Engineering Co-op, Koops Inc.
Joseph
Experience Information
Employer: Koops Inc.
Job Title: Business Development Co-op
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Koops Inc. has been in business for over twenty-five years and has grown into a competitor in the custom manufacturing machinery and assembly line market. Recently, Koops has grown from a small company to over 170 employees in Michigan, South Carolina and Mexico. Organizationally Koops is divided into different teams that all work in conjunction to design, assemble, program and launch new custom machines. Examples of these teams are the Machine Design team, the Controls Programming team, Project Managers and many others necessary to fulfill the needs of our customers.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
My co-op time in Koops was spent in the Business Development team and was split into two distinct sections: Sales and Applications. In Sales I was introduced to the company, our structure, organization and products. I learned to be the front face of the business presenting customers with solutions for their manufacturing needs. Doing site visits, taking phone calls, and responding to website leads were part of my jobs. The most major project I undertook in Sales was an email campaign to revitalize old customer leads with whom we had lost contact. More than three hundred emails later and I am still responding to healthy sales leads. Applications taught me how to quote a project. When a customer sends us a request for a quote it's the job of the applications team to put together a comprehensive, itemized list of parts, components and manpower necessary to complete it. Quoting involves a certain level of engineering creativity to discern the most efficient, feasible and economic solution to each problem.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I believe the greatest thing that I learned at Koops was how to be the front face of the organization. Koops built on my previous sales experiences and allowed me to grow in confidence representing the company. I appreciated the experience and was happy to be put into situations in front of customer that aren't often offered to engineering students. The second thing that I learned through my co-op time at Koops was how the quoting process works. Seeing how all the pieces come together for a project, how uncertainties are accounted for, and how the organizational process begins was enlightening and is something that I'm sure will help me in any future engineering career.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of the co-op experience was my time in the Applications team. The structure and organization of quoting is well suited to my personality. I found myself diving right into each project, enjoying researching the different available methods, comparing the job to previous jobs we've done and asking questions to more deeply discern the customer's needs. I found that being able to explain and justify my quotes helped build the foundations that I had laid on the Sales team. Once my email campaign began producing results I was able to begin quoting each request that came my way. Knowing that my efforts could directly produce results for the company gave me a direct sense of ownership that built my confidence and allowed me to plug right into my time on the Applications team.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
After graduation I intend to work in manufacturing machine design. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out customer needs and coming up with efficient solutions. My experience at Koops has reinforced my desires to build and design machinery. My next stop in the co-op rotation is with the Project Management team. I am looking forward to that experience and learning as much as I can about how projects are taken from quote, to design, to build and launch.