Resume Update

I worked in Smurfit Kappa on their branch at Cali, Colombia for one month. This is the world´s leader in fiberboard packaging and paper, and it’s an extremely interesting industry. All the procedures needed to come up with specifics the costumer wants from the corrugated fiberboard, this is what made this organization the best in the world. 

I was in charge of a project which main objective was to persuade the President and the Vice President of the company to approve it and provide the necessary financial support. The project was an absolute success, I gave a presentation and they decided to support me on what I presented to them.

The internship has developed in meanalytical, communication and observational skills into a professional level. This has been a remarkable period that has shaped me in order to walk into the professional world. I´m more confident about myself and willing to take more responsibilities.

Friday Current Event

The unstoppable winter has affected once again my company. This time a mudslide destroyed one of the main tunnels that distributed natural gas to the company. This created a massive chaos since lots of the machines used in the factory are powered by this fuel. Also some of the trucks that transport products made at the factory, function with natural gas.

Although there were enough backups of trucks that used gasoline and some machines at the factory were functioning with stored natural gas. Just when the resource at the storage was about to vanish, the company in charge of the Natural Gas at the "Valle del Cauca" announced that the service was going to be running again in a couple hours.

This was great news for the organization. If this problem would've continued for longer the company was going to face terrible losses. For the benefit of all the natural gas is running again and not only Smurfit Kappa is able to work normally but all of the other companies that use this natural fuel.

This problem has affected also those who use natural gas to propel their cars. Those who work for school transportation or even public transportation have seen lots of losses thanks to this problem.

In times like this, it is very important to have a backup for everything that could be affected by the pouring rain. This unstoppable water is creating a lot of damages to people not only of this state but to almost everyone at Colombia. I hope this winter goes away as soon as possible, before the economy drops and/or people keep losing their belongings and even their life.

http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/cali/noticias/dese-repondria-servicio-gas

Friday Summary

it has been a wonderful experience to be part of an organization this size.

After finalizing my part of the accreditation process I learned a vast variety of lessons that have become the foundation of my professional career. Although I already discussed on my previous post the new skills and lessons I´ve developed on these three weeks, I want to highlight the fact of experiencing a real working experience in an organization. This has taught me little things that some might think relative, but being able to talk to your boss without hesitation, make good relationships with coworkers, and manage time according to the working schedule has been extremely valuable aspects.

I really want to thank the CEL for giving me this marvelous opportunity. This is not only three credits, but a great time to take advantage of every second. I tried to learn as much as possible during these three weeks. I´m going to week one extra week at Smurfit Kappa as a normal employee at the lab, performing all of the quality tests of the corrugated fiberboard. The project I started about the accreditation by the ONAC is in excellent shape. With the approval of the VP and the first phase about the equipment resumes done, they have a great start thanks to my performance. I hope this project gets done as soon as possible. I will feel a huge satisfaction to know a project of this size was accomplished totally.       

Journal Entries Week 3: #3

Part A: create a presentation about my findings on the equipment and help one of my coworkers with an experiment analysis using excel

Part B: After gathering all of the information needed to create the resume of each machine or artifact used in the Lab I’m now creating an analysis that includes number of equipment, obsolete equipment and a need for new equipment. During all this weeks, in every little break I had my boss wanted me to learn how every machined worked at the lab. So I made several procedures of testing fiberboards caliper, quality, performance and endurance by a diverse variety of machinery. Thanks to this and by knowing the number of machines I could come to the conclusion of adding some new equipment and also dumping or distributing to other facilities those that weren’t needed.

This gave me an important lesson about inventory and costs. Even the smallest artifact was above $800 USD. There were machines of up to $40, 0000 USD inside the lab. So dealing with this high cost items you don’t want to be paying extra for something you don’t even need or use. This is the importance of having an organized and accessible inventory with detailed resumes of each machine.

After dealing with all of my tasks with the inventory I was asked by my boss to help one of my coworkers to portray a graph in a specific way. He told me specific characteristics he wanted on the graph. As I once said before, my boss’s biggest pet peeve is graphs that don’t “talk to you”.

