Category: Jose

As an intern at Baya Furniture and Design I believed I did a great job overall. I understood the task that was given and gained an increasing amount of knowledge on how to successfully manage a company.  Since my task was based on the quality of products or services, I had to speak to many individuals who worked as head of their departments such as product development, quality control, warehouse, and business analytics. They were all in charge of different task that have direct correlation to the overall quality of the goods or service provided. I exceled in my task because I used my engineering mindset to design a dashboard using previous collected data in order to measure the current and future data analysis with a certain margin of error. I definitely have room to growth to become a better student and leader. As a leader I need to talk to more employees in order to gain their trust and as a student to learn more about the company and understand the importance of each individual’s role in their respective department for the enhancement of the supply chain process.

This experience has contributed to my professional development by increasing my confidence as an engineer to successfully execute any project or task without any prior knowledge over the subject at hand. This experience has expanded my professional vocabulary and taught me new soft and technical skills lessons not commonly found in any engineering classroom. I have the career aspiration to begin my own company and establish an efficient and successful supply chain process. This experience will definitely resonate in my life as a determine factor that will guide me toward my future career goals. The key takeaways in this experience is not to be afraid of your incompetence but to believe in your determination to succeed. There are many things in the world we don’t understand and that are out of our comfort zone. These things may make us doubt our skills and add more pressure in our lives. Whether its adapting to a new country, job, language, or societal norms we must never give up and constantly meditate in order to grow and develop our skills as an individual. Reflection is a powerful tool we have that can help us take down large obstacles presented in our life. If there is any advice, I can pass on to any individual who is going to attempt this same experience it would be to stay open minded and always try to learn something new or do something new every day. This mindset will help anyone engage in interesting conversations and activities presented in their life. I believe this mindset will truly lead to happiness in the workplace as well as in your personal life no matter the circumstances.

The best moment in my internship was when the supply chain manager evaluated my project charter for approval. A project charter consists of a statement of the project description, business case, constraints and assumptions, goals, problem opportunity, and time management plan. The supply chain manager was very impressed with my work and approved my project. The approval of the project allowed me to access confidential documentation concerning the company’s performance. This experience has increased my confidence for starting new research opportunities or business plans.

The biggest professional accomplishment in the internship was understanding and enhancing the supply chain process using my engineering background. The supply chain process consists of many segments that need to monitored in order to have a successful line of production. I am in charge of the quality assessment for each product made. I evaluate all the possible errors or defects a product can have before it reaches the customer. For example, a product can be designed and drawn inefficiently and therefore mass production can take longer or the production of the product can lead to higher inconsistencies. There are no engineers in the product development team and this can lead to miscommunication between the manufacturers or suppliers and the product development manager. An engineering perspective of the sample products could increase the product development efficiency. There is a quality control department that is in charge of reporting all the defects that have occurred in the past and from which supplier.

This information helps evaluate the reliability of the suppliers chosen.  There are other quality assessments I have had to measure such as the number of failed deliveries, employee retention rate, and many others than evaluate the company’s performance as a whole. The best way to describe living in Ho Chi Minh City is like driving a scooter around this city. Many people here never plan and always go with the flow and hope for the best to come. I am living a mixed life between being always prepared and living spontaneously. I love trying new food and entering the most intriguing street markets that you can only find exploring around Saigon. I always have a general idea of where to go but the details of how I spend my time is determined by exploring and connecting with the culture, people, and environment.

In the supply chain industry for furniture and household products there are many variables that are interconnected. There are five primary departments for a successful supply chain: Product Development, suppliers or manufacturers, warehouse or Inventory, marketing, and retail. There are other departments such as human resources, business analytics, and quality control that play a key role in enhancing the supply chain by using data analysis. Product development is the most important process because this is when an idea becomes a design and then into a physical product. The product development process normally takes about four months and three or more products compete with each other to get an approval for the new product line. During product development there is internal marketing within the company to promote the products for future reference. After a product is approved a purchase order will be sent out to SAP and the Supplier to determine a set price. A supplier will then receive the purchase order and produce a certain amount of units. The units will then pass quality control and be shipped to the warehouse. The warehouse has a record of all the inventory and deliveries that need to be made daily. Some products are seasonal so a sufficient amount of stock keeping units is necessary to predict an increase in demand. Retail then send the purchase order from the customer to the warehouse and the logistics department is in charge of delivering the goods.

