Over the course of this week I have learned about international companies and work while continuing to settle into life here in Costa Rica. I have been working primarily with the supply risk matrix and making sure each issue on it has a stock out date or confirmation that there is no stock out date for the issue. Having the correct stock out date helps my team determine what changes to materials or issues with materials get priority and our focus. We have daily meetings where we talk through any new issues and make sure nothing critical has gotten added to our matrix. Meeting face-to-face with my team each morning has allowed me to ask questions and see my supervisor each day as well as communicate the work I have done on the risk matrix. Through getting the stock out dates I have learned how going to someone and asking for the information instead of just emailing them is a lot more effective. The risk matrix is almost updated with all stock out dates and then I will be primarily focusing on maintaining it and adding new issues and will not have as many fields to edit in the coming weeks. The vendor change project I was assigned to last week turned out to no longer be a pressing issue as the stock out date had been extended for 2 more years so we are still in the process of finding me another project to work on.
I am continuing to see how the international piece of a company can create unique challenges that are not always seen in the United States. One of the main lessons I have learned is that when designing and creating material to convey an idea it is better to do it visually so that audiences who do not know a certain language are not confused or left out of learning. As a non Spanish speaker it has been hard at times to understand what is happening in a process when it is all in Spanish. One of the examples of creating and designing visually this week is the supplier engineering scrum board which helps us to communicate to other departments what we are working on and get feedback of any new tasks the other departments, especially the production units, have to add. We wanted to simplify the board so it was easier to see the main issues we are currently addressing and also where we are within each main project. By using colored magnets we were able to create a visual way to show where we are in each of the 6 steps in the problem solving process that Boston uses. This helps make the board both visual, but also easy to make it dynamic and move around to show the issue progression. I hope to carry this lesson of visual versus written communication for other countries into my implementation and design projects in the fall.
For my implementation project in the fall I will be leading the Mind oVR Matter project with Carolyne and on a team with Hannah and Christine who are leads on the MilkyWaves project. The Mind oVR Matter project is about working with a VR system to create a way for students at Rice to experience surgeries and procedures to perform ethnography through VR and design medical devices. Additionally, the VR system serves as a way to visualize anatomy and perform surgical simulations. The next step in this project is to gain approval from institutions to place a 360˚ camera into surgical suites for cadaver demos, animal studies, and surgical and catheter lab procedures. I am excited to explore and learn more about VR and the visual aspect of learning is exciting to me. The MilkyWaves project is based here in Costa Rica and I cannot wait to travel back here and help on this project.
Playa Conchal made all of shells
We ended the week with a trip to Tamarindo, which is a beach town on the Pacific Coast. Saturday we ate breakfast next to the beach and spent the day swimming and enjoying the beach and it was nice and warm. On Sunday we visited Playa Conchal, which was a short walk down a neighboring beach. Playa Conchal’s beach is made all of shells and the water was clear and beautiful. Some of us went snorkeling in a cove off to one side. Having never snorkeled before, it was an incredible experience. I saw fish of many different colors, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, and barnacles. Seeing the world underneath the water was truly amazing and was a once in a lifetime experience. It was a great way to end the weekend.
Our breakfast view in Tamarindo