There was a lot of information on all of the observations of my coworker’s experiment but he was confused with our boss’s requests. I had to carefully analyze the information and step by step come up with what was requested. At the end I figured out the way to satisfy my bosses demand. This gave me a huge satisfaction. My boss was really pleased with my performance and we even talked for a long time about my performance during this month.

This experience has been wonderful for me. It has given me way more that I really expected. I’ve learned a lot of new and even improve some skills such as communication with others (coworkers, bosses, VP, etc.), excel, work, PowerPoint, different experiments using high quality machines and most important of all learn how is life while working. I learn about the importance of punctuality, traffic, time management, working relationships and daily hassles. All of these aspects are of highly importance, and can only be really learned by being involved with a company.

Journal Entries Week 3: #3

Part A: create a presentation about my findings on the equipment and help one of my coworkers with an experiment analysis using excel

Part B: After gathering all of the information needed to create the resume of each machine or artifact used in the Lab I’m now creating an analysis that includes number of equipment, obsolete equipment and a need for new equipment. During all this weeks, in every little break I had my boss wanted me to learn how every machined worked at the lab. So I made several procedures of testing fiberboards caliper, quality, performance and endurance by a diverse variety of machinery. Thanks to this and by knowing the number of machines I could come to the conclusion of adding some new equipment and also dumping or distributing to other facilities those that weren’t needed.

This gave me an important lesson about inventory and costs. Even the smallest artifact was above $800 USD. There were machines of up to $40, 0000 USD inside the lab. So dealing with this high cost items you don’t want to be paying extra for something you don’t even need or use. This is the importance of having an organized and accessible inventory with detailed resumes of each machine.

After dealing with all of my tasks with the inventory I was asked by my boss to help one of my coworkers to portray a graph in a specific way. He told me specific characteristics he wanted on the graph. As I once said before, my boss’s biggest pet peeve is graphs that don’t “talk to you”.

There was a lot of information on all of the observations of my coworker’s experiment but he was confused with our boss’s requests. I had to carefully analyze the information and step by step come up with what was requested. At the end I figured out the way to satisfy my bosses demand. This gave me a huge satisfaction. My boss was really pleased with my performance and we even talked for a long time about my performance during this month.

This experience has been wonderful for me. It has given me way more that I really expected. I’ve learned a lot of new and even improve some skills such as communication with others (coworkers, bosses, VP, etc.), excel, work, PowerPoint, different experiments using high quality machines and most important of all learn how is life while working. I learn about the importance of punctuality, traffic, time management, working relationships and daily hassles. All of these aspects are of highly importance, and can only be really learned by being involved with a company.

Journal Entries Week 3: #2

January 18, 2012

Part A: Finish the equipment inventory with calibration dates and all of the information needed such as serial number, purchase date and price, brand, model and type.

Part B: This inventory task has taught me a lot of things. I’ve had to navigate through the organizations intranet to find several characteristics of the equipment. I’ve gone to the company’s storage rooms and warehouse and look through their documents to find the receipts of the purchasing date and price of the equipment. Learning how to navigate both via software and also in person has been very meaningful for my development as a professional. I’ve improved my communication skills since I’ve had to talk to a lot of people all over the company. Also, all of the information gathered about the equipment is being stored at Word and Excel documents with specific formats that the company likes to use. This has made me improve intensively in these areas by adding important details and also being able to create specific graphs my boss likes to see. He always tells me that a graph doesn’t mean anything unless it really talks to you. If the graph just by barely looking at it seems interesting and even expresses a pattern or a message right away then it works, other way it is obsolete.

Another really important thing learned is that business people don’t like long presentations, the shorter the better. Time is money and being realistic, higher management people want quick and convincing information. Taking this on account, every time I show anything to my bosses I make sure I know it perfectly so that if they have any question or concern I have an answer right away. This makes it easy for me and efficient for them. That is what they want and love.

