/jaargang-19-2/images/19_02_05b.jpg "Bart Peetermans and Jan Nickmans traveled to Calamba in the Philippines to lay the foundation for their master’s thesis.")
Bart Peetermans and Jan Nickmans traveled to Calamba in the Philippines to lay the foundation for their master’s thesis. (Photo: Filip Van Loock)
No complete strangers
Bart: It had long been a dream of mine to go abroad for a long time in the course of my studies. But, the first person I was going to work on the Continental project in the Philippines with dropped out.
Jan: I also wanted to gain experience in an international environment during my studies. I met Bart who was looking for a new partner. We’d already met each other during a previous project that we’d worked on together and so had a good idea what to expect from each other.
Project proposals
Jan: We could choose from about three project proposals from Continental. Throughout the process and in agreement with our supervisor we decided on the topic of the master’s thesis locally.
Bart: For both of us, the focus was on Spare Parts Management. Continental had the problem of having too many spare machinery parts in stock.
Welcome
Jan: When we arrived at Continental in the Philippenes, we were given a great welcome from a Flemish Group T alumnus and could set to work in the company immediately. We got all the freedom we needed to work in: we could organize our own work, we could walk around freely and could speak to everyone.
Bart: The company proposed three problems for us to work on. But the interesting thing was that we were also gradually involved in solving urgent little issues in the company. As such, we helped to identify problems in the production line.
Jan: We were already somewhat familiar with Continental because of our general knowledge of the automobile industry.
Staying on
Jan: On top of the two months that had been scheduled beforehand, we spent our entire summer holidays in the Philippines and effectively worked about 460 hours in that period. We also made a lot of friends, enjoyed great hospitality and, of course, we also made use of the opportunity to get to know the country a bit.
Bart: But the most interesting was the experience we gained in the company. It is remarkable how much freedom the company gave us to do what was necessary for our project. For instance, after only two weeks we were already allowed to have meetings at the highest level with Continental software experts in Manila. We don’t think we would ever have been allowed that responsibility in a Belgian company.
Jan: We also found that everybody in the company had a critical but positive attitude towards working with us.
Recommendations for a learning experience abroad
Jan: First of all, you have to keep an open and have a respectful attitude for the other culture. Of course, the Philippines are not too bad because English is the official language there. This can be an obstacle when you go to a country where you have little or no command of the language.
Bart: In the first weeks you’re there, it’s important to observe and ask questions. You have to create a bond with your colleagues, not only with the employees from abroad, or the ‘ex-pats’, but also with the local employees. Going for a beer after work certainly helps.
Worth the effort
Jan: We are curious to learn of the result of the project. The plan is that our proposal will be implemented in only a couple of months. In the meantime, we have a paper ready relating to a statistical model for Spare Parts that is going to be presented at the 16th International Working Seminar on Production Economics in Innsbruck.
Bart: In the end, we will have spent more time on our master’s thesis than the average student but that doesn’t outweigh the experiences, the contacts, and the insights that we got out of it as preparation for our professional life.
Back to Students Tell It Like It Is.
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