Internship Report

Internship Report

Friday 28th

Day 10 – Friday 28^th

Today was my last day and I’m sad to leave Daimler. I really enjoyed my two weeks here and wish that they would have bin longer. The weeks went by way to fast, probably because I had such a great time. Today was very empty though. Nothing was planned for today so I sat at my computer most of the time using my last hours to continue to help on further presentations. At 11:35 we had lunch again and the group was smaller then usual. After lunch I sat together with George for my end of Internship meeting. We looked through the documents provided by the school and we talked abou the time that I spent at Daimler and how it went. After we were done I went back to working on the presentation. Some time later my boss Frau Gropp came back from a day long Meeting with her boss and I gave her and the team a big box of Merci chocolates. They were very happy and so my day came to an end. Just like the other Friday I left a little early to make it to my Tanzkurs.

Thursday 27th

Day 9 – Thursday 27^th

Today was a very quiet day. I sat at my desk a lot and worked on the videos or other power point presentations. I started my day of with continuing my work from the days before by editing the videos on power point. I finally have come to the point that I can say there is nothing I can do to perfectly sync up all videos. It’s impossible. After that we went to lunch, yes I spent the entire morning just sitting at my desk working. After lunch I got to look at the power wall, which is a wall with two beamers behind it. These beamers can produce a very high quality 3D picture to the screen. I had really bad luck and one of the beamers was broken so I could only see the simulation of the factory in 2D. We flew through the factory and he showed me all the different aspects that have to be considered while planning and building a factory. There are a lot of pipes hanging from the ceiling that need to have an outlet at the right spot, machines need to be put at the right spot and are not aloud to overlap. The zone collision has to be simulated as well, meaning the area in which a door can swing open or a robot arm can move. The power wall is used to show all planners that come together, what mistakes are still there and each planner will understand why changes need to be made. These meetings save the company 1-2 million Euros per project due to fewer mistakes in the building faze. After we were done looking at the power wall I sat back at my desk and got to work on a different power point. This time I had no real idea what the information was but that didn’t matter. I had to redesign the layout and make the slides look better and fancier because the college and a bit of allot going on. I took this job very serious and didn’t notice that I kept going until 17:05. It’s the latest that I have stayed at work so far. Not the longest but the latest.

Since I do not have deadline in my workplace I cannot really answer this “question of the day”. When every I get work for example the power point I simple do it and report back when I’m done.

Wednesday 26th

Day 8 – Wednesday 26^th

Today was the first day that my Father was there in the building at the same time as me. Last week he had a business trip to India, on Monday he took a day off to readjust to Germany and yesterday, Tuesday, we was at the Messe. My dad sits on a different floor then me so we never meet. He did organize a short tour for me though through the “Rechenzentrum” which is the main computer unit that controls the production. A College from the fourth floor came down to explain everything to me. The Main-processing unit is a room full of Computer boxes. You can image it like a super computer. The room had multiple rows of lockers full of hard drives. There where cooling systems with more lockers and water pipes. The room as a double flooring system to allow for easy storage of all the cables. In case of a fire the room will be sealed and flooded with CO2 to suffocate the flames. Everything that is done on these servers and hard drives is very important and because of this every thing exists twice in the room. There are two main power supplies, two emergency power generators, two of every locker. With in the lockers everything is doubled as well. Each hard drive system has two power inputs, two information inputs, two hard drive sets. In case own of the two fails the other one can still keep on going since they do exactly the same job. At 10:00 I came back and sat down at my desk to reserve my first very own task. I the videos that we had shot some days earlier with the motion capturing software now had to be put into a presentation to show to the bossboss. They needed to be convinced that this technology is worth investing time and money in. I got the job to figure out how to simultaneously play three video clips at the same time, in sync and in power point. I managed to play them all at the same time after a couple of repeats of the videos they were no longer in sync. Turns out it’s the failure of power point to be able to load all videos at the same time. After starting my first job we headed out to lunch. Right after lunch, at 12:45I had a meeting at the “Anlauffabrik” for the axes. I showed up and got a tour through the facilities and then got handed on to two other workers who showed me what they did. One of them explained to me that he was doing the last checkups on the back axe transmissions. After my two hours there I went back to my building and desk and continued my work on the presentation. This took me until 16:40.

 

What makes a task interesting to me is when It is explained to me. If I don’t understand what is going on then I get bored. Until now I have not encountered any tasks that seem boring to me except maybe for the documentation of all the steps taken in the “Anlauffabrik”. Every step has to be written down and documented. Not considering this task everything was interesting so far even just listening to people talk. Having people walk with you through the facilities and explaining what they do or sit in front of a computer and listen to a person explain a program, its all very amazing and complex. 