Journal Entries Week 3: #1

Part A: create and inventory of all the equipment of the lab and individual characteristics

Part B: After a very important week at my job I started to understand why parents love to just sit back during the weekends and regain energies for the coming week. This is one of the little things that teach this class. Living in a real labor world has made me seen how meaningful weekends are. Normally I just played soccer or made any other activities with my friends. Now I just like to relax at my house and maybe go out for dinner. You really never understand little things like this until you really experience it. All of the daily hassles and stress from work can only be relieved by taking advantage of this free time.   

This new week brings me new tasks. After getting the project approved and all of the capital to invest in it, my boss told me to start making some of the requisites. One of the most important requisites is to create a full inventory of all the equipment used to test the fiberboard and paper. There are about 70 different machines and 10 calibration tools.

I just finished the first day of doing this task and it has been such a hassle. I need to look through several archives to find calibration dates, date of purchase and other information. The problem is that the archives are not very organized so I need to really search to almost every single paper to find what I need. Although it’s pretty annoying, this teaches me a lot of lessons. First of all, that having everything organized really makes any future procedure easier to be done. I will also learn how to surf through information both in physical and digital archives. I will also learn how to do an inventory and lastly how an organization of these massive dimensions manages to keep record of materials, shipments, costs etc.        

Current Event # 2

The sugar industry is the most important product of the "Valle del Cauca". Recently one of the most important factories on this industry had a huge strike by their workers. This obviously was affecting extensively the whole economy of this state. Smurfit Kappa had a huge set back with this problem, since they are the ones that produce hundreds of sacks for their sugar.



The strike was created for some wage and benefit issues. For the benefit of everyone, it came to an end early this morning. This factory called Pichichi was able to create a bargain with their workers and came with the most beneficial solutions for both parties.

This news came with great satisfaction for the company I'm working in. Hence the strike, their normal demand for sacks decreased considerably. As soon as the sugar factory started to work as they normally did the normal supply of sacks was produced once again.

As soon as I heard about this news I talked to my boss about it. He told me that if this strike would´ve lasted longer it could´ve significant a massive decrease on profit. Smurfit Kappa produces all of the sacks used on this factory for their storage, therefore by having this factory in a longer lockdown would´ve been extremely negative for us.


http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/valle/noticias/corteros-cana-levantaron-bloqueo-en-ingenio-pichichi

summary week two

This without a doubt is the most important week of my whole professional experience. After reading several articles about the ONAC and the process of the accreditation I realized the importance of this project for the whole organization. I started to research on other accredited Laboratories involved in other industries and the benefits they have brought to their organizations. This became my key to success.

The presentation to the Vice President was an absolute success. As soon as I finished I congratulated me and approved the investment on the accreditation. My strategy on positioning the accreditation as a tool for marketing the organization was my biggest strength. The VP was absolutely pleased with my performance and conviction while giving out the presentation.

Besides making me incredibly proud of myself, this presentation opened me the doors to the Vice President. He was so pleased with my performance that suggested me a future internship on the marketing division of the organization.

This week has taught me very valuable lessons. Believe in myself and take opportunities. You will never know if you don’t try it. Communication with coworkers with experience and creating good relationships in the workplace are keys to success.   

At the end it turned out that my project was way more important that what I was expecting. It gave me a lot of work and responsibilities. I learned how to manage my time wisely and avoid stress of the pressure given by my boss. A company with this culture is a place where I would like to work after graduation. People expect a lot from you, but they are always there not just for work but for a friendship.   

Journal Entries Week 2: #3

Part A: Finish database analysis and create presentation about the accreditation

Part B: Today I took the most valuable decision in my whole time here at Smurfit Kappa. While working on the presentation, the Vice President of the company walked in the lab to talk with the manager of the division of packaging. Before they started their meeting my manager asked me about some of my most valuable findings. I took the opportunity and asked the Vice President if he knew about the accreditation with the ONAC. After a brief explanation about the topic, I told him that if he wanted and had time, he could come in tomorrow for my presentation. He totally agreed and told me to meet him at the presidents building at eight in the morning.

