Bart Peetermans and Jan Nickmans traveled to Calamba in the Philippines to lay the foundation for their master’s thesis. (Photo: Filip Van Loock)
Bart: It had long been a dream of mine to go abroad for a long time in the course of my studies. I talked to Prof. Guido Vercammen about this and he referred me to Dirk Verhaeren, GROUP T alumnus who is now working with Continental in Calamba in the Philippines. But, the first person I was going to work on the project with dropped out.
Jan: I also wanted to gain experience in an international environment during my studies. So I also went to Prof. Vercammen for advice. That’s how 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.
Had the topic of the master’s thesis already been determined when you got in touch with each other?
Bart: Although I had been in touch with Continental a bit earlier than Jan and the company had offered me about three project proposals, nothing had actually been decided when we agreed to work together.
Jan: So 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. Our supervisor is Prof. An Molenaers, who does research in this area herself. Continental had the problem of having too many spare machinery parts in stock. In our research we wanted to examine how many spare parts the company has to have in stock to function without hitches but also without too much overstock. After all, by limiting the overstock you cut costs.
How was the contact with Continental in the Philippines?
Jan: We left for the Philippines on July 8th, 2009. We were given a great welcome from Dirk Verhaeren 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 we could work on. It wasn’t long before we chose the issue of spare parts overstock which we’d discussed before. 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. We only visited the Mechelen Continental facility after returning from abroad. We had thought that the differences between both facilities would be greater, in the field of production, for instance, because of the low-cost situation in the Philippines. The only great difference turned out to be the warehouse that is automated in Belgium and is still being run manually in Calamba.
You stayed in Calamba for two months. What were your most significant experiences?
Jan: In fact, 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.
Do you have any recommendations for your fellow students who want to gain a learning experience abroad?
Jan: First of all, you have to keep an open and have a respectful attitude for the other culture. Another culture sometimes has a different way of working than we are used to. My foreign background helps me in this but also Bart didn’t have much difficulty with that. Of course, the Philippines are not too bad because English is the official language there. As a result, there are no communication problems to speak of because of the language. 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. You may be critical towards how they work but you cannot forget that you need them to complete your project or to effectively implement your change. You have to go through a number of steps one by one to realize such a change. First, you must look at and analyze the existing situation and then formulate proposals to improve the situation. As said before, it is important to be convincing in this. You must also take into consideration the difference in culture and adjust your actions accordingly.
Any last thoughts?
Jan: We are curious to learn of the result of the project. The plan is that our proposal will be implemented in February. 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’ (http://www.medifas.net/Innsbruck_2010.pdf).
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.
Jan Jaspers