Tuesday 25th

Day 7 – Tuesday 25^th

We started our day of in the same way that we did on the Tuesday before; with a team meeting. Everyone brought forward their points that they thought were interesting to all. After the team briefing I set out with a college, Jürgen Sommer, to Untertürkheim to see the production lines of the cylinder head casing and cover, the “Kurbelwelle” and the “Pleuel”. I saw the production lines and the workers there. He explained to me what the information was that was being displayed on the displays. I saw the robot arms swirling around and doing their job continuously until the end of the day. I saw stations were metal was mill-cut down to exact measurements. After the one and a half hours of touring through the production lines we went to lunch. Once again we went as the whole team. We had coffee afterwards. At 13:00 I had a meeting with Frau Susanne Weßlowsky to talk to her about MALAGA and to continue on from where we had left off yesterday. The meeting was three hours long and very interesting. I learned a lot about her job. There are too many details to explain the entire process but simplified she does production process planning. She uses the tools Process designer, Excel, IPO.log and MALAGA and many more that I don’t know of. From Process Designer she can export the information into an Excel sheet, which MALAGA then uses. There she can plan exactly how the production processes will be coordinated. She can determine: vehicles, laborers, roads/pathways, materials and their containers, maximum capacity of roads networks, timing (ous taktung) and many more things. My head is still bussing from all the information and I was really excited.

 

I haven’t confronted difficult tasks in my workplace yet but I have taken a lot from my experiences there back to my school life. For example I have created a 9-digit code for all my new documents so that I can organize my work better or I have created a template for future presentations that follow a specific style. I try to bring as much knowledge home as possible and to use it to improve my own conditions.

Monday 24th

Day 6 – Monday 24^th

This morning I had a little introductionary round of all the example pieces displayed in the foyer. I talked with Herr Farmakidis about every piece; where it’s made, what its made of and why its made that way. At 9:30 the entire team had a videoconference with the other half of the DiFa team. We are the DiFa Powertrain for the personal cars (PKW) and we talked to the side of the trucks (LKW). The meeting took two and a half hours and the teams exchanged the new ideas, concepts and programs that they were using. Both sides learned from each other and got back up to date. After this long and exhausting meeting we all went to lunch. After the lunch break I got to sit down with the person in charge of Materialflussplanung in the DiFa team. The “material flow planner” uses the program Process Designer, Process Simulate, IPO.log and MALAGA. Today we looked at IPO.log and Process Designer. In the process designer all the information for example which pieces need to be at which station and how many. Which container they need to be in and what kind of storage “Regal” they need to be in. All this information is then exported into an Excel document with a predefined layout. The program IPO.log then takes this information and converts it into a visual simulation. In this simulation you can see where which box will be and if any problems show up. IPO.log is a program to calculate and program how the materials are going to be placed in the material zone of the station. The next program, MALAGA, is used for calculating delivery pathways and efficiency. This program will be shown to me tomorrow in further depth. I have truly found my dream job in the Materialflussplanner. He does everything that I dream of doing in video games. It’s complex and wonderful. The video games never fully captured this depth of knowledge of complex structures to keep a factory running. I really hope that I can learn a lot more about this job. I got my first sneak peek at it on Friday and really learned more about it today but I hope to find more and interesting information about it tomorrow.

Friday 21st

Day 5 – Friday 21^st

Today I arrived at my work place to find that most of the people were away for meetings. I sat at my desk and waited until 9:30 when I left for the big event of the Day. I went over to another building. There I met the E3 Materialfluss planner. He showed me their planning room with a huge plan on the wall. He explained to me how he did worked everyday and what it meant to be planner. We then took a tour through the actual factory. He showed me the entire process of how a cylinder head of a motor was made. First you make something called the Kern, which is made form sand, resin and glue. This Kern is used as the mold for the cylinder head. The Liquid hot aluminum is poured into this kern and then cooled. The kern is then chiseld of and the aluminuim is then heated up again. After that it gets shock cooled to become harder. Then the last step is the technical working on the cylinder head. Wholes are drilled and edges are smoothed out. Finished is your cylinder head made from just sand and aluminum and a lot of heat. This was the coolest expiereince so far in my internship. After this amazing tour I went to lunch with the regular group of colleges. When we came back two people hand a phone conference and I joined them. Until the rest of the day We had Deskwork.

I have met a lot people of the course of this internship and I cant remember them all. MY team consists of _ people.

Christiane Gropp – Boss of the team

Susanne Weßlowsky – Materialflussplanung inside DiFa

Marc Ölschläger – Productions Management

Jürgen Sommer – Fertigungsplanung

Georgios Farmakidis – Fertigungsplanung

Dr. Sven Mandel – I don’t know yet

There were other people like

Mark Isia – Anlaugffabrik Powertrain

Helmi Marzouk – Materialflussplanung Schwerkraftguß

Thursday 20th

Day 4 – Thursday 20^th

Today I went to the Werk Untertürkheim. There I visited the department of the Anlauffabrik Powertrain. I arrived there 7:30 this morning and got a small tour through the part of the testing facilities. The Anlauffabrik is in charge of testing and building motors that the designers and developers have created. The do extensive research and development on the motors and work on them until they have gotten rid of all problems. At 8:15 I was assigned a new person who showed me their newest technology, which was a glove that could measure in Newton’s how much force was exerted on the hand. This was used to test the stations for their ergonomics. At 9:00 we had a snack break and at 9.15 we continued with some deskwork. At 9:35 I went to the workers in the testing facility and got to actually help build on a motor. I helped assemble the “Kurbelgehäuse”. At 12:00 we had lunch and until 13:00 we had more deskwork. Then the college, Herr Isaia, Showed me on his computer what he does. He approves changes made by the testing facilities. He checks the position of the piece and if the changes affected the way that it has to be assembled into the motor. At 14:20 I switched over to another college, Herr Robic, who showed me what he does. He showed me their DMU system and their entire plan from when a new project is created to the moment when it goes into mass production. He also showed me the 3D model of the motor that Herr Isaia used and then showed me the motor in real life over in the testing facilities. After that we went back to his seat and he finished explaining. By then it was 15:50 and I had worker 8 hours and 20 minutes.