This moment made me feel so proud about myself. I was taking chances and the opportunities given. I’m now not only presenting to my division bosses but to the Vice President of Smurfit Kappa Colombia. I’m now modifying the presentation to make it more appealing to the Vice President by focusing on just he benefits rather than explaining the procedure. I was told a couple days ago that the head of the Lab once gave a presentation to the VP about the accreditation but failed the approval.

I’m absolutely sure that by modifying my strategy positioning the accreditation as an extra tool to advertise the company to new customers. I’m learning that the business world is all about adapting and satisfying the customer. Smurfit Kappa’s mission is always to satisfy the customer and this is going to be my main argument for the request of the approval of the accreditation.

My assumptions of the organization are absolutely accurate, a very prestigious organization with a massive amount of responsibilities with quality, environment and customer satisfaction. In the other hand, the initial assumptions about my project are absolutely different. Initially I thought that my project was going to be very important for my professional career, but never that I would have on my hands the possibility to start a colossal change for this organization. If the accreditation project gets approved by the Vice President, this laboratory would be the first accredited lab of fiberboard and paper of all Latin America.

Communicating with coworkers with a lot of experience inside the company has been crucial for my presentation. Their knowledge about the company and the VP are my aces for this presentation. Things get very interesting everyday working here. Although I’m working here for just a month the responsibility given to me makes me grow as a professional. I feel motivated by the project assigned to me

Journal Entries Week 2: #2

Part A:  Keep learning about the procedure needed for the authentication of the Laboratory and start building a presentation about what needs to be done for the accreditation.

Part B: My task keeps being the same as a couple days ago. This involves a lot of reading and exploration on the data base of the organization and will take at least a week. I’m learning a lot about how an organization creates a data base and organizes documents by codes. I’m now analyzing each of the documents and adapting them to the laboratory. One of the ONAC’s requisites for the accreditation of the laboratory is a database that describes equipment, procedures and experiments.

 I’m starting to learn the importance of having everything organized. An effective structure of a company provides easy management and avoids any legal conflict.  Being involved with this project of accreditation has increased my interaction within the organization. Classes at Loras College about management such as Organizational Behavior have been really important to understand this process.

I’m feeling the support of my coworkers and boss, which are always open for questions or suggestions. Communication has been very smooth and efficient. I’m starting to get used to the schedule and manage more effectively my time. My boss now knows my working habits and has placed trust in me. I love being involved in a project that means so much for the laboratory and also for the organization as a whole.

For this coming Friday I have to give a presentation about all of my findings to my boss and the manager of the division of packing. Normally people tend to feel stress about this situation but I’m absolutely confident about myself and my findings. It’s going to be the first time that I’m giving a presentation at company. I’m really anxious for this presentation. I’m currently halfway of my project. I just need some suggestions after the presentation from my bosses and proceed with the initial phase of the accreditation. My plans are to find on the database which are the missing requisites to create a starting point. One of the most important requisites is the resume of the equipment used in the Laboratory.

My organization’s culture is very friendly, although you have a lot of stress created by the load of work and deadlines people work together as a team to drain this uncomfortable feeling. Coworkers and even people working on other areas of the company make you feel welcomed, from the guard at the main entrance to the head boss of every division. It’s a great atmosphere to work in. there’s really no situation that didn’t turn how a thought. Even the food of the cafeteria is absolutely delicious. 

Journal Entries Week 2: #1

Yesterday was a holiday here at Colombia, so I had some free time to share with my family and friends. Besides having an enriching working experience, I’m being able to see those who are so far away from me.

Part A: Learn about the ONAC (Colombian Organization of Accreditation) and the whole procedure needed for the authentication of the Laboratory

Part B: My job here is becoming more intense as days go by. People here now know me and treat me not only as a coworker but also as a friend. My responsibilities and boss expectations are much higher than before. I’ve been told to analyze the process of authentication for the Laboratory. This is a very complex and extensive process in which several requisites need to be met.

