Euan Fraser

Blogging Off...

Having finally reached home and got my body clock back onto Scottish time I feel I am in a good position to look back at this experience as a whole. 

The past 9 weeks has definitely been one of the most novel and alien experiences of my life and has definitely changed me as a person.  I am far more confident in myself and my ability to communicate and meet new people. 

I will look back on my placement experience with Rolls-Royce with slightly mixed emotions.  Individually I have benefitted from the process and the exposure to life in industry.  By the final few weeks I began to feel comfortable in the office and manufacturing environment and no longer felt like I should have been outside helping the gardeners cut the grass and tidy up the flowerbeds.  So from that point of view it has been very helpful and will stand me in good stead for the future.  However in the context of the aims of the SaltireFoundation I can’t help but feel there has been a bit of a missed opportunity here.  The projects I was doing were not always particularly challenging or compelling and I did feel that on the whole they really stretched me or improved my skills as much as they could have.  That said I in no way regret the process and I am extremely thankful to the SaltireFoundation for the opportunity to work for such a famous company. 

Having been involved with the SaltireFoundation for a few months now I can honestly say that I think it is a great organisation with admirable and exciting ambitions. I personally would be willing to do everything I can to help make sure that these aims are met in the future.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at the SaltireFoundation for giving me the great opportunity to be part of such a forward looking organisation which I think will undoubtedly help Scotland in the future. 

Rolling on out...

This was my final week at Rolls-Royce.  Due to the Labor Day holiday (still not quite sure how Labor day works, the people who I thought most needed a day off most still seemed to be working) I only had 4 days to finish off my project.  By Thursday I had completed all I could.  Unfortunately the project as a whole could not be finished as the demands on the CMM programmer were too great.  Overall I was pretty happy to know that I had done all I could and had completed what was in my hands on schedule and accurately.  In terms of actually getting programs written, when I left 4 out of the 19 had been completed, 3 tested and a further 2 were in progress.  This represented a fairly good return for my efforts and before I left I was able to get a commitment from Mike Green (who owns the CMM’s) to complete the remaining programs in a specified time frame. 

That same Thursday morning I got a bit of a bombshell dropped on me, I was expected to do a 30 minute exit presentation the next day!  Apparently this is standard for all exiting interns and is usually organised by the H.R. department, but due to the fact I had not got my placement through the conventional channels i had gotten lost in the system somewhere.  Luckily I quite like to work under pressure and talk at length about myself, so this wasn’t really all that bad news!  A few notes later and a bit of time on PowerPoint and I had an exit presentation! 

On my last day I had a few loose ends to tie up and people to see.  This began with my PDR (Personal Development Review) designed to evaluate how I had fared in attempting to reach the goals set for me at the start of my internship.  Unfortunately my supervisors had never actually gotten around to formally setting my goals in the first few weeks, so it ended up being a general evaluation.  Luckily this went pretty well and all of the comments were very positive.  At lunch time my supervisors and a few co-workers went out to lunch, at what is apparently David Letterman’s favourite restaurant.  It is definitely a unique place!  My boss had been going there since the early 90’s and apparently a lot of the same waitresses are still there!  Despite its slight aesthetic deficiencies the food was brilliant and there was a great atmosphere, it’s only a shame I found out about it on the last day!

After lunch I had arranged a meeting with all the personnel associated with my project.  The purpose of this was to make sure that everyone knew what stage the project was at and what was still left to be done.  I had compiled folders of information and instructions for those who needed it and explained the situation to all my superiors.  This meeting also served as a way to garner support for the project and get more time with the CMM programmer.  The meeting went very positively and it was nice to know that the department I was working for were the furthest ahead with the product audit system and that I had had a big part in it. 

My final act as a Rolls-Royce intern was to deliver my exit presentation.  Despite my lack of preparation time it actually went pretty well, I managed to get everything across that I wanted to and even managed to get a few laughs.  This seemed like a good way to finish up and meant that I got to say goodbye to everyone who had helped me and taught me so much.  At this point I would like to say thank you in particular to Cindy Appleget, Dave Barnes, Monty King, Tim Childers and Jeff Leonard who all helped to make this experience a good one. 

I will blog again soon with my overall impressions and feelings about the SaltireFoundation process as a whole, so stay tuned!

No Orleans...

