placement report
Placement Report
Introduction
I was employed for three months at Diftco, near Birmingham, under the supervision of Ms
Witten. The objective of the internship was to gain management experience in an industrial environment. Diftco exports construction equipment, and it is one of the most profitable firms in the region.
Experience and Professional Achievements
I worked in the Export Office most of the time, where I was in charge of preparing shipping documents. I was also responsible for checking containers in the warehouse where the equipment is assembled and packed. I successfully learnt to use the automatic bar code system used in the warehouse. However, it was interesting to discover that even such a sophisticated system can never completely eliminate human error. Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learnt was to double-check information. The importance of careful checking was emphasized when I unfortunately sent a container to Austria instead of Australia because I had misunderstood my correspondent on the telephone.
The course module in international trade studied last semester was extremely valuable in understanding how a company like Diftco works. Thanks to this preparation, I was able to establish good rapport with the export staff. On the other hand, communication with the warehouse staff was much more difficult mainly because many of them do not speak English.
Observations
The company is well organized with a very motivated, hard-working and dedicated staff. I feel I would be more effective in an environment with more variety and less routine paperwork. One area of the company’s activity leaves room for improvement and that is the problem of waste in the warehouse. A more systematic policy of recycling would help to solve this problem.
Overall, the internship was a positive experience which allowed me to gain significant experience in the three months. Because I mostly worked alone, I did not achieve the goal of
acquiring
Introduction
I was employed for three months at Diftco, near Birmingham, under the supervision of Ms
Witten. The objective of the internship was to gain management experience in an industrial environment. Diftco exports construction equipment, and it is one of the most profitable firms in the region.
Experience and Professional Achievements
I worked in the Export Office most of the time, where I was in charge of preparing shipping documents. I was also responsible for checking containers in the warehouse where the equipment is assembled and packed. I successfully learnt to use the automatic bar code system used in the warehouse. However, it was interesting to discover that even such a sophisticated system can never completely eliminate human error. Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learnt was to double-check information. The importance of careful checking was emphasized when I unfortunately sent a container to Austria instead of Australia because I had misunderstood my correspondent on the telephone.
The course module in international trade studied last semester was extremely valuable in understanding how a company like Diftco works. Thanks to this preparation, I was able to establish good rapport with the export staff. On the other hand, communication with the warehouse staff was much more difficult mainly because many of them do not speak English.
Observations
The company is well organized with a very motivated, hard-working and dedicated staff. I feel I would be more effective in an environment with more variety and less routine paperwork. One area of the company’s activity leaves room for improvement and that is the problem of waste in the warehouse. A more systematic policy of recycling would help to solve this problem.
Overall, the internship was a positive experience which allowed me to gain significant experience in the three months. Because I mostly worked alone, I did not achieve the goal of
acquiring