With the introduction of summer months, I began my internship at Panasonic Automotive Systems of North America at Peachtree City, GA as an Businesses and Supply String Management Intern. My internship lasted for 18 weeks and offered me brilliant challenges and experiences in neuro-scientific Supply Chain, Procedures Management and Process Improvement. I caused the Purchasing section which is in charge of planning, scheduling and procurement greater than 6000 productive parts for manufacturing models in Mexico and China. These parts are procured from over 170 Sellers which are located around the world. This complex procurement for two major manufacturing items involves a great deal of planning, evaluation and coordination.
Before I dwell in to the details of my encounters and recommendations, Personally, i thank Panel of Directors who created this position and offered me the chance to work in this great company with such skilled people.
During the internship, I functioned closely with the Purchasing Supervisor and Key Procurement Officer to resolve many problems and streamline and standardized many procedures. These problems challenged my abilities and skills discovered at the Business College and provided me with a fantastic platform to use my learning and utilize my previous work experiences to determine the answers to these problems.
I began with an Inventory Management project which involved determining critical parts and calculating safety stocks and options for these parts. The id of critical parts were based on not only on the constraints such as demand of the parts or option of parts but also on subjective requirements such as whether different supplier is present or restriction of supply of parts from the company or how difficult it is to procure the part from a different supplier if needed. This intricate evaluation is put on identify critical parts out of more than 6000 dynamic parts. Inputs are extracted from the purchasers which entail in procuring the parts in terms of their experiences. Once parts are recognized safety stocks and options levels are determined while taking into consideration the current security lead times present in the machine. I designed web templates to monitor the inventory levels of these critical parts to possess an improved control and prevent stock-outs.
In order to lessen the expense of procurement and the quantity of work-load of the purchasers, I initiated an research of the Order insurance policy and Delivery insurance policy of some of parts that have low cost and volume. After the analysis, I proposed to improve the Order insurance plan of some of the parts which used to be ordered weekly into monthly requests. The demand is accumulated for the month and the parts are ordered monthly rather than regular. As almost all of these parts are of low cost such as screws, solder paste etc, purchasing every month will not increase the holding cost. However, it reduces the buying cost by 25% and also reduces the quantity of improve the clients as now they need to place PO ever before month alternatively than every week.
After understanding the processes, I included myself in many process improvement assignments which involved real cause analysis of the issues and then investigating various answers to reduce these problems. One of these tasks was Part Price Variance which in simple terms was about discrepancy of PO price with the Invoice price. These conditions were getting reported in large numbers and for this reason discrepancy obligations are freezed to the distributor which restricts the next shipment. I consulted the various parties engaged and explored various reasons to the situation. After investigating the root cause I discussed a fresh process circulation with the Purchasing Supervisor to reduce the amount of these Price Variances. It also helped us to reduce the rework and hanging around at different levels.
I designed many new record templates for the higher management to have a much better control and reporting system at place. I attempted to automate almost all of these reports so that they do not have a lot of commitment to populate the info in these accounts. I extensively used Excel Macros and other tools to handle the automation.
One of the major process improvement projects I undertook was improving the current Transport Expediting Database. I and another team-mate explored various features that may be incorporated in today's system. After finalizing the features, I incorporated the mandatory changes and presented many new reports which is often generated from the data source. Various security features are also put into restrict unauthorized gain access to and updations. I noted the new changes and provided knowledge copy to various departments.
In addition, I caused Advance Purchasing office for some time with alumni in our Business College to recreate the Distributor Evaluation Standards. The Suppliers are rated on various expectations and your final score is determined depending upon that your higher management determined whether to continue with the Suppliers or find another Provider. Panasonic also rewards the top 20 suppliers annually following this score.
Apart from the great experience working at Panasonic, I enjoyed surviving in Peachtree City. It really is a unique town with its lush green neighbourhoods and 80 miles of golf paths or "multi-use" paths which links every neighbourhood and encompasses many ponds and serene lakes.