Some old dead Scottish poet guy once said ‘the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley’, well I don’t know what the mice had planned this weekend ( I assume eating cheese and generally being wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beasties) but I was planning on going to New Orleans. Unfortunately Hurricane Gustav had other ideas and decided to crash the party. After a few days of checking weather reports and trawling the internet for the latest information I decided that it probably wasn’t going to be a good idea. Especially when I saw the news reports that one million people were evacuating. So, after a few phone calls and a bit of negotiating with American Airlines I finally managed to get my flights changed to go to Austin, Texas instead to catch up with the boys from the Wood Group. After a wee wait at the airport (I think Grant was having some issues with directions!) I finally managed to meet the guys and it was great to hear some Scottish accents and get involved with some proper banter! After a night in Austin we travelled on to San Antonio to see what it had had to offer. I think it’s safe to say that a great weekend was had by all and we were left with some great memories and empty wallets!

Slow news week...

To be honest even though I have been really busy this week there is little new to report.  I have been continuing to complete my project as well and as quickly as possible and am having to work past the same issues of the past few weeks, mostly trying to get time with the CMM programmer.  I will leave you safe in the knowledge that everything is still going pretty well and I am on course to finish up next week, barring disasters!

Chi-town!

Friday saw me and my new friend Ashley take a trip up to the windy city! It is about a 3hr drive from Indy, although it has the potential to feel a lot longer due to the boring and monotonous scenery and perfectly straight roads.  The most interesting part of the journey was all the huge billboards ever more frequently and franticly advertising fireworks.  Apparently due to the fact that the sale of fireworks is illegal in Illinois many people will stock up before they enter the state.  When it gets to around Independence Day there are even roadside stalls selling pyrotechnics.  On the subject of Independence Day, someone actually asked me the other day if it was celebrated in Scotland!  I replied that even in Scotland public holidays are not set aside to celebrate failure, and that incidentally we thought that the Boston tea party was churlish and unnecessary!

 

After hundreds of miles of flat corn fields we finally reached the city and after passing the famous White Sox stadium the forest of skyscrapers became visible on the left with the unending Lake Michigan on the right.  I could tell right away that I was going to like this city with the contrast between tall buildings and the ocean like lake only adding to my intrigue.  After a short drive through the city we arrived at our destination, Ashley’s friend Esmeralda’s apartment.  Her apartment is in a really cool green yet urban area with everything you could need in walking distance, including a small bar ‘Michaels’ where we had something to eat and watched some ‘football’ on the big screens.

Followers of the blog might be wondering what has happened to my charity works over the past wee while.  Well, worry not, HumanitariEuan has returned!  On Friday we attended a fundraiser event for ‘Good Magazine’, an environmentally themed non-profit magazine, in an old warehouse/antiques shop.  The event lived up to its name and a good night was had by all, but then again with a $20 entrance fee and free food and drink how can you go wrong?  Some blog fans may well point out that the selfless charity acts I have done over the course of my time here have usually involved alcohol in some way, I would like to point out that this is entirely coincidental… honest!

On Saturday we went into downtown Chicago and did all the touristy stuff including going up the sears tower, visiting Millennium Park and navy pier.  Chicago seems like a great city to live in or visit with lots of free events, festivals and interesting places to go, I was really enjoying my time there.  After another fun night out on Saturday a dip in lake Michigan was the perfect way to clear my slightly fuzzy head.  It is a strange experience to walk a few hundred yards from the city streets to a sandy beach, but at the same time really cool.  As everyone debated about going into the ‘cold’ water I dived straight in knowing that it couldn’t possibly be as cold as the north sea!  I was right, it was positively tropical feeling!  After a day at the beach swimming, eating a picnic and playing sports it was time to take the long road back to Indiana. I eventually got back to the apartment at about 10pm very tired but having had a fantastic time and vowing that that would not be the last time I would go to Chicago.   

Indy-cators of success...

