Technology at Wal-Mart, says network pro Eugene Cook, is changing not only over the years, but even over the weeks and days. "It seems like as soon as you get your hands on something here, we're doing something else."
Wal-Mart is not alone in that respect. Everywhere in the field, from manufacturing supply chain to retail point-of-sale, sophisticated technology is revolutionizing the way business is done and multiplying the products available to consumers. There's a growing need for engineers and IT folks to help make it all happen.
Opportunities at Walgreens
At Walgreen Co (Deerfield, IL), Maureen Reim, director of recruitment, has a range of opportunities for IT pros. "We are hiring programmers, Java developers and Business Objects developers, and looking to fill a variety of analyst positions," she says. As each team grows, opportunities for advancement arise.The company is also hiring systems engineers and industrial engineers who work with logistics in its distribution division.
Beyond the drugstore, Walgreens offers prescription benefits management (PBM) services, mail order service, homecare and specialty pharmacy services. A new IT project management office is in development, and Walgreens Health Initiatives, the company's managed care subsidiary, "has significant growth to support our increased PBM and sales offices.
"As our businesses expand into new areas, we have new career opportunities. We're excited about our growth. And our company believes we can best serve our diverse customers and patients by having a diverse workforce," Reim adds.
Steffani Penman engineers distribution at Walgreens
Steffani Penman is one of the people responsible for making sure Walgreens' store shelves are stocked. As a distribution engineer, she works with the thirteen centers that distribute products to more than 5,600 stores in the Walgreens chain.
Her job entails management of capital projects at the distribution centers. "For a typical project I travel to one of our facilities, where I work to integrate technology and/or process improvements into our existing systems to create a safer and more efficient workplace."
During her college years at Michigan State University, Penman was part of the Inroads program and interned at Grainger Industrial Supply (Lake Forest, IL). When she finished her BSIE with a minor in supply-chain management in 2002 she returned to Grainger to work fulltime. She joined Walgreens in 2004. Although the companies are different, Penman notes that her work was similar, focusing on productivity improvement and efficiency.
Penman's background in IE, she says, trained her to focus on details and seek out-of-the-box ways to improve the company's bottom line. She looks at the procedures involved in receiving products from suppliers and distributing the merchandise to stores in the Walgreens network, and tries to streamline the methods. "Increasing operating efficiencies lets us get product out the door and into the stores faster and at a lower cost.
"More companies are trying to operate leaner without sacrificing output. IEs are able to focus on methods and equipment that can help accomplish this goal. My job is to determine the appropriate technology, ensure it yields a return on investment, manage the installation and keep it running effectively.
"My company expects me to assess tasks thoroughly," she adds. "I have often found that simply recommending changes to team members' work practice can provide an enormous benefit. Reducing even a few steps in a process provides important savings when you consider the thousands of employees in our distribution network."
Distribution engineer Yvonne Johnson: hands-on work at Walgreens
Like Steffani Penman, Yvonne Johnson has a 2002 BSIE with a minor in supply-chain management from Michigan State University. She and Penman graduated together, but while Penman went right to work, Johnson went on to a 2003 master of engineering management from Case Western University (Cleveland, OH). Then she took a job in purchasing, but decided she wanted to focus more on her engineering background. She called her friend Penman, who helped her find a position at Walgreens as a distribution engineer.
The work is hands-on, Johnson says. "We get out to the distribution centers and spend time with the people there, figuring out what they want and why they need it.
"We want the centers to operate in the most productive manner. So we recommend material-handling machinery and other equipment that will be quicker to operate, more ergonomic, or maybe something new on the market that we think should be tried out. When team members offer ideas we evaluate them to see if they fit the needs of the company."
Johnson is responsible for three centers. She visits them once or twice a month, sitting down with managers to discuss their special needs and deciding which projects to tackle first.
One interesting project is the opening of a new facility in South Carolina. "Of all our distribution centers, this one has the most automation," Johnson says. "Also, the staffing has people with disabilities very much in mind: one out of three employees there has a disability. So we have to make our workstations fit the needs of all kinds of people with disabilities."
ChE Don Alston works in process development at 3M
During his years at North Carolina State University, Don Alston always balanced his homework with playing in a band. When he completed his BSChE in 1983 he started with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (Danville, VA), but gave it up to take a shot at a career in music.
