My apologies to the Saltire team and to the other interns who found time in their busy schedules to blog over the last two weeks! I can only say that I have been busy having a fantastic experience within DHL and Tokyo in general, and that I promise to keep on top of the blog from now on!
To make up for the lack of progress reports, I'll try my best to squeeze three weeks' worth of activity into a few paragraphs:
Week two: My second week in Japan gave rise to an introduction to Dr Stephen Baker of Scottish Development International, and a delightful evening was had on what happened to be my 21st birthday, thank you Stephen. I'm thrilled that I'll be able to look back in years to come and tell people I spent this time in Tokyo, thank you Saltire! In particular, I hope I will always remember this first time I heard the sentence, "would anyone like the last slice of horse".
At the office, I was pleased to be introduced to the head of the Business Development (BD) team that I'm working with, as he had been out of the office in the previous week. This also meant that I was given a clearer idea of what my main project would involve; the ultimate goal of which is to produce a library of case studies for the team to use in their daily work.
As we were (or rather, are) still in the process of getting to know how the organisation works, we were treated to a site visit or two during this week, to see firsthand how the operations that BD promote are actually run.
Week 3: The site visits continued, and I was especially interested to see how a number of the consumer/retail operations are handled. Of course, just like all of the other interns, I am bound by a confidentiality agreement so I'm afraid I can't say very much more about it, other than that enjoy every opportunity to get to know the processes and people at work under the Supply Chain umbrella.
Into the third week, the the rainy season left and the Tokyo heat really swooped in. The temperature and humidity combination is like nothing I've ever experienced before and, whilst it's nice to get a break from the Scottish weather, it can be unbearable! At the risk of sounding incredibly girly, it's something that neither me nor my hair were prepared for.
Back over to activities at work, and I was very lucky to be able to join a two day lean six sigma workshop. I had done (what turned out to be a tiny) bit of reading about DMAIC principles to prepare for my interviews at the start of the process, but as I mentioned re the kaizen training session, it's nothing compared to a chance to learn first hand from Japanese management experts! One of the major things I am looking forward to bringing back to Scotland is my new understanding of such practices.
Week 4: Last week I was given the fantastic opportunity to sit in (very quietly and well-behaved) on a major BD meeting with a potential customer (who shall of course remain undisclosed). I feel comfortable in saying, however, that this particular customer is already very sizable extremely well known in markets outside Japan, where they are expanding their operations, so I felt very privileged to be privy to such happenings.
I felt that I learned alot during this particular week, especially as Craig, Andy and I were treated to another couple of site visits to see some more operations. The first of these involved a very close look at the Toyota Production System (TPS) in full swing at a manufacturing plant, which, needless to say, was extremely interesting. Never before did I realise the extent to which humans are involved with the production of mobile phones (as opposed to automated machinery rather than anything else). Furthermore, as the site was quite a distance from HQ, I had the chance to ride the shinkansen for the first time! Sadly, there was no Alton Towers style g-force experience to be had but it was lovely to see some real green for the first time in Japan as we whipped past rice fields aplenty.
The second visit gave me the chance to gain a better understanding of 4PL operations within the retail sector. I enjoyed this particular visit so much that I am looking forward to spending a week with the team on-site (week 6) to learn even more from their expertise.
Also, during this week, the HR team at DHL organised (another!) 'welcome party' for us three interns. I'd like to take the chance to say that we're being treated fantastically well, and everyone that I've met so far (many people) has been a delight - I can't let the opportunity to say that this was followed by karaoke and that everyone should visit Japan just to try it pass without comment.
Following this, all four of us + Zach went along to another St Andrew Society event, but this time we were invited by a Japanese colleague of ours which was quite unexpected! It was great to indulge in some traditional Scottish dancing with our Japanese partners, quite an experience.
Week 5: We're only just into the start of this week but I feel so guilty for neglecting my blogging duties that I'll give an advance snippet. The weekend went with a bang as we were invited by Zach to see some hanabi, which were delightful.
The week at work has started very well; we took today to revise for the kaizen test that we're due to sit tomorrow, fingers crossed for us!
Also, I made arrangements to sit in on another BD meeting on Thursday, which I'm hoping will give me an even better feel for what the team needs in terms of my project.
All in all, I'm thrilled to say that I've been having a fantastic time. After only one month, I've already achieved some of the goals I set for coming here. For example, when I applied for this placement, I said that I wanted to see what the academics were talking about every time they compared 'the West' with Japanese management practices; what makes the business culture so different? I think that I'm really starting to gain an understanding of how things work, how people work and interact here, and why businesses operate in the way that they do. I just hope that I can use the coming month to broaden this understanding, and more importantly, to get a better grasp of my chopsticks.
PS. Expect another timely blog, soon.