The organizations strengths are their lasting history that has built dependable credible representation in the Vietnam market. They have a variety amount of suppliers that can keep the product line innovative and creative. The company also has very strong margins that allow it to reinvest in itself to grow in Vietnam. Incorporating Swedish design and standard are also BAYA biggest strength that bring in a lot of attention and demand. The organizations main weakness is their inability to produce quality products at a high manufacture rate. They have a new quality control department that definitely needs more structure in order to lower the amount of products with defects that arrive to customers. The company has the opportunity to increase their margins and credibility with the adoption of their new brand name. The new brand name allows UMA to learn from their mistakes and begin a new refreshing beginning as BAYA. The organizations biggest threat is the furniture stores that sell cheaper products whom buy from Chinese factories. Chinese companies are big competitors due to their low prices.

The best moment I have had in HCM is playing soccer with the locals. The locals invited us to play on a 5v5 turf field. They were incredibly friendly and loved the competition. Playing a sport that I grew up playing all my life in a different country with locals was remarkable. After the game the locals took us to a special place to dine where people sat in little chairs and ate baby duck eggs. I remember feeling nervous about eating such a strange thing but I was able to overcome my fear of food poising and enjoyed the egg with the rest of the locals.

The most challenging aspect of my internship is to receive data from personnel outside the Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam office. I have had to contact the warehouse department, business analytics department, and quality control department which are situated in Hanoi, Vietnam. I have had to email five department managers with the intention of understanding how they tabulate their data and what software’s they use accordingly. Some of the department managers are incredibly busy and have difficulty finding the time to contact me and explain their data. This challenge has given me the opportunity to input my engineering knowledge of uncertainty when recording data and accounting for random errors. Since I have to evaluate the quality of products, I have the knowledge to understand the difference between design errors and manufacturing errors. I believe I can offer the quality control department a great overview on how they can enhance quality control checks, and how they can use my data analysis to measure and enhance their performance.

The best feature of my internship is that I have been granted the clearance to view confidential documents containing data from different departments. Understanding the complexity and purpose of the different departments in a supply chain has helped me enter a leadership role that can make a big impact. This position has enhanced my social and business skills which complement my engineering knowledge in order to have a successful business in the future. This experience is very different than any of my previous experiences because I have never had the opportunity to evaluate the performance of all the departments in a supply chain. The availability of the data has given me the key instruments that help me envision the future of the company as well as my own. I am now considering managerial positions in supply chains processes for my future studies.

My favorite snack in Ho Chi Minh city is the Lychee. This is a very traditional fruit to see in the supermarket as well as in the office. Vietnamese love this red fruit because of its small size and its green hairs. Lychees are sweet, healthy, and provide you with an extra boost of energy when tired.

I have advanced at a great rate to finish my dashboard presentation in two weeks. I have come to a consensus with my supervisor to evaluate eight key performance indicators for quality. The eight key performance indicators chosen are the percentage of number of defects, percent difference of claims from previous years, percentage of failed deliveries, average days of closing claims, number of pending claims, number of unprocessed document in SAP, and the percentage of employees that left within a year of employment. These eight key performance indicators will analyze the data recorded from the warehouse, customer relationship management, and quality control. I am designing a process in Microsoft excel that will analyze the current data in pivot tables, charts, and timelines. I have to make sure to establish an easy way in which future data can directly be inserted into the existing tables and be displayed in all pivot tables and dashboards. I have attached a picture of an exemplary dashboard for revenue key performance indicators. The process that I have designed in excel will help the company measure the performance, productivity and profitability of certain products concerning quality. The final dashboards will help the supply chain manager make key decisions that will help him navigate the company to a prosperous future.

I have a great relationship with my supervisor because I am constantly asking him for advice concerning how he would personally like the dashboards displayed. He is a great mentor that has enlightened me in many ways on how to approach certain constraints and projects of the company. My co-workers are all incredibly friendly and have great advice on where to get information for my current project. Their diverse backgrounds in their certain disciplines has allowed me to learn something new and different about the company every day. I have strong conversational skills that has allowed me to understand what people are trying to say even if they communicate in English with very few words.

The one thing I have learned living and working in Ho Chi Minh City is that a mechanical engineer is capable of working in any company, in any country, and with a completely different mindset. Engineers can make great impacts in various applications. In my example, I have noticed how useful my engineering perspective has come when revising the quality of products and how we can come up with solutions to design problems on the very spot. This experience has given me the advantage to understand the two complementary intellectual worlds that are necessary for a successful company, Engineering and Business. 

My supervisor is Mr. Nguyen Vu and he is the supply chain manager. He is responsible for administering ever process in the supply chain process. He has direct involvement with approval of ideas and supply chain departments such as product development, suppliers, inventory, procurement, delivery, retail, and quality control. He is responsible for enhancing the communication and efficiency between supply chain departments. The primary role of a supply chain manager is to decrease cost, enhance the quality of products, and squeeze out as much inventory as possible with minimum losses. My supervisor’s day-to-day schedule compromise of reaching out to every department to understand how they are doing and if they planning to meeting their goal for the month or week. Mr. Vu is a very approachable leader that loves to help and interact with employees. He is very knowledgeable over the supply chain process because he had 10 years’ experience working in the supply chain process with Honeywell. My colleague Jenna and I work directly with the supply chain manager and have the responsibility to reach out to different departments.