"My bandmates and I always talked about going fulltime with the band, and we decided we might as well have fun and see if we could make it big." But after three years with the band, followed by a stint in the insurance business, Alston went back to school. In 1991 he completed his MS in engineering with a ChE option at North Carolina A&T State University, hired on at 3M (St. Paul, MN) and has been with the company ever since.
Throughout his sixteen-year career at 3M Alston has worked as a process development engineer. He started in fluid handling in the engineering systems and technology group, then moved into the corporate process technology center to work in the dispersions area.
Today he's a senior process development engineer in the tape process development center in Cottage Grove, MN. He's responsible for a hot-melt extrusion line, a paper coating line and batch-mixing ops.
"I've been here since 1999 and it's been a good fit for me," he says. "The people are great, and I enjoy the balance between product development and production."
Over the years, he notes, "The basic process of product and process development hasn't changed a great deal. The tools for getting the job done have become more sophisticated, but in the end a successful product always starts with a good idea and you go from there."
EE Jameelah Haadee engineers advanced systems at 3M
Jameelah Haadee is an advanced systems engineer at 3M. She started the job after receiving her MSEE from Michigan State University in 2005. Her 2003 BSEE is from Hampton University (Hampton, VA).
Haadee is in the process instrumentation and control systems group. It's part of 3M engineering, a service group that supports 3M's many divisions. "We supply the control solutions for our manufacturing and lab facilities," she explains. The work involves project management, establishing and maintaining a project budget, in addition to providing hardware and software control solutions.
Right now Haadee is working with a team supporting a 3M site in Korea. The company is installing new equipment, and she's completing the controls programming for some of it, integrating the entire system from the machine to the operator aspect. "I have to create user-friendly interfaces for the operators and provide the best possible control solutions," she notes.
As a grad student, Haadee focused on semiconductors and micro-electromechanical systems. But she likes the new elements she finds in controls. "I think variety is good and I'm always looking for opportunities for growth," she says. "In school I learned about basic controls theory and electronic circuits. This is essentially a real-world application of what we did in school.
"Our goal is to make sure our customers are 100 percent happy and satisfied, so we work hard to keep the machines performing at their best."
Haadee is part of a 3M diversity recruiting team, and another that recruits at Michigan State. She's community service chair of the company's African American society. She's also involved in Junior Achievement and in 3M-sponsored enrichment programs for middle and high school students, and mentors several girls. Her goal is to impact as many lives as possible, encouraging students' exposure to technology, math and science, and telling them about the opportunities at 3M.
Kimberly Francis directs engineering at Acushnet
Kimberly Francis has spent more than twenty-five years in manufacturing. The last eight have been with the Acushnet Co (New Bedford, MA), where she's director of engineering for golf-ball manufacturing.
She was originally hired as engineering manager for Ball Plant II, where she was tech leader of eight engineers supporting the manufacturing equipment on a day-to-day basis. "Some of the tasks required new designs and new tooling for the golf balls, and some were related to cost, productivity or quality improvements," she explains. As director she still has these tasks, and has added responsibility for the maintenance and facilities departments.
To stay up to date with consumer desires she meets with the central quality rep, who is in touch with marketing reps across the country. "He gives me feedback about product issues, supply issues and competitive products."
Francis graduated from MIT (Cambridge, MA) in 1978 with a BS in EE and computer science, and got her 1980 MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also has a 1996 professional development certificate in business from Simmons College (Boston, MA).
She's worked at ExxonMobil and at Polaroid, finding Polaroid similar to Acushnet in details of its manufacturing process. "The major difference is the size of the operations," she observes. "The specialties of continuous versus piece-part processes lead to different decisions on equipment specs for bringing new products on-stream."
But day-to-day operational requirements for a technical leader are about the same.
"Your job is to understand enough about the customers' needs to be able to solve issues with appropriate resources. You have to be able to prioritize, direct, coach and troubleshoot in the best interests of the company."
Francis recently became involved with Insight, a corporate group that promotes opportunities for women within Acushnet and Fortune Brands, its parent company. "This has been an empowering involvement for me," she declares.
"I've had the opportunity to be mentored by Norm Wesley, chair and CEO of Fortune Brands. He's helped me begin to find my own self-determination, so I can try to direct my career in ways that interest me and contribute to the company."
