Each week here at Boston Scientific has been filled with new learnings. This week my main learnings had to do with working through projects in supplier engineering and building my understanding of supplier engineering within Boston Scientific. I was able to finalize my project, which has to do with packaging of products. The current package and label combination generates a lot of scrap because the labels are too big for the pouches. Too much scrap leads to the products not being able be properly packaged and shipped, so solving this issue will help these components get out on time and save the company a lot of money. While this project is not the most exciting topic, I am working to understand the medical device component that is packaged within these pouches as well as learning how to accomplish a project in supplier engineering. Learning to use tools to measure components precisely, and setting up a plan for this project is my main focus. Working within Boston Scientific, I need to coordinate with the production units using these pouches and labels, the buyers who purchase these pouches and labels, and other departments that interact with these pouches and labels. It is important to this project’s success to coordinate across departments and this will also increase my understanding of supplier engineers within the larger corporations.  

I also learned about the process that each new project goes through in supplier engineering. The department utilizes a sprint format which splits tasks into a weekly format for a total of 21 weeks or sprints. This sprint format is utilized in a modified structure for the GMI implementation projects and having an introduction to it while here in Costa Rica is useful.  In my remaining time here I will be able to get through 2-3 sprints and set up a plan for the remaining sprints that can be carried out once I leave. Going through the sprints will help me to understand the process and problems my project deals with and it will be a great learning experience to apply the concepts I learned about for the sprints to a specific project. Supplier engineering is not where I think I will end up working in the future, so finding transferable skills and learnings from the department, like this sprint format, has been important to me.  

Working at Boston Scientific, I want to explore and learn about other departments and career paths other than supplier engineering. To learn more about research and development (R&D), Paula and I sat down with and held an informational interview with someone who is working here in Coyol for only the summer before returning to his position in Boston. He has traveled and lived all over the world for his job and this global aspect of his career is inspiring to me and I hope can be part of my future career. Hearing more about R&D and typical job functions like creating new products, and designing different innovations, the most exciting part of the job is its integration with the medical community and performing studies with animal models and doctors a couple times a year. I am missing the clinical and medical aspects in my current work and in the future want to find a way to integrate them into my job. Having this informational interview helped me not only learn about another type of engineering at Boston but potentially a career I would be interested in in the future. 

For fun this weekend we stayed home and went on day trips to explore the local area more. We found a hike in Escazú that was close to where we live and hiked up the road and into the country side overlooking the city.

The view of the city from our hike

It was a wonderful vantage point and fun to see the city from high up.The countryside is extremely green and lush here making it feel like a rainforest everywhere. On Sunday, we went to the farmers market and then to a local coffee shop to write our blogs and get some to-dos done. The weekend ended with a trip to the gluten-free bakery, which made me so happy! Having a weekend at home has been a great way to reset and rest up for the final three weeks here in Costa Rica.

Happiness is gluten-free bakeries