Students dissect business processes
09 Oct 2008A set component of the Master’s degree in General Management is the in-company project, an eight-week long project at a company based in Belgium or abroad. Thibaut De Veyt and Charles Fauquette opted for a project at ANG, container manufacturers for various industries. The company is based in Oudenaarde and trades mainly in Belgium and France. Thibaut and Charles look back on the project with ANG’s deputy director Christophe Vander Stichele.
The background
Christophe: “In 1994 we set up our own production line in Poland, having previously outsourced work there. Fifteen years on and the processes were in need of improvement, so we started up an internal project. A chance meeting with someone from Vlerick got the ball rolling and, in consultation with the production manager, we decided to bring two students onto the project.”
Thibaut: “We were looking for a project abroad. China and India were particularly appealing but then we heard about this project. Eastern Europe is an emerging market, so Poland sounded like an attractive prospect too.”
Charles: “We went to have a look around first. The autonomy the project offered strongly appealed and it seemed like a real challenge for us”
From challenge to results
Thibaut: “The project had a broad base. Each aspect of the organisation and all the business processes were dissected enabling us to expose the trouble spots in the company and analyse all the wasted time and space. The findings of the study were brought together in a report with recommendations.”
Charles: “That’s right, and together with the rest of the project team we expanded on the practical solutions and developed an implementation scenario that would be executed throughout.”
Christophe: “We applied the principles of lean processing in the project and that was quite confrontational. Certainly one of the most important things that Thibaut and Charles did was map out the financial aspect of our processes. It meant we could see in black and white where the wastage lay.”
The conclusion: to be recommended!
Charles: “It was a great experience; particularly because the project was so broad. We were really able to apply everything we’d learnt at Vlerick. We formed a close-knit team with the people at ANG in Belgium and we could rely on advice from Professor Robert Boute and Stefaan De Wulf, a Vlerick alumnus hired in by ANG as external consultant for the project.”
Thibaut: “We had high hopes for the project but they were more than surpassed. We enjoyed working in a production environment; it was hands-on and we worked closely with everyone involved. That’s the advantage of working on location; you can ask questions more directly and immediately assess if solutions will work in practice.”
Christophe: “I was a little sceptical at first, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Thanks to Charles and Thibaut’s input we’ve been able to implement the necessary improvements quicker than we thought. I’d recommend everyone get Vlerick students involved in in-company projects.”
And the future?
Charles graduated in engineering, Thibaut has a Master’s degree in Law, and now they both have a Master’s degree in General Management. When asked what their plans are, Charles answers, “I’m going to work for Tractebel Engineering in Brussels as a junior engineer. I’ll definitely be able to use the experience I got at ANG.” Thibaut still has a choice of options and says, “At ANG, I really enjoyed learning about and working in business, so I’d really like to be able to combine law with management consulting.”
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