Extra-curricular: Kaizen Projects

As a graduate with Thales, you will get the opportunity to get involved with a number of projects which might fall outside of your everyday activity. Lean Sigma is utilised across all of the Thales sites and is the process by which continuous improvement is achieved.  There are various ways to help accomplish this and Kaizen is one of them.

Kaizen projects are undertaken by apprentices, graduates, and other employees within Thales alongside their day jobs.  The projects concentrate on areas of the business that require improvement.  An example of some of the projects that took place in the Glasgow office during the first part of 2015 are detailed below.

SV Scout Cost Reduction
SV Scout, a project based out of Thales’s Glasgow office, has a large team base many of whom have realised there are cost saving opportunities that are not being implemented within the design/material.  A team of individuals, which includes a number of graduate and manufacturing apprentices, were given the task of using Kaizen tools to propose a strategy that will aim to recognise where these cost saving opportunities exist.  This was successfully completed by a team of graduates and they can be seen below with their project sponsor after being given accreditation.

Vehicles
Another team of graduates within Glasgow were assigned to develop and propose an effective work cell layout for the Vehicles department within manufacturing.  They successfully completed their project and proposed their ideas to their project sponsor.

The Glasgow site has been given credit for its efficient lean management, and ensures that all graduates and apprentices are given effective Kaizen training as part of their time on the graduate scheme, and that they are involved with subsequent projects in their first year within the company.  After completing a two day training course and a short Kaizen project, teams are awarded a certificate that titles them a ‘Thales Kaizen Practitioner’, something which looks fantastic on a CV.

Thales, as an employer of graduates, apprentices and interns, is always on the look out for ways in which they can help new employees to develop their skills and undertake training which will be beneficial for the employee. During your time on the graduate programme, whether as an engineer or on the business management stream, you will undertake a number of different and varied training schemes, all of which will help you develop as an individual and will help you in your career going forwards. During your induction, you will find out more about the training opportunities which are available to you during your time as a graduate.