Hi everyone!

Time flies and I’m almost half way through my third assignment at Lantmännen Unibake. Based at their office in Copenhagen I’m working with a project aimed at establish an assessment model for mapping quality costs. The project is really fun and gives me the opportunity to visit some of Unibake’s production facilities. So far I’ve visited our bakeries in Petikko, Finland and Örebro, Sweden, the last place is where we produce sausage and burger buns under the brand Korvbrödsbagarn, well known by all Swedes. In two weeks I’m heading over to a Unibake site near Oslo to gather the last pieces of data. By the end of this assignment I’ll be if not an expert on burger and sausage buns, at least a couple of kilos heavier from eating it.

Parallel to our current and next assignment all trainees are involved in three so called Strategic Group Assignments.  We’ve been divided into groups of three and assigned a project concerning Lantmännen or one of Lantmännen’s divisions at a strategic level. I’ve been assigned, together with my trainee colleagues Johanna and Sebastian, a project for Cerealia (producing products under well known brands such as Axa, Kungsörnen and GoGreen). We have been given the task to look further into what global opportunities there are out there for their products. Who knows in what countries we’ll find the green sprout of Lantmännen in the future.

Next update of our blog will be within a week, up till then have a great time!

Ps. Try out the new Potato Burger Bun from Korvbrödsbagarn if you’ve got the opportunity, tried it this week at our site in Örebro and it is delicious!!

Efter glädjebeskedet att alla vi traineer fick anställning så kommer jag vara en del av Team Seals på obestämd framtid. Mycket av lärdomarna i Java, JSF och Hibernate och JPA från tidigare praktiker har kommit till nytta här i Seals men jag har också kunnat addera ny kunskap inom dessa områden.

Det har varit nyttigt för mig att få ett krav från kunderna på vad de vill ha och därefter bygga funktionaliteten. Ibland var det svårare än man trodde då kunderna och jag missförstod varandra och andra gånger var jag tvungen att komma med en lite annan lösning än vad de hade tänkt sig. Men vi har haft bra kontakt och jag har fått dema all funktionalitet som jag har gjort för kunderna och därefter kunnat förbättra mina lösningar.

Mvh/ Erika

Hello blog, I’m back!

So it’s finally my turn to blog again and a lot has happened since last time! After I finished my project in Stockholm at GF, I moved to Malmö to work with profitability of animal feed with fixed prices. But what is that and why the focus on fixed prices?

The farmer has the possibility to purchase animal feed for several months ahead at a fixed price, opposed to the alternative, which is to buy smaller portions of feed whenever the farmer needs it, with an updated price every time. With a fixed price, the farmer won’t be exposed to the risk of an increase of the feed price, which is based on the raw materials going in to the feed. In order to be profitable, Lantmännen needs to set the right fixed price and my job was to see how we could optimize that process as well as follow up on it. It wasn’t easy, but I learned so much! For example, I learned a bit about hedging commodities in the global market in order to secure a certain price for a certain raw material, but also about controlling, different roles at feed and how we produce and price feed.

As of now, I am located in Belgium with Unibake and I am working in Londerzeel. Here in Londerzeel, Lantmännen Unibake has a bread factory which is completely new and rebuilt, as it sadly burned down in the summer of 2015. My project is about exploring the possibilities to develop a new sales channel in Belgium and/or the Netherlands. This means that I get to explore the Belgian and Dutch bread- and pastry-market by visiting different cities within these countries, which is a lot of fun!

During this period, I am staying in Antwerp, a beautiful city located in the north of Belgium. It is almost like a smaller version of Paris! Here I have found new friends trough an expat community and I have joined a local Cross Fit club where I am surrounded by happy people that always cheer on each other during workouts. Apart from that, I have also got to know some of my great colleges here and we sometimes meet up for different activities, usually involving some kind of eating. One of my colleges is Petra, who just moved from our agriculture business in Malmö to Unibake here in Londerzeel. In Malmö she worked with controlling and now she will be working with marketing, which I believe is a great example of the different possibilities within Lantmännen!  

Hej!
Nu har vi varit på vår långa praktik i sju veckor och det är kul att få vara kvar på samma ställe under en längre tid och få mer erfarenhet inom det området. Jag gör min långa praktik i teamet Atlas och kommer vara kvar här på obestämd tid då jag och de andra traineerna blir fastanställda efter slutet av maj. Det känns såklart bra!