Panasonic Firm being one of the major electronic appliances developing company with more than 640 companies in its umbrella provided a distinctive internship experience. However, the existing economic problems has proved to be difficult times for Panasonic Automotive Systems Company. With large reorganization and lay-off the business is under difficult constraints. But now with the enhancing economic environment, it is again picking right up and future potential customers want good. The last mentioned portion of the paper describes in details about Panasonic Corporation and Panasonic Automotive Systems Company and briefly describes the existing environment.
Panasonic Corporation
Panasonic Corporation is one of the major electronic products making group on the globe. Founded in 1918 by Mr. Konosuke Matsushita as Matsushita Electric Devices Manufacturing Works, the business expanded many-folds. Began with a employees of 3 people (Mr. Matsushita, his wife and brother-in legislations), Panasonic now consists of a diverse workforce of 384, 586 employees around the world. It is a conglomerate of over 680 companies which get excited about vast business functions such as home appliances, environmental systems, automotive systems, systems systems, mobile communications and semiconductors.
Panasonic Automotive Systems Company
Headquartered at Kanagawa, Japan, the Automotive Systems Company grows, manufactures and sells car navigation, car Audio/Video equipments and systems. The company is founded in Jan, 2003 and currently employees 10, 035 employees across the globe. The business was formulated to integrate a number of sections to have a much better control of these units and offer consumers new products by utilizing the synergies of the individual sections. The automotive electronics business promotion centre and corporate motor vehicle electronics marketing division are combined with motor vehicle systems business, motor vehicle multi-media company, and car satnav systems business to unify the development, creation and sales of car navigation and audio-visual systems.
With changing consumer requirements, the company centered on providing better products for in-vehicle entertainment and on the same time find solutions to environmental and safety concerns. The company included the American businesses in order to provide the huge American car industry.
Panasonic Automotive Systems of North America
Matsushita had been a major player in the automobile radio market when it decided to open up the first development facility at Peachtree City, GA in 1987. 2 yrs later, another manufacturing facility was opened up at Southfield, MI. This resulted in the birth of Panasonic Automotive Systems of North America which catered to the THE UNITED STATES automotive industry. With a give attention to R & D and a solid engineering and design team, the company developed many revolutionary products and introduced American consumer for an innovative products of in-vehicle entertainment and navigation system. In 1997, the company created world's first Dvd movie car navigation system. With the switch of the millennium, many innovative products were launched which included an Internet-ready portable car navigation system, the world's first car sound with built-in SD player, and an automobile navigation system outfitted with high-resolution, wide VGA monitor. Panasonic pioneered in the rear-seat car entertainment systems and created the car-mounted on-vehicle emergency call system (HELPNET) and the car-mounted electronic toll collection product.
With the first success of Panasonic in the car entertainment industry, many major car manufacturers such as GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Honda became its valuable customers. Panasonic proved helpful directly with GM and provided factory-installed accessories to virtually all the car types of GM. JD Power and Associates ranked Panasonic as number 1 on client satisfaction for the increasingly popular vehicle option of rear-seat entertainment systems.
Panasonic Automotive Systems Company not only covered the grade of their products but also worried about environment. The company pledges in their environmental statement which it insures a "prudent, ecological use of the earth's resources and the safety of the environment. " [1] It helps bring about the utilization of "Green Products" that are designated products with minimal environmental impacts. The procedures in the manufacturing units are specifically made to make the factories clean that coexist with the neighborhood communities and environment. The Peachtree City manufacturing facility was regarded as one of the most environmentally conscious business in the Atlanta area. The business emphasise on reducing VOCs (Volatile Organic Ingredients) and recycling of the manufacturing waste products such as solder materials, material and plastics.
Peachtree City, GA Unit
Peachtree City, being ranked as the 8th best [2] place to live with lush inexperienced landscapes and carefully designed and controlled neighbourhoods, it is difficult to imagine a large manufacturing facility in this town. However, the school of thought of the creator in our company, Konosuke Matsushita, that "an organization is a general population institution. Hence, it exists for the culture, is supported by the world and must walk hand in hand with the society", helped us support this manufacturing unit in tranquility with the environment.
