Looking back, this past week has been full of changes! After graduating Sunday, I moved out and flew to Costa Rica. I took Tuesday to acclimate to Costa Rica and started work Wednesday. I will be working at Boston Scientific in Coyol for the next 7 weeks as a supplier engineer intern. Supplier engineering is a field that deals with all the materials used to make the products at Boston Scientific here in Coyol and I am specifically working within the sustaining division, which focuses on the current products on the market and sustaining those with vendor changes, material changes, and discontinued materials. Additionally, sustaining supplier engineers are the main contact when anything goes wrong on the production floor related to materials and need to align with both the production plant and commercial side in order to alert on changes and get the timing right for the material changes. I knew little about supplier engineering initially, and this summer will be a great learning experience to see what a typical day is like for a supplier engineer.
Meeting coworkers, getting to know a company, and learning about my role within the company and my group have been challenging, but going through these all in the past week has pushed me to integrate fast into the work and get excited for the next 6 weeks of my internship. Early on, there were trainings and other on-boarding tasks that made the days feel longer, but by Friday I began to get a more defined role and having more tasks to work through helped me feel more productive and energized. Additionally, having daily meetings with the team I am working in has made me feel connected and supported early on.
I will have two main projects while here at Boston Scientific this summer. The first is a risk matrix that is used by the sustaining division to see what projects and materials have the highest risk for the company ultimately determining what changes need to be focused on first. This is important because certain material changes have larger implications financially than others and prioritizing these is key to the success of the company. Currently, the matrix contains all the fields that need to be input, but there are issues with people editing over others, and the user interface is not friendly. I am in charge of putting all risks into the matrix that get emailed to us as a department as well as working on the design of a form for user input. Integrating organization and user-centered design together to help improve this form and make it the best it can be for the company is a great way for me to use my skills I have developed through my previous design work and apply them to a project that will be implemented. I am also the lead on a project from the risk matrix. I will be leading a project having to do with a vendor change for one of the current materials for a product being made in Coyol. I will not have the time to finish the whole vendor change process as it typically takes 6 months, but will be doing the organizational and planning work to get the product to the point of feasibility assessment of the new material. Having a lot of responsibility with leading a project is exciting for me, as I will be experiencing what a typical supplier engineer deals with on the day to day. Having two projects will teach me how to balance time and find the best resources to help me complete these projects. I am grateful to be trusted with two main projects while here, and I hope they help Boston Scientific in the long term.
A water apple: one of the many exciting fruits I tried this weekend!
I also had time this weekend to enjoy getting to know my peers. Friday was an exciting morning at Boston Scientific as the World Cup was on and Costa Rica was playing Brazil! We showed up to the cafeteria being full of people watching the game at 7am and cheering. It was a great atmosphere to watch the game in and made me excited to watch more of the World Cup this coming week. Over the weekend, I went to the symphony with a small group and we heard amazing music in a beautiful theatre. Playing the bassoon and being involved with music for the past 10 years, it was great getting to experience music and see how it’s an international language. I also went to the farmers market which was filled with many exotic fruits I got to try and bought a lot of fruit as well. These weekend adventures were a good way to take a break after the busy week and get to know my teammates for the next year. They also helped me get energized for my upcoming first full week at Boston Scientific!