Colgate mirrors the diversity of the marketplace
Colgate Palmolive (New York, NY) is an "inclusive workplace that mirrors the diversity of the marketplace," says Phillip Berry, VP of global workplace initiatives. "All Colgate people are encouraged to use their unique talents and backgrounds to contribute to the business."
Colgate is a global company that markets its products in more than 200 countries around the world. Colgate people often work in multifunctional teams across geographic borders, Berry notes.
Colgate's Pascal Montilus manages output of plants in three countries
As North American homecare supply chain director, Pascal Montilus is responsible for the output of three manufacturing plants, one in Ohio, one in Puerto Rico and one in Canada.
Montilus was born in New York, NY but raised in Canada. All his life he's traveled between countries. After graduating from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) with the equivalent of a BSME he attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology for his 1987 MSME and New York University for his 1990 MBA.
He began with General Foods as a project engineer. After three years he moved to Mennen (now Colgate, Morris Plains, NJ) as a project engineer. Since then he's worked for Colgate facilities in Morris Plains, Russia, France, Jeffersonville, IN, and, since last October, New York, NY.
"Colgate is truly a global company," he says. "Individuals are provided with the opportunity to work internationally."
There's a difference between the U.S. and Europe in the way a business is run. "Our sales in the U.S. are more than $2 billion a year," Montilus explains. "To make that same $2 billion in Europe you have to sell in fourteen or fifteen countries. It's a much more complex network."
For example, there are the many languages to take into consideration and varying regulations on product and materials. "But we standardize our systems at Colgate and it provides us with a good platform."
Montilus is responsible for delivery of homecare products like cleaners and dishwash to suppliers throughout the U.S. "My job is to ensure the products are distributed at the lowest cost and provide the highest level of customer satisfaction," he says. For example, he's working to make packaging smaller, and launching a dishwashing product using new technology. He interacts with commercial and R&D partners as well as the manufacturing plants.
His background as an engineer is vital to the job. "In engineering we're trained in analytical decision-making. We also tend to be process-driven, and much of our work here is focused on what processes we can put in place to improve our costs. In addition, our facilities utilize state-of-the-art technologies, and I need to be able to converse about these new technologies and how we implement them."
Sony's Rajesh Rao manages TV software systems designs
Stan Glasgow, president and COO of Sony Electronics (San Diego, CA), says, "I am proud of our organization and the work we do to attract a diverse workforce. We take pride in the variety of products we create, our work ethic, and the people we represent."
Rajesh Rao, one of the Sony people, works in TV software as systems design department manager in the TV group.
A native of India, Rao graduated from Siddaganga Institute of Technology in 1988 with a degree in electronics and computer science. He came to the U.S. in 1997 to stay for a year, and "I liked it so much I decided to stay on."
He found a job at Sony, involved with satellite receivers and digital cable boxes. He worked on Sony's Bravia line of HDTVs, compatible with the Bravia Internet video-link module, and on the TV version of the Xross Media Bar (XMB) menu software, a key technology for the Internet video link. Right now he's working in home networking for future Sony products.
Over the past ten years Rao's been involved in many changes. "TV used to be very hardware oriented," he explains. "But now it is shifting more to the software side."
That, of course, means that the units have become more complex. "In the old days you would buy a TV, take it home and install it yourself. Now even I hesitate to go behind my home system to see how it's put together."
Wal-Mart's Eugene Cook directs network engineers
As director of network engineers at Wal-Mart (Bentonville, AR), Eugene Cook is responsible for the company's data-wired networks.
"The network is like the information highway. We provide the roads for information to travel from one place to the next," he explains. "I'm responsible for those highways for all Wal-Mart stores, the home office, the distribution centers, and international operations, throughout the whole enterprise."
Cook's department also manages the rest of the infrastructure that links Wal-Mart stores: handheld devices, telephones and call center equipment.
Cook joined Wal-Mart ten years ago with a 1997 BS in computer IS from DeVry Technical Institute (Atlanta, GA). He started as a programmer in the logistics division.
After five years he was promoted to management, responsible for the infrastructure components of Wal-Mart's Remedy workflow systems. Then he became manager of the RF engineering team responsible for the mobile handhelds used by the company's associates. He moved into his current job a year ago.