My boss always tells me about the importance of this project and the positive impact it could have for the whole organization. My main purpose is to learn carefully about this accreditation and create an initial stage for this process. At the end of this week I would have to present to my boss and the manager of the division of packaging, my point of view about the project and how it would benefit the lab and the company.

This project becomes into the most important task I’ve been assigned in my entire professional career. I understand how important this accreditation could be for the company. I really like this challenge although I would have to work really hard figuring out where would be the best part to start. From what I read today, I acknowledge how tedious this process is. My boss has been working for the approval of this project for more than 4 years.

Challenges like this are the ones that really make me feel a professional. Working here really makes me feel competitive and learn beyond a classroom.         

more information: www.onac.org.co/

                        www.iso.org/

summary week one

It has been a great week full of new and enriching experiences. Being for first time on this type of atmosphere is very important for me. Being involved with such a huge worldwide organization is extremely important for my professional career.

I really liked the way everything was set up for me. First learn about the company's mission and vision. This really got me started to work by their philosophy and values. This company focuses everything on customer satisfaction. This sometimes obvious aspect is really forgotten by other organizations. Since the first time they really specified on customer satisfaction I started to see all of the connections with my classes at Loras. All of my marketing classes always talk about how the customer is the king and queen of any industry and their satisfaction is the one that dictates the success or failure of any company.

Then as the week went by I started to focus more on the procedures made at the Lab to the corrugated fiberboard. I also learned the importance of this Lab's exams and observations for the whole organization. They are in charged of the quality control for all of the products not only the branches in Cali but also Bogota, Barranquilla and Medellin. In our hands depends the success of the company, since we are the ones that dictate if the customers expectations are being met.

Working in a place that means so much for an organization makes you feel proud of your self. You realize all of the responsibilities that mean working on this place. This lab has a lot of pressure from the upper management levels, but it becomes at least for me in an extra incentive to work harder and feel important. When you work in place that makes you feel important it pushes you to give your best. It's not only about meeting your goals, but trying to go beyond them.

I really feel that this experience has had a huge impact on my professional career. I'm learning how to manage friendships with my coworkers, control work loads, and being able to meet my goals. Next week is going to be very interesting for me. The company has been planing for a long time to get this Lab approved by an international organization. This approval could become a huge advancement for this company and I just got assigned to come up with a proposal for this project. I'm really excited for this extremely important task.

summary week one - Article

http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/valle/noticias/solicitan-ayudas-para-norte-del-valle-causa-del-invierno

Since last year Colombia has been facing the worst winter in history. The first days of 2012 appeared to be warm and sunny, but unfortunately it didn't last long. Winters here are not about extreme cold temperatures or snow; it’s all about never stopping rain. Mudslides and rivers flooding whole cities have created chaos in Colombia. Smurfit Kappa (my company) gets a lot of their resources for fiberboard packages and paper from the trees of forest they own. Recently one of these forests was critically affected by a flood. This problem is creating a lot of trouble for my company, since the raw material they need the most is being affected by the winter. The problem is not only the decrease on resource, but the massive economic loss created by this natural disaster.

        

The company is now trying to figure out a way to control this unfortunate devastation. The area is being analyzed by environmental specialists. Since this area is very near from one of the main and biggest rivers in Colombia called Cauca, it has a really high risk of floods. They are trying to create several types of walls to prevent a new flood. This problem is not only affecting my organization but also the whole agriculture in this state (Valle del Cauca). People are homeless and extremely important resources of agriculture such as sugar, wood and cattle are being devastated.

We really hope for the benefit of the whole company that this winter cease and stop washing away lives and natural resources.  

Journal Entries Week 1: #3

Journal Entry 3
January 5, 2012

Part A: Finish all of the training for the machines used for testing the corrugate fiberboard

Part B: It has been an incredible experience. All of the people who work with me at the Lab are fabulous. It seems if I was working with a group of friends. They are always in a positive mood and making you feel extremely comfortable. If I had any question while performing a test, there's no hesitation at all to ask anyone around for assistance. People here are efficient and have fun at the same time.