My current internship role is to enhance the quality of the products sold by Baya. I will be designing key performance indicators (KPI) that measure the performance, productivity, and profitability concerning the quality of the products. Using these KPIs I will be formulating an interactive dashboard that will instantly help my supply chain manager assess the performance of the company regarding quality. The company’s current goal is to decrease their cost and enhance the quality of its products. These are opposing forces, so my objective it to find the balance on the minimum amount of money that should be spent that can produce adequate quality standards. My daily role consists of reaching out too many departments such as product development and quality control in order to understand how they are reporting quality standards and what type of defects are encountered today.

Ho Chi Minh city is full of interesting personal experienced but the best one has been enjoying some exotic fruits with my coworkers. The company around 3:00 PM has a small break in which the majority of the workers eat some exotic fruits and share a conversation in the kitchen area. Popular fruits like durian, lychees, and guava are fruits we all enjoy.  

The company entity I am working for is called Anh Nguyen Co., Ltd. The brand name of my company recently changed from UMA to Baya Furniture and Decoration. The company decided to adopt a new brand in order to keep developing and not be limited by the existing brand’s image. Baya Furniture and Decoration is a wholesale company that sell furniture and housing accessories. I am directly working with the supply chain manager and designing a process that will enhance certain aspects of the supply chain. Supply chain management overlooks the entire supply chain processes such as Idea approval, product development, procurement of materials or products from suppliers, inventory capabilities, delivery, marketing, retail, and customer satisfaction.

The first days of the internship have been incredibly rewarding. As a mechanical engineering student, the entire supply chain process is completely new information and knowledge that I have never seen or heard before. The first couple of days have been difficult to comprehend because I am switching my engineering mindset to a business management mindset. I have learned new terminology that has allowed me to understand how different supply chain processes can be enhanced. For example, the first tasked assigned was related to key performance indicators (KPI) in order to measure the performance of a certain department and to understand the market conditions better.

The environment of the workplace is cohesively organized so every department can communicate effectively with each other. Many inspiring signs with the company’s core values are portrayed everywhere in the company workplace. The company’s core values are Customer commitment, Integrity, Quality, Respect for people, Team work, and Continuous improvement. The company is also named after the baya weaver which is a weaver bird found across the Indian Subcontinent and southeast Asia. The nest of the baya weaver is the fundamental idea of the company’s new logo Fig.1. The company workplace is a very relaxed and efficient. When you arrive at the company front door there is a sign that ask employees to take off their shoes and wear company slippers. The slippers make working long hours at the desk comfortable. The company culture is also very warm and welcoming with small breaks throughout the day to enjoy local fruits and hot tea.

The cultural activity through the Chu Chi tunnels of Ho Chi Minh City was an impacting educational experience. During the Vietnam War many of the Vietnamese had to live in tunnels that were about three to five meters underground. The tunnels provided shelter from the explosives that descended from aerial attacks. Many of these tunnels used bamboo tubing or termite holes to provide oxygen in the tunnels. Many of the tunnels made with bamboo tubing collapsed during the war. Crawling through these dark cramped mud tunnels made me realize the difficulties Vietnamese people had to endure in order to live and survive during this period of time. Smaller tunnels were also created to connect underground living bunkers. The compact sizes of these bunkers and tunnels display the small capacity of people that could survive during this time. Today the Chu Chi tunnels are a reflection of the innovation and determination of the Vietnamese people.

My first impression of Vietnam was disorder and chaos. People, scooters, cars all traveled in many directions with authority and haste. I expected the streets of Vietnam to have streets with road signs and rules to follow, but it seems that in all the disorder of many vehicles rushing in every direction there is an unexplainable order that people in Vietnam naturally follow. In order to cross the road a person must have the trust and confidence that the drivers will drive around them. The experience of crossing a road in Vietnam is a life lesson. It reflects taking the irrational risk outside of your comfort zone and trusting yourself and the people around you, in order to see the other side of life that may or may not be full of opportunity. Every corner in Ho Chi Minh city is screaming with opportunity to become a competitive and industrial city. Therefore, I have begun to slowly see the beauty in the rumble of Vietnam.

I am excited to begin my supply chain and product design internship position in BAYA CO tomorrow. I am very curious on what oriental work culture is like and how they react to a foreigner. I am very curious on what types of foods and conversations I will have with my Vietnamese coworkers. I am looking forward to building a strong relationship with my supervisor and coworkers on my first day.