Det känns också bra att vara del av Atlas. Det är ett gött team och ser fram emot att fortsätta jobba med dem!

Hej,

Tänk vad fort tiden går, nu har redan 8 månader av traineeprogrammet passerat. Jag heter Agnes Risfelt och är den tredje av årets fyra Swedavia-traineer. Jag har förmånen att tillbringa mitt traineeår på Bromma flygplats inom flygplatsledning. På Bromma är ingen dag den andra lik, jag har arbetat med spännande projekt, varit ute i driften en hel del och sett flygplatsverksamheten på nära håll.

En av de delar som jag uppskattar mest med traineeprogramet på Swedavia är variationen och nätverkandet. Jag har arbetat i projekt med väldigt stor spridning och därmed haft möjligheten att träffa många inspirerande och duktiga medarbetare från flera olika avdelningar och flygplatser. Jag har lärt mig väldigt mycket av alla medarbetare som jag hittills har träffat och arbetet med och ser verkligen fram emot att träffa fler innan traineeårets slut.

Som trainee har jag dessutom fått tillbringa en hel del tid tillsammans med mina trinaeekollegor, vilket är superkul. Vi har bland annat varit i London på Passenger Terminal Expo, en mässa och konferens där specialister presenterar de senaste innovationerna inom flygplatsteknik. Besöket i London var intressant och inspirerande då vi bland annat fick se innovativa lösningar inom biometri, self-service samt datadrivna lösningar för att förbättra den operativa driften samt passagerarupplevelsen. Riktigt spännande!

Hoppas ni alla får en fortsatt härlig vår!

Hej Hej and Servus, my name is Alex and I’ve joined SKF’s Global Graduate Program in September 2018. Let’s take a look at this exciting journey step by step.

I’m originally from a mid-sized town located in the southern part of Germany. In summer 2018, I graduated from the Julius-Maximilian’s University in Würzburg with a master’s degree in business information technology (Wirtschaftsinfomatik). While waiting for my final grades, I started to look around for possible job opportunities all over Germany.

At that moment I did not have a strong focus on a particular company, but what I was sure about, is that I wanted to work in an international environment and within the IT field.

During this time, I was on my way to visit a friend in the close by city of Schweinfurt. Coming from the highway, you can’t miss seeing SKF Germany’s HQ from afar, especially because it is written with huge letters on the building!

That was the moment, when SKF crossed my mind. The next day I sat down and started my research about the company, and what a lucky coincidence! Right at that time, they were looking to fill a Global Graduate position in the IoT Development team in Schweinfurt. I sent my application the same day and just a few days later I received an e-mail with an invitation for the first interview.

The first interview was with an HR representative as well as my future manager. The whole conversation as well as the atmosphere were friendly and relaxed, yet professional.

That day I left the interview with a good feeling and just a few days later I was invited for the second interview with some representatives from the Global Graduate Program in Sweden via Skype.

After this skype meeting, there was a third and final meeting with the local HR, as well as with the manager of IoT Technologies. A few days later I received the final job offer.

Introduction Month

The trainees and I spent the first month at the HQ in Gothenburg, where we met the whole top management team. We also had a factory tour to understand our manufacturing process, in addition to several sessions on the company setup and strategies. All in all, the introduction month was a great opportunity to meet the other trainees and start creating a network within the company.

First Rotation

I started my first rotation in my home unit; IoT-Development, in Schweinfurt Germany. In our project, we were working on a solution for Machine-to-Cloud connectivity. Besides that, I was involved in designing a concept for the service and operation model for the factories and the IT organization to support the industry 4.0 approach.

It was a great experience working with such a nice, professional and extremely knowledgeable team. They were supporting me along the way and I’ve learned a lot of new skills and topics. One of the highlights of my rotation was the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in Berlin, where we joined with the whole team listening to different sessions about Cloud Computing.

Time passed by really quickly and just a few days after the summit, I was on a plane headed to Sweden kick start my second rotation in SKF’s Headquarters.

Second Rotation

Currently I’m in my second rotation in the Business Process Solutions team, working on a Robot Process Automation (RPA) initiative. Setting up a digital workforce will increase efficiency and allow my colleagues to focus on other important tasks. Working with different stakeholders from different departments is sometimes challenging but also really rewarding once we can present results and create value. I really enjoy working in the new team and getting more insights on SKF as a company.

What’s next?

In September I will head to Canada, to support the Digitalization team there for 5 months and learn more about SKF’s Digitalization strategy. I’m looking forward!