After the frustration of last week I am happy to say that this week has been a lot more productive.  I have had to be a bit more aggressive in my pursuit of people’s time and knowledge.  This has become easier by the realization that it is actually my job to be a bit of an annoyance to these people!  The reason I have been given this project is that these people do not have the necessary time to drive towards its completion.  It has become increasingly obvious that my exerting pressure on these people is as much, if not more, important a part of my job as the technical matter.  One thing I have learned is that no matter what agreements or budgets there are in place it is still a bit of a dog fight for resources and it is important to work for what your department needs. If you don’t you can, without doubt, be forgotten.  However, there is a fine line between keeping your project visible, memorable, in the forefront of individuals minds and becoming a complete annoyance who people will eventually seek to avoid!  With call recognition on our internal phones it can be very easy to screen someone’s calls and ignore their requests if they become over frequent.  This is the tightrope that I am currently walking and thankfully I have not fallen off yet.  But, as with a tightrope walker, if I start to lean too far in one direction this could have a direct and immediate effect on my ability to successfully get to the other side of this project. 

As previously mentioned, progress has been good this week. We are starting to get through the parts list pleasingly quickly.  Having worked together for a few weeks now our teamwork is improving all the time and the dynamics are becoming more evident and settled.  With all our roles effectively established it is definitely easier to get on with the job more efficiently.  This has been proved by the fact that as time goes by the pace of our progress has grown almost exponentially.  As we encounter, and subsequently solve, more problems I am able to do more of the work myself and look through the remaining part numbers in order to solve similar problems before our meetings.  This means that the time spent in meetings is more productive and we do not become stale or frustrated by covering the same ground over and over. 

Unfortunately, just as NASCAR drivers can be speeding toward victory only for a tire to blow, a problem can crop up out of the blue(print) that can bring us to a shuddering halt.  Such an event unfortunately occurred on Friday and the hour meeting was spent discussing a single issue, with no resolution.  This was really frustrating as I had been hopeful that we may even get through the remaining 4 part numbers in that meeting, but the light at the end of the tunnel remained just out of reach.  However before the end of the meeting I was able to get an action plan agreed so that by the time we meet next week we will be able to take some more steps forward. 

The next stage of the process is to get programs written for the product audits so that they can be checked with the Coordinate Measurement Machine (CMM).  Getting these completed is easier said than done!  I had arranged a program of deadlines with Mike Green (who owns the CMMs) that stated the first two programs should be written by Friday of this week.  Unfortunately this deadline was missed, with only one of the programs being completed.  As I have mentioned above there are many different people pulling on the resources that exist, and on this occasion my project was trumped by a more pressing issue (involving the RS Vanes).  After this initial setback a short conversation with Mike Green resulted in a new commitment.  This means that, for the time being at least, I am back on track! Seems like a good note on which to finish this update!

Home Comforts...

My supervisor Jeff kindly asked me to stay over at his house this weekend.  Getting home from work was pretty exciting, given that I was riding on the back of his Harley!  We stopped off to pick up a few beers and then headed off to his house.  The house is in a pleasant leafy suburb area and looks like something you might see in a story book.  Once I had the tour round his house (including the massive basement with all sorts of cool stuff in it) and met his welcoming wife Cathy we settled down in the back garden to have a few drinks and shoot the breeze.  Jeff and Cathy’s garden is home to a whole host of wildlife, the most interesting of which were undoubtedly the humming birds.  I had never seen one of these creatures close up in the flesh and the way they maneuver is fascinating.  It was great to get a home cooked meal and to relax with some new company.  I also learned how to play ‘Hillbilly Golf’, which is a backyard game played over here.  It involves throwing two golf balls attached by a piece of string towards a wide 3 runged ladder with the aim of getting them to wrap around one of the rungs.  There are different scores for landing on the specific rungs.  It takes a bit of time to get used to, but (probably down to beginners luck) Scotland managed to proudly triumph over the US!

On Saturday I enjoyed a trip to see some “peewee football”.  This is basically American football played by kids, in this case Jeff and Cathy’s grandson Braden.  It was pretty cool to see the scale of the whole operation, with 100’s of kids all rushing about defying the vain whistles and shouts of the coaches.  Suffice to say I didn’t actually learn much about the rules of the game, but the experience as a whole was pretty enjoyable.  I think I’m going to need to do a bit more research before I go to see the Indianapolis Colts in a week or so. 

In the afternoon Jeff, Cathy, their two grandchildren and I went to the Indianapolis Zoo.  It was brilliant!  I don’t want to seem unpatriotic but it really puts Edinburgh Zoo to shame and makes Blair Drummond Safari Park look like a pet shop!  I don’t think that they could have assembled a wider variety of animals if they had enlisted Noah as a recruitment officer. 