What I enjoy about the job is the constant communication between people. Meetings are held every day and arrangements are found together. I love the peace and quiet at the workplace, which allows one to fully work at his best capabilities. The people working at Daimler are very nice and I have really enjoyed my 4 days that I have spent here already. I can’t wait for next week. You quickly find people who are interested in similar areas like you.

In such a big Company like Daimler it is easier to move positions. You don’t loose your job and you have more options. I think it is great to work in such a big company.

Wednesday 19th

Day 3 – Wednesday 19^th

We started our day nice and calm with a smooth start from 8:10 to 9:20 with some deskwork. Some time around 8:20 I got bored and walked over to a college who did “Fertigungs planung” and asked him what he was doing. So we sat down and he talked me through what he was doing. He had found inconstancies in the list of machines and its processes. He was now trying to find the processes that had gone missing. He showed how he used the program “Process Designer”. Next at 9:25 I drove with a college to Untertürkheim for a meeting with people from the Werk Köleda. They spoke about the integration of DiFa into their processes but as it turned out they had no use of this. So all we asked for in the end was to get regular feed back of the excel master plan/list so that DiFa could use this information to improve its own processes. After the meeting George, the college, and I went to over to another desk where a close college of his worked. His name is Robert and together they take care of the DiFa simulation. After discussing the problems that had occurred We drove back to Mettingen just in time for Lunch at 12:00. After the lunch break I was able to test out the motion capture technology that George had prepared. I got to put on the sensors and move around. After 2 hours of jumping about and enacting the “montage” of motors and other things we looked at the end result. We used my skeleton that the computer had worked out from the sensors to project the movements onto the dummy in the Process simulator. It turned out that I as a child was not meant to use this technology because the dummy was strangely deformed due to the inaccurate proportions of my limbs. George then further showed me the software and how he used it to evaluate the ergonomics of workstations. He showed me some examples as well.

Problems I have encountered so far and how I dealt with them.

I didn’t face any problems at work. The people there have a wonderful program set to show me everything the do and they take me into meetings. The only thing is the time that every one is sitting at their desk working. I have nothing to do because I wouldn’t be able to do any of their work because it is to complex. These times are very short though and mostly I doodle systems or factories of my own. I have already applied some of their techniques on planning my own homework. The other big deal is that I have to wake up earlier then usual. Normally I wake up at 6:50. Now its 5:50. But I have my alarm to wake me up.

Tuesday 18th

Day 2 – Tuesday 18^th

First thing in the morning the team sat together for a team meeting to discus the topics of the day/week. One college presented the topics on the schedule and notes were taken. There I noticed that for every meeting there was always someone leading it, who had prepared the power point. In the meeting the power point was presented and each slide was then worked on. It was no longer their presentation but it became the teams. After the morning session three colleges and I drove over to the Werk Untertürkheim. There we discussed the project with two people from a different department that were also involved in this project. We discussed the aspect of implementing complex structures into the production lines, The role of our department the DiFa and how to make collect the data from the systems that run ergonomic tests on the work stations for manual labor. After having agreed on the concept we then headed back to Mettingen were we did some desk work for 30 minutes before we going for lunch. Once again the team sat together on a table and ate together. After lunch we had a similar meeting to the one before only this time people from Sindelfingen came to us. We sat in a conference room and discussed the power point. Grasping the concepts is very hard due to the huge amount of shortcut words that are used. It went similarly to the one before hand. Next we had a team internal meeting to discuss the progress of the project so far and how to coordinate this. Again many shortcuts were used so my report on the topics at hand might be incorrect. This meeting took 2 hours and after it was done it 16:00. My boss told me I could leave now if I wanted to but I stayed until 16:20 filling out forms to round the numbers to 8 hours again.

The Department that I am in is called Digitale Fabrik Powertrain (DiFa). It is responsible has many responsibilities which vary from person to person. We have the planner who checks the differences between generations of motors and through his analytics then reconfigures the production lines. That is one job that I got to look into in depth but I will be shown others as well. In general the DiFa is in charge of planning the factory and how production lines are to be set up to make them most efficient. Resource management is not included and the actual placing of machines is not included either. Its a lot of theory and concept design. This is why so much communication and meetings have to take place. All departments in the project need to know about the resent changes and need to add their own information/input to the concept.

Today as probably a very typical day with many meetings and little desk work. The working is done fast but making sure that the work has its quality and that every party likes the concept is the challenging part.