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Novelis is a technology company and when you really look at our products and our processes,
we need the very best engineers to help us to be the very best aluminum company we can be.
We've realised between now and the end of the decade, we need to double our engineering
capability within the company. We have tremendous investments going in Worldwide, they are very
technical in nature, and we have a tremendous need for high talent, that's young, energetic,
and willing to help us bring to life these huge capital investments to materialise the
growth of the company.
My role here in Novelis is a development engineer, we do product development, for example creating
new alloys.
The EDP program, or engineering development program, is a two year program and it's designed
to develop young engineers to become engineering leaders, it's also designed to grow yourself
personally as you develop throughout your career path. Another great advantage that
I have seen through the program is to create and maintain a network not only globally with
your peers but also with the leadership throughout Novelis itself. We go to the colleges and
universities and we're able to talk about not only our young talent, and the importance
of our young talent, but this really terrific accelerated program so they can grow their
careers quickly. To be eligible for the EDP program, you need to be an engineer. Some
of the different kinds of engineers we recruit for are mechanical, electrical, chemical,
we also have some metallurgical and industrial engineers. You should be very passionate in
engineering for sure, you should love to connect with others, to speak to other people, to
interact. You don't really just have to be right out of college, that's kind of more
what we're recruiting for, but you could be working for a couple of years and they'll
ask you to be in the program as well.
It's a great opportunity to do networking, travel around the world and see what a global
company you are working in. Recyclability and sustainability is huge for us. We have
a goal to get to 80% recycled content and the fact of the matter is it's going to take
a lot of engineers to help us get to that.
The reason why we are here today is we have got a waste disposal RIE, that we are going
to complete in one day, so we are calling it a blitz, cause we are going to complete
this quicker that we normally would do one of the other RIEs, so, in front of each of
you, you have got a copy of the A3, we'll split up into our teams and we'll get to work.
What we're focussing on is trying to come up with the different chemicals or fluid waste
products, that we dispose of throughout the plant, so we've been around this morning talking
to the different operators, figuring out what chemicals they use, where they get disposed
of, and how they get disposed. These types of events are the things that Kristen has
been getting involved with to help us make improvements in our business system, making
sure that it will support the growth and demand from our automotive customers and be able
to provide the results that Novelis is looking for.
Not a single day is like the other day, today I measure some temperatures on the cache line
of the band, tomorrow I have another project with homogenisation furnace, the next day
it could be the hot rolling mill, keeps it very interesting. We've been working very
hard to reinforce the technical career ladder, engineers can come in, get a very good start
in the company, through the engineering development program and then after a few years they can
decide if they want to continue up the technical career ladder, or do they want to move over
and do something different in another part of the business. I'm in the continuous improvement
department and I'm around people all the time, with different teams doing different rapid
improvement events, so just kind of learning how to deal with people skills and facilitation
that you learn through the EDP program, I can use actually out on the floor. The EDP
program has allowed Kristen to work throughout our facility and take on a variety of problems.
What we see here in the room is one of the major projects I am working on now, trying
to get best practice sharing between the shifts. They learn something else, they have another
experience, they can see all the cultures and they bring that into the plant. Some of
the more specific details of the program is over the course of two years you have 5 different
learning weeks. So about every 6 to 8 months you go on a learning week either to a corporate
office, or... I've actually been to Germany and England so they ship you abroad too which
is pretty cool.
We fly them within their first couple of years to meet each other, and early in your career
to have a global network of people that are passionate about the same things that you
are, in countries all over the world, that's unmatched. We bring our early career engineers
We bring together 5 times over the two years. They learn all of our business processes and all
of our business functions and get an opportunity to participate in projects while they are
in between learning sessions. EDP is a global program and we operate out of North America,
South America, Europe and Asia.
I got a first grasp of how business runs and where is my position, how can i contribute
to the business of the company. The ability to work with a mentor has just allowed me
to have 1 on 1 chats and develop, brainstorm where do I see myself in 3 to 5 years. I've
seen a lot of growth in her, I've seen her confidence build, and I'm optimistic that
I had something to do with that, but it's been a great win win both ways.
I'm really grateful, I think this is the best opportunity, the best training opportunity
I have ever had.
I was opened up to the 30,000 ft view of the company, I got an understanding of this is
what Novelis is, this is what we do, this is what it takes to be the global leader.
Our colleagues all over the world are working on the same problems and we can give them
a call easily and now we have good connections made through the program. I wish that I would
have been able to participate in something like this when I was a young engineer.
The opportunities it will supply you and the growth it will offer you for your future is
unbelievable.
We can improve the processes, we can accelerate the machines, I can see the gain of capacity;
that makes me proud to be an engineer within Novelis. We're excited for these young folks,
they have a heck of a career opportunity and within this company that's growing, ultimately
they will define how we do in the long run. I would really like to get back into my engineering
background and potentially be in charge of one of the machine centres. To run a machine
centre in the hot mill would be super exciting because I am an engineer and the machines
and equipment are so large, they have so many different parts, it would be an engineer's
dream and I would absolutely love it.