After a great day at the zoo we all went back to Jeff’s house for a barbeque out on his deck with good food, drink and conversation.  Following that we watched the Olympics, including Michael Phelps record breaking gold medal win.  I’m no swimming expert but I recon that boys got a bit of talent, he could probably do pretty well if he sticks at it!

It has been a bit strange watching the Olympics from an American perspective as apposed to a British (or even Scottish) one.  It is obvious that each nation’s coverage will hold some bias toward their own athletes, but the USA seems to take this to the extreme!  Often in races the leaders will be almost completely ignored in order to follow an American athlete’s progress no matter how unimpressive.  Phelps has also been mentioned around 1000 times in each broadcast no matter what sport is being covered, but I suppose in fairness his performance was quite special. In general it has been necessary to keep glued to the BBC Sport website to keep up to date with our athletes’ excellent performances.  It is also worth noting that the States t.v. networks and press tends to arrange the medal table in anyway possible to make sure that they are at the top!  Every other source I have seen ranks the teams on the basis of gold medals won, conversely the US (conveniently) arranges them on total number of medals won.  Unsurprisingly that leaves the US at the top of the medals table, it would seem that like in so many situations over here there is an attitude of quantity = quality! 

Luckily on Sunday there was extended coverage of rowing and cycling, two sports that Britain are superior to the US in, so it was good to be able to gloat for a short while at least.  Sunday was a really peaceful and relaxing day.  We went for a bicycle ride around the local area and chilled out on the deck talking, reading newspapers and generally taking it easy.  In the evening Jeff and Cathy were kind enough to take me out for a meal with some of their friends which was a great way to round off the weekend. 

Wow, over half way now!

Monday morning was pretty tough!  I arrived back from Houston just after midnight on Sunday night and so didn’t get to bed until around 1am, not great when you have to get up for work at 6am!  That said I was lucky to get back at all since there were some problems with flights going through Charlotte( a stop off I was meant to make between Houston and Indy).  There had apparently been some really bad weather earlier in the day and this had backed a lot of flights up, to the point where mine was actually cancelled!  This is not the greatest news to hear 1000 miles away from home and only 14 hours away from the start of work!  Luckily American Airlines booked me onto another flight to Indianapolis that night.  It actually worked out quite nicely for me as this was a direct flight and got in 10 minutes earlier than my cancelled journey, crisis averted!      

I am now into the third week of project.  I had hoped to make a bit more progress this week, but for various reasons this hasn’t come about.  Due to the fact that I am reliant on other people for significant portions of the information I need it can be frustrating if I cannot get a hold of these people (through no fault of their own).  All the audits must be considered and scrutinised on a case by case basis by myself, Manufacturing Engineer Dave Barnes and Quality Engineer Cindy Appleget.  I realised very quickly that Cindy is an incredibly busy person who is often being pulled in all sorts of different directions.  Her time is very precious, so I need to try and make sure that when I can get hold of her that I make the most of it.  As well as the actual technical aspect of this project, I have had to concentrate hard and put a lot of effort into the organization and management of these meetings.  At different points in the meetings there can be debatable and contentious issues, this can lead to long conversations which have the potential to deviate from the subject in hand.  I have realised that I must be acutely aware of such situations so that I can attempt to refocus the meeting and achieve a speedy resolution.  I now have the confidence to be able to do this and as such the short amounts of time I do have access to these knowledgeable people are becoming increasingly productive.

On Thursday of this week I was unexpectedly called to attend a meeting concerning R-Type Compressor Vanes.  This was in relation to some data I had compiled at some point last week with reference to deviations from the set tolerances on these parts.  It was my job to compile this raw data into a format that was easy to read and compare.  I was a little bit nervous about this meeting as I did not really know why I was having to attend, I was really hoping I hadn’t messed up somehow!  I turned out that everything was ok and all I had to do was explain what I had done and the changes that I had made when new data became available.  It was actually a great experience to be in the meeting as there was some fairly fierce debate and questioning flying back and forward (none of it calling into question the quality of the data compilation I might add!).  It was great to see how important it was to consider the opinions of several different departments whilst making decisions.  Although this means that although a longer time is taken when coming to a consensus, it is much more likely to be an accurate and acceptable decision.

