difficulty obtaining financing on their own. Now that we’re in the middle of an economic downturn, investment deemed high risk may be even more difficult to find.
Dealing With The Problem Of Inconsistent Income - Startups typically are backed by cash, but there isn’t a never-ending pot of gold on tap just for you and your company. The fact of the matter is that you and your bank manager will probably become quite well acquainted. If you have poor skills in dealing with the intricacies of business finance then setting up your own company is probably not such a good idea (unless your father happens to be rich and altruistic).
Risk Of Failure - The problem with investing capital into a new business is that if the business tanks, you will lose all that money. If you had to take out a bank loan, or a second mortgage, in order to come by the money that you required, then you will have to find a way to pay that money back without having a job or a business to assist you. But what can be even more damaging is the sense that you failed, you weren’t good enough, you’re idea was poorly received by peers. Before you set off on your journey as an entrepreneur you should seriously consider whether you are mentally resilient enough to cope with the possibility of failure.
Personality Problems - So much of being a successful entrepreneur relies solely on your ability to generate buzz, to garner a following, to create something out of nothing. If you are a quiet and introverted person, you’ll probably find yourself at a disadvantage compared to a seasoned and confident businessman.
Dealing With The Possibility Of Failure - If your business fails, you will be losing much more than a way to pass the time. You may lose your home or other vital assets if you cannot meet repayments. Any unsecured debt that you have accrued on cards or loans will still need paying, which means your credit rating will take a beating. There’s also the potential damage to your self confidence, which will make it more difficult to start another business in the future.
Working With A Tight Budget - Raising the financing that you need as an entrepreneur is not simple. If you are a first time business owner, you will have difficulty convincing a lender to work with you, which can make entrepreneurship quite difficult. So when it comes to kitting out your office you’ll need to think of every possible way to save and get the most out of every single cent.
Dealing With Negative Feedback - Who will you turn to in times of stress? Who can you trust? As an entrepreneur, you have no real support system to turn to, which can spell disaster for many budding businesses. You need to create a culture where negative feedback is a good thing, in fact, it should be encouraged and fostered into acceptance. If you want your product to be taken seriously then it has to be great, so there’s absolutely no point burying your head in the sand any time someone points out a flaw.
By :Pramod Kumar,
Co-ordinator, Team kaizen
National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)
Mumbai- 400 087,
Ph: 09619534121
Procurement is the acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quantity and quality, at the right time, in the right place and from the right source for the direct benefit or use of corporations, or individuals, generally via a contract. Simple procurement may involve nothing more than repeat purchasing. Purchasing refers to a business or organization attempting to acquire goods or services to accomplish the goals of the enterprise. Though there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between organizations. Typically the word “purchasing” is not used interchangeably with the word “procurement”, since procurement typically includes Expediting, Supplier Quality, and Traffic and Logistics (T&L) in addition to Purchasing. In short, the consensus around the table was that ‘purchasing’ was still viewed by much of the business world as an administrative function, linked back to order management. Whilst ‘procurement’ steps away from the transactional side and is seen as more of a strategic function. or Procurement is concerned with the overall gathering of resources, while purchasing is the specific act of acquiring something by paying money for it. Purchasing is one form of procurement. for more info http://esourcingplace.com/2008/02/29/procurement-vs-procurement/ http://toostep.com/question/is-a-difference-between-the-terms-procurement-and-purchasing