It takes a lot of technology to keep Wal-Mart running smoothly. "When we built a new data center last year, I was responsible for moving in the equipment," Cook recalls. "There were 3,756 devices, 150 new switch/routers and 1,022 miles of fiber cable."
The technology is constantly moving at Wal-Mart, he observes. "The changes happen not just over years, but over days and weeks. It seems that as soon as you get your hands on something here, we're doing something else." True, the core system has stayed the same, but the company is keeping up with new business technologies, like the Internet and videoconferencing, and working with top technology companies to put their products to use.
In addition to his job, Cook is involved with Unity, Wal-Mart's African American resource group. "We work on associate development and help new associates adapt to the area."
He also participates in recruiting. "The managers and directors visit schools in rotation. Students can talk to us and understand what the day-to-day job involves."
L'Oréal USA: "a mosaic of people"
At L'Oréal USA (New York, NY), Edward W. Bullock, VP, diversity and inclusion, defines diversity as "a mosaic of people who bring a variety of backgrounds, styles, perspectives, values, beliefs and differences as assets to L'Oréal.
"Our mission is to reflect in our employees the same diversity that exists in our brands, our consumers and our communities." The firm attends diversity-oriented career fairs and selects interns from its own SoftSheen-Carson scholarship program and through Inroads, Bullock notes.
Theresa Reese is AVP for client services in IT at L'Oréal USA
Armed with a degree in business, management and economics, Theresa Reese worked for a Wall Street investment banking firm, launched a catering business and became a pastry chef for world-famous chef/restaurateur Paul Prudhomme. These jobs helped prepare for her present work as AVP for client services in IT at L'Oréal USA (New York, NY). "In both fields you have to ask yourself what is going to set you apart from others," she says.
Later she joined Transamerica Life Insurance Co. "I began automating the offices, moving from dumb terminals to a LAN. The CFO was very supportive and sent me to a special year-long program at Columbia University (New York, NY) to get my certification in MIS/EIS." She completed that program in 1991, and this year she received her MS in Internet technologies for e-commerce with a concentration on security from Pace University (New York, NY).
After eight years at Transamerica, Reese moved to L'Oréal as manager of field sales with the company's Lancôme line. When the network manger left she took on those office responsibilities as well.
After a short time her group was asked to deploy and support field sales laptops for designer fragrances, and in 2000 she was promoted to director of IT for all luxury brands within L'Oréal USA."I continued in that role until I was offered the position of director of client services by the CIO at the end of 2004. I was promoted to AVP in 2005."
Client services was the first IT shared service for L'Oréal USA. Reese consolidated eight helpdesks into one service desk which provides first- and second-level IT support to L'Oréal USA-North America. "Client services and the new Remedy ticketing system, which has been live for a year, were developed utilizing the Information Technology Information Library framework," she explains.
The most interesting part of the work, she says, was moving from the typical helpdesk to a customer-oriented client services team. "It's our job within IT to communicate the standards and policies and be sure the business understands them and why they must exist.
"Many policies and procedures are created to protect the business, like password changes, antivirus software and firewalls, and controlling software and hardware is installed on the company network. Occasionally a client doesn't see the need and it's our job to explain it."
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OPPORTUNITIES IN CONSUMER & RETAIL IT
Check the latest openings at these diversity-minded companies. |
| Company and location |
Business area |
Achushnet Co
(Fairhaven, MA)
www.titleist.com, www.footjoy.com |
Golf equipment |
Colgate-Palmolive
(New York, NY)
www.colgate.com
|
Household and personal health products |
Dell Inc
(Round Rock, TX)
www.dell.com/careers |
Global systems and services |
John Deere
(Moline, IL)
www.deere.com |
Agricultural equipment |
Kraft Foods Global Inc
(Northfield, IL)
www.kraft.com |
Consumer food products |
L'Oréal USA
(New York, NY)
www.lorealusa.com |
Cosmetics |
Sony Electronics
(New York, NY)
www.sony.com |
Electronics |
The Home Depot
(Atlanta, GA)
careers.homedepot.com |
Home and building supplies |
3M
(St. Paul, MN)
www.3M.com |
Household products, manufacturing |
Walgreen Company
(Deerfield, IL)
www.walgreens.com/about/careers |
Retail pharmacy |
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
(Bentonville, AR)
www.walmartstores.com |
Retailer |
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