Texas Ranger

I was really looking forward to this weekend because I was heading down to Texas to see my aunt, uncle and cousins who I have not seen for years and years!  I went straight to the airport from work to catch my flight from Indianapolis to Charlotte (North Carolina), before changing to fly from there to Houston.  Altogether this trip took about 5 hours.  A direct flight would have taken about half the time, but would have cost a bit more.  Could it be that I am turning into a stereotypically tight Scot in a desperate bid not to become Americanized?  Or, is it simply because I have to survive on the virtual pittance that the SaltireFoundation see fit to pay us poor students!  Only joking… with the cost of living out here being significantly lower than the UK, I have been able to exist quite comfortably on the generous remuneration the SaltireFoundation so kindly provide me with (I think that should just about get me out of the above semi-slanderous comment!). 

Anyway, arriving at the airport I was delighted to see my Uncle Lindsay waiting for me at the gate to drive me back to their house in Katy, just outside of Houston.  Driving out of Houston I could clearly see that the credit crunch has not yet taken grip of the city as there seems to be building work and regeneration everywhere.  I have never seen such a litany of cranes littering a skyline.  One of the newer buildings was the biggest Hospital I have ever seen; it really puts the Western General to shame!  Apparently it’s not even a big hospital compared to others in the area.

Arriving at the house was a great experience, not just because I was finally at my destination after being awake for 17.5 hours, but because I got to see my cousins and aunt for the first time in too long.  Not only was the house full of my cousins friends and boyfriends, but they had also all brought their dogs, it was quite a chaotic environment to be plunged into!  After all the initial introductions it was brilliant to sit down with a few drinks and catch up on old and recent times.  There was so much to talk about I didn’t actually get to bed till after 3 am, for a well earned sleep!

I was woken on Saturday morning by my cousin Kirsty’s dog, Ozzie, licking my face, he’s a pretty effective alarm clock!  After a huge breakfast my aunt Kathy took me for a drive around the local area to see all the places I had only ever heard about.  Later that afternoon we went to a local outdoor swimming pool.  I managed to utterly embarrass myself trying to do some tricks off the diving board, especially compared to my cousin Coleen who was pretty good cheerleader in her day!  This was a really pleasant way to spend the afternoon since it was over 100°F!  In the evening, some of the neighbors came around for a barbeque.  It was a truly enjoyable evening with drinks, food and great banter!

After we had finished eating we had a night-time fishing competition with floodlights cutting through the period’s undoubted crepuscular charm.  There are apparently a lot of catfish in the man-made lake that the ‘backyard’ backs onto.  Of course due to my strong beliefs in relation to animal husbandry and in accordance with my role as a spokesperson for PETA, I participated but refused to catch any fish (it’s not because I’m rubbish at fishing, honest!).  After the fishing contest my cousin Doug, his wife Christina and I went out for a ride on their little electric powered boat.  In an act that further served to accentuate my lack of fishing skills Doug managed to catch another two fish (as if winning the contest wasn’t enough for him!).  When we got back we saw a huge turtle (and some smaller ones) eating some of the left over fish bate at the edge of the lake which was really cool, and also a couple of snakes, which I didn’t really enjoy so much.  Overall it was a brilliant weekend which I will never forget.

week 4: product audit project continued...

This week I carried on with my current project, to compile complete and accurate product audits for all 13 stages of the compressor wheel manufacture.  I am now starting to really get to grips with this task and feel increasingly more at home with all the terminology and technical issues. 

We are now starting to see some genuine progress within the process and some of the completed audits are now beginning to be made into programs so that the features can be measured on the Coordinate Measuring Machine (or CMM).  This means that the measurement process can be done quickly and accurately.  However there have been some questions raised about how many of the features will actually be able to be measured with the CMM as some of the features are in problematic regions. 

Mike Green, who is in charge of the CMM’s, is currently attempting to create programs with the 2 product audits that have been completed thus far.  Therefore we should hopefully know by early next week what percentage of features can be measured with the CMM; clearly the more features that can be measured this way, the better. 

Having only really previously had work experience as a landscape gardener, other than sitting in a wheel barrow or leaning on a shovel having a chat, I do not have much experience of formalized meetings.  This element of the project has been especially helpful to me and has lead to me becoming more confident in expressing my opinion and challenging those who are my superiors. Often during our meetings there are contentious or uncertain details that can be seen in different ways from different departments or points of view.  Debate over these issues has shown me how important it is to voice ones own opinion and stand up for your viewpoint, even if ultimately it turns out to be wide of the mark.