However, the existing economic crisis proved to be quite devastating for the Peachtree City product. Together with the downturn of the American auto industry which resulted in drastic show up of major maker like GM and Chrysler the demand for products of Panasonic Automotive Systems crashed heavily. The high cost of labor and overall production in United States could not be suffered with this reduced demand. Management was pressured to take some drastic actions to sustain the business. The whole production was changed from Peachtree City to Reynosa, Mexico in lay of high cost of development. This led to huge lay-offs at Peachtree City device. The work push was cut to one third and even employees who've served the company for more than 15-20 years were laid off.
Currently, Peachtree City residences the Anatomist, Accounting, Purchasing and Quality departments which are supported by IT and Human source of information departments. The Engineering department manages designing and new product development. It helps the manufacturing functions mostly at Reynosa, Mexico and Daliyan, China and other developing units across the world.
Now, with the overall economy on the path to restoration and increasing consumer spending, the automobile industry is picking right up again. It has increased the demand for Panasonic Automotive Systems products and many new projects from all major car production players are coming to Peachtree City. The business has started selecting the individuals it laid off before and progressively the sales are increasing. We are very optimistic about the future of Panasonic Automotive Systems of THE UNITED STATES and with the influx of new assignments from GM, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota etc; the business will soon restore its lost glory.
[1] Panasonic Automotive Systems Company, Tuning in. (n. d). In Producer. Retrieved 18th Aug 2010 from http://www. themanufacturer. com/us/detail. html?contents_id=2939
[2] http://money. cnn. com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2005/index. html
Learning's
The internship provided me with a program to work with my business skills and learning's at the business school. Since it was a Resource Chain & Functions Management internship, it challenged a variety of skill pieces and offered an opportunity to acquire new skills.
The Inventory management task offered me the possibility to apply the training of Functions Management course. It extensively utilized basic Source String Management skills of discovering the critical parts by doing an ABC Classification. To be able to have a leaner inventory and reduce stock-outs, principles of safety companies are applied.
Analysis of Material Reference Planning (MRP) which immediately handled Order policy and Delivery plan utilized the learning from Businesses Management course. I ready numerous test instances to discover the best combo of Order coverage and delivery insurance plan to truly have a leaner inventory level.
Supplier rating criteria project which dealt with enhancing the conditions used to rate the suppliers, challenged my analytical skills. The statistical ideas and tools discovered in Data Examination course such as normal syndication, principles of standard deviation and variance were applied in this project.
New provider selection process involved analysis of financial assertions and company account of the suppliers. The new supplier's financials are also compared with the current supplier's financials which supply the related parts. This used to be an extensive analysis to guarantee that the new company is financial firm. I examined many suppliers' financial assertions, calculating various financial ratios, almost all of which is learned in Financial Accounting course.
I enhanced and added new features to the present Shipment Expediting Databases. The database was based on MS Gain access to and I added numerous accounts and did functional level changes in the forms. It included rigorous VBA development and applied many concepts I have discovered in Information Systems course.
As explained prior, I undertook many report automation tasks which engaged Excel Macros and other tools I learned in the info Research course.
The procurement of parts from strategically picked Vendors, depending after location, quality, price and availability, this dynamics is plainly known with the principles learned in Global Strategic Management course. Commercial level Strategic alliances with global Vendors to insure better control of prices and quality of the parts is area of the Corporate Strategy employed by Panasonic Corporation.
The management of manufacturing products across different locations on the planet which transcends the necessity to build factories in low cost making countries with abundant low-cost labor and solve the problems in taking care of these units hired core concepts discovered in International Management course. I grasped the friction between different civilizations and the necessity for the director to adapt to the norms of different culture and how people work in different locations is key to handling many problems.
At Panasonic, we've a diverse work-force numerous Japanese employees who work differently than their American counterparts. Japanese business issue course helped me to comprehend the cultural aspect of working habits of Japanese people.
To summarize, the internship was completely aligned with my future dreams and goals. It helped me to foster new skills and provided me the opportunity to work in a diverse environment.