I got today several packages that came from Bogota, Barranquilla and Medellin. I have to perform all of the tests on their products, perform a quality test and finally record all of my findings. This findings then have to be analyzed and determine which factory lacks on quality or in the other hand is performing at or above expectation.



All of these tests are done by machines. Although it turns to be monotonous at some point, we do have some breaks in which we go around the factory and learn from other procedures such as packaging production, cycle from waste paper and fiberboard to recycled materials for new packages.

Journal Entries Week 1: #2

Journal Entry 2

January 4, 2012

Part A: Perform several Tests to the Corrugate Packing

Part B: This was my third work at work and every day that goes by I love it more. This is a marvelous company full of enthusiastic and polite people who are always there for you. When you are starting to get frustrated by the load of work they know the way to get a smile from you, specially my supervisor. This really keeps me motivated to give my best.

After all of the reading that I had for the first two days I was finally able to get some hands on action. I worked on several machines that measured the caliber, resistance and endurance of the packages. These tests are highly important for the company because it is the only way for them to know that they are accomplishing their quality standards. There is a wide variety of packages which are categorized by the capacity of weight they are able to store. The most important test of the Lab and the one that determines this feature is called, Edgewise compressive strength of corrugated fiberboard using the clamp method.

Journal Entries Week 1: #1

Journal Entry # 1
January 2, 2012

Part A: Reading Test procedures for corrugate packing, learning about the company mission statement, vision and objectives.

Part B: The first day of work was full of anxiety and uncertainty because I really had no idea of how the work atmosphere was going to be. First I had to the human resource office and finish some paper work and then a car picked me up with my supervisor. He gave me a brief tour around the whole company and then we went to the packing factory. I was absolutely amazed with all of the machinery and the efficiency of their performance. It was incredible how the packing and sack machines never stop producing.

Surprisingly this company has almost no storage costs. Although they produce thousands of packages and sacks  for cement, almost all of the production is shipped as soon as it is produced. Te load of work at the machinery section es absolutely amazing

Then we went to the laboratory which is right beside this production center. here is the best place to work. The temperature is perfect, since they need to have the perfect atmospheric conditions to tests the corrugate packages. This conditions are 50% humidity and 70'F. As soon as I entered this place everyone greeted me and showed me the whole place.

After my introduction my supervisor showed me my cubicle and explained all of my duties during this month. After that he gave me several manuals which included all of the procedures of the tests performed at the lab and also the company manual. All of these together was a massive amount of reading which kept me busy during the whole day.  

Project Design: Smurfit Kappa - Carton de Colombia S.A

The Smurfit Kappa Group is a worldwide organization leader in paper based packing mainly on Europe and Latin America. The Group has sales of approximately 7 billion euro, operations at some 400 locations and over 40,000 employees. Smurfit Kappa Group has operations in container-board, solid board, graphic board, corrugated and solid board packaging. The Group is present in over 20 European countries, nine Latin American nations, as well as Canada, Singapore, the USA and South Africa.

The branch of Smurfit Kappa in Colombia is called "Carton de Colombia". This company is absolute leader in their industry in Colombia and one of the most successful branches of the whole Smurfit Kappa group.

The project I'm going to be performing during this period has several stages. It has some changes from the initial project but it is way more interesting. The first part of the project is about learning all of the procedures used to test the quality of the corrugate packing produced not only in the factory located in Cali but also in other major cities such as Barranquilla, Bogota and Medellin. Packages from all over the country are sent to this laboratory to judge their quality and discover if each plant is performing to what they are expected to.   

The second and most important part of the project is to be able to create the initial stage of international accreditation of the laboratory by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The first stage is to analyze all the requisites in order to gain the accreditation and show my supervisor and manager of the Laboratory the benefits and need to invest on this project. This is an extremely expensive accreditation and needs a lot of study. 

I was able to get this marvelous opportunity by the help of Camilo Garces (Senior at Loras) who has worked there during the summers and Santiago Mejia (Loras - Class of 2011) who currently works there.