Mechanical Engineering Intern
Chad
Experience Information
Employer: Genesis Seating
Job Title: Engineering Intern
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Genesis Seating is a company that specializes in office furniture production. It is not one the large furniture competitors like Steelcase or Herman Miller, instead, it takes on projects from those larger companies. Usually Genesis takes on projects that are too low volume or too high variety for one of those larger Furniture Manufacturers. Genesis is just one company in a larger conglomerate of companies called Leggett & Platt Work Furniture Group. Leggett & Platt is a global organization with several different companies in several countries. Genesis has been growing rapidly for the past several years and is now well over one hundred employees.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
My tasks often revolved around continuous improvement of Genesis' production processes. This has provided me with projects that vary largely in scope and purpose. I have spent some time doing time studies to see where time is lost or there is some inefficiency and how the process could be enhanced or changed to make it more efficient and quicker if possible. I have spent some time designing and fabricating carts or racks to hold materials, parts, or finished products. As the semester progressed, I was given more complicated projects to work on. A couple of those more complex projects were fixtures that are actually part of one of Genesis' new productions cells and they are to help make the process more efficient.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
The most significant thing that I learned to do with no prior experience was welding. Since the projects I was assigned were usually comparatively small in scope, I was often asked to design and build the project myself. Usually things were made out of steel for sturdiness, so I had to learn how to weld. Much of the rest of what I did this semester was things that I was already somewhat familiar with, but the experience did serve to sharpen my technical and hands on skills in a real-world environment.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of my experience at Genesis was the healthy mix of computer and hands on work. When I was given a project I was generally expected to design and build it. This usually meant that I spent forty percent of my time on SolidWorks designing and sixty percent in the shop fabricating and building my design. Not only did this serve to sharpen a wide variety of my skills, but it also kept me from spending too much time doing a single task and thus kept me engaged in the process.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
My experience at Genesis has not altered my future careers goals very much. It has confirmed my desire to have a job that offers many opportunities for more hands on labor and not too much sitting behind a computer. I still would like to work for several years at a company and specialize in a certain discipline. Once I have worked for a few years in a specific discipline at a company, I would like to eventually end up in technical sales for that company.