Being with SKF for now eight months, I am sure that I took the right decision to join this company. An intercultural and truly global company with demanding and diverse projects which allows me to grow and take responsibility.

I hope this post gave a small insight to my trainee journey with SKF! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

Cheers und bis bald 🙂

Alex

Hello  everyone!

Since last time I have finished my last project for Swecon Baltics where I made a suggestion of a process of how to work with prizing of spare parts. I learned plenty during my time there, both about different way of working with prizing, the difficulties of having the right price when you hare hundreds of thousands different spare parts, and also the cultural differences between the three countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In other words – a great project!

Now I’m sitting at the strategic department in Stockholm HQ where I currently look at the value chain of oats within Lantmännen. Plenty is happening within oats in the food industry so it’s a very hot topic here at Lantmännen. So far, I‘ve had the great opportunity to attend external meetings which have given me insight in how to work with strategic questions, also on how decisions are made. As the business plans for the different businesses in Lantmännen are set during this time of the year, I also learn about that process – really interesting!

Last evening there was an Afterwork at the HQ office with a music quiz – great fun it was!

Until next time!

/Moa

Nu är vi inne på den sjätte veckan av den längre praktikperioden. Jag sitter i PoF (Projekt och Företagsstöd) och trivs bra. Flera språk och ramverk används i PoF så jag får jobba en hel del med Java, JSF, AngularJS och Angular 5.

För en vecka sedan fick vi det glada beskedet att alla vi sex traineer kommer att bli erbjudna tillsvidareanställning efter trainee-programmet, vilket naturligtvis känns bra!

Denna vecka blir det bland annat avdelningsmöte, sprintplanering och lunch med traineerna, handledarna och projektledarna för trainee-programmet.

Glad Påsk!

When I write this I have been part of Husqvarna Group’s Global Trainee program for a little over seven months. Before I joined the Group I studied MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management and BSc in Design and Product Development at Linköping University, Sweden.

What made me apply? When growing up I have always been exposed to Husqvarna branded products. My dad owns an Automower (robotic lawnmower) since many years back and he praises it much more than he ever did when I cut the lawn as a kid. I think this speaks to how Husqvarna make customers love their products and services, and this was something I felt I wanted to be a part of.

Once I joined I started to realize that the great products and services we offer are actually the result of a more important resource, the people. All the colleagues I get to meet are supportive and as a trainee, you really get a unique insight into the whole of Husqvarna Group’s business.

A key behavior here is to take ownership and ask yourself: What can I do? For me so far, I have had the opportunity to do the following:

• Run a handheld battery development project as a project manager.
• Contribute to our process development by interviewing and looking at how to work with resource management.
• Spend time in R&D labs taking apart (and trying to put together) every product.
• Training modules in Stockholm (Sweden) and Ulm (Germany) with all Trainees.
• Work at Husqvarna’s Automower production site in Aycliffe (UK), where I am at the moment.
• And so much more!

With that, I leave you this time with a picture of the latest and greatest Husqvarna Automower 435X with an all-wheel-drive!

Thanks, dad, for not praising my lawn cutting abilities. Until next time!

Nu är vi inne på den sista perioden i Traineeprogrammet här på Jordbruksverkets IT-avdelning. Alla traineer har blivit placerade i sitt team för den långa perioden, jag fick sitta kvar i UTV3-teamet, samma team som jag gjorde den senaste kortare praktiken i! Det kändes bra, dels för att det är ett bra team och dels för att jag slapp flytta på mig en gång till 😉 Även en av de andra traineerna hamnade i detta team för den längre perioden, en trainee som går under namnet Nora, som också har gjort några inlägg här på traineebloggen! I onsdags var vårt utvecklingsteam ute på en liten teamutvecklings/lära känna varann-aktivitet som vår team-leader/scrummaster hade anordnat. Vi var iväg på ett ställe i Husqvarna som kallas för ”prison-island”, vilket går ut på att man hade vissa rum att gå in i där man löste olika problem tillsammans för att få poäng. Vi delade upp oss i två team och tävlade mot varandra, det var kul, rekommenderas! Eftermiddagen avslutades med en burgare på brooklyn burger, en väldigt rolig och trevlig eftermiddag!

Det börjar kännas att Traineeperioden går mot sitt siste skede, men det känns bra, traineeprogrammet och dess upplägg har lagt en bra grund för att kunna gå över och jobba som utvecklare inom en snar framtid!