Last Updated: October 24, 2018 by Jabil Joules 3 Comments

Four Joules Win Top Prize at the 2018 Deliver Best Practices Competition

Last week, Jabil celebrated its 10th anniversary of the Deliver Best Practices Competition, in which employees submit Lean, continuous improvement projects and spend eight months competing to advance to the global round at Jabil’s corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida. There, the 32 finalist projects – from the original record-breaking 2,401 submitted across the company this year – are presented to Jabil executives for a chance to take home the top trophy in their category.

This year each of our four first place winning projects were presented by females, repeating the Jabil Joules success from the 2014 competition!

Beth Walters, senior vice president, speaks to the success of the entire week and the great contributions of every team represented at the finals: “What a fantastic year – we witnessed a true celebration of everything that makes Jabil, Jabil! We framed the Global Finals week of events around a Jabil Cares theme: Giving Back to Our Communities. Seeing the amazing spectrum of Jabil Cares projects was humbling. We ended the week with a celebration of seeing four female presenters, representing their teams, take home the top honors – a testament to our diversity initiatives in action!”

Winners from left to right: Jessie Lee, Divya Adinarayanan, Monica Peredo and Yeliz Kokel

Representing Jabil Penang Global Business Center, Divya Adinarayanan, information technology lead, won the Beyond the Factory category for her team’s project, which increased communication from the shop floor machines to management, resulting in defect-free production. With a unique background in graphic design, Divya has transferred her design skills to the engineering and manufacturing fields, demonstrating the power of diversity. She now works in the Incubation Team at Penang, experimenting and exploring new technologies to be implemented across Jabil.

First place winner in the Operations category, Jessie Lee, project coordinator at Jabil’s Shenzhen Plastic facility, only joined Jabil one year ago. Within this short period of time, she has shown her commitment to improving operational processes with an employee-first mindset. Jessie has quickly demonstrated her passion for improvement and work ethic, with her life motto summing it up perfectly: “The best career advice I’ve received is – ‘Working is just like running, the distance is as important as the speed’,” she said. Her team’s project used elements from photography, like pixel recognition and special lighting, to reduce time-consuming work and ocular strain for many employees working on the shop floor.

A key theme throughout this year’s projects was putting employees first, which Monica Peredo, human resources services coordinator, also demonstrated with her team’s project – an app called “Go Jabil.” Monica represented her team from Guadalajara in the Employees category, who were able to implement an efficient transportation tracking system on campus, decreasing wait time, decreasing absenteeism due to transportation issues and increasing overall employee morale. “Everything the team did was with an ethic-centric focus, so we can make processes efficient and safer for our peers,” Monica said. “And I’m very proud of that.”

Last but not least, in the Social and Environmental category, Yeliz Kokel, operations development analyst at Jabil Suzhou SIP Plastics, and her team developed their process improvement to help provide a safer, healthier environment for employees to work. Their project implemented a new automated cleaning technology for production machines, saving time, money and most importantly, providing a safer work environment for employees. “I wanted to be President when I was younger, but found myself in the manufacturing world after college,” Yeliz said. “I see how I can use my previous passion for this work though, by learning to be a strong leader and motivate others to succeed. Participating in this competition gave me a chance to start doing just that!”

Divya, Jessie, Monica and Yeliz are inspirational examples of Joules around the world. Each of these women, along with all the other global finalists, showcased their passion to improve the lives of others through their Deliver Best Practices projects, proudly demonstrating how Jabil’s global workforce is dedicated to our culture of Ingenuity, Integrity and Inspiration.

 The 2018 Deliver Best Practices global finalists

Last Updated: November 1, 2018 by Jabil Joules 7 Comments

Diverse Background Leads to Inspirational Leadership

Archana Seetaramiah has 20 years of experience in quality, engineering, business and project management in sectors like electronic engineering, mobility and technology. She uses this diverse background to progress the Jabil business and empower those around her.

In school, Archana was drawn to mathematics when few girls opted for technical subjects, and she went on to study engineering in college, specializing her studies in electronics and telecommunications. Sharing her passion with others is something that makes Archana unique, as she takes every available opportunity to teach others. “I always loved simplicity and turning something complicated into something easily understood and digestible. During my school days, I made a conscious effort to break down complex topics for others to better understand,” she said.

Prior to Jabil, Archana worked as an independent design engineer, but she found that something was missing in her career – that was a sense of belonging to a team, working with others. This is when Archana realized her passion for helping others was a skill she could apply to her work. She began her road to leadership, mentoring and educating others along the way.

Archana and her team at Jabil Pune

Joining manufacturing in 2001, Archana worked for a variety of companies as a design manager, engineering manager and project leader. Being part of a larger team and learning together gave Archana more happiness in her career and greater opportunities than she had expected.

In 2014, she found herself at Jabil Pune where she is now a Business Unit Program Manager for one of our larger customers. Archana has the opportunity to work with diverse departments across the company to ensure a successful business partnership.

Using her leadership position and two decades of experience, Archana empowers others by encouraging them to build confidence. “If employees properly understand the expectations, they can channel their efforts in the right direction. Then, they can provide quality services and products to the customer, which in turn gives them confidence,” Archana says. “I try my best to enhance and boost the performance of my teams, so they can be sure of themselves and their success.”

Archana and her team at the local Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

Archana not only encourages team members to develop their skills, but she also gives them opportunities to bond at events at the site and local festivals. Most notably, Archana inspires others by nominating them for promotions and awards, with one example being her recent acknowledgment of a female leader for the Manufacturing Institute’s 2019 STEP Ahead Awards. “I’m honored to know such brilliant women and want them to always understand their value, so I remain committed to showcasing their talents and building their confidence through recognition efforts.” Archana mentors, educates and connects others, demonstrating she is a Joule.

 

 

Last Updated: October 10, 2018 by Jabil Joules Leave a Comment

Jabil Site Educates, Employs and Empowers Young Women in Brazil

Empowering the next generation of female talent can take many forms, from educational assistance to mentorships and social development, and for some sites, they decide to help by doing multiple of these. Jabil Belo Horizonte’s commitment to the Brazilian state-led initiative Projeto Gente Grande (PGG) is just one example of that.

Joining the PGG initiative in 2000, the site has been offering a fun, safe educational space for at-risk girls between 11 and 18 years old to continue their education and grow their skills through unique learning opportunities. Employees volunteer monthly to mentor and connect with these young girls, dedicated to helping the next generation.

Leandro teaching English to PGG students

Jabil Belo Horizonte’s specific involvement in the national initiative includes a variety of mentoring opportunities from school-based assistance to musical development. Employees help tutor school subjects, such as computer skills, English, mathematics and science. Leandro Pimenta, assistant planner, has helped with teaching English: “It’s a world language that really opens the doors in the business world. I was fortunate enough to learn English in school, so I want to pay it forward and provide these young women the same opportunities I’ve been so lucky to receive,” he said.

“The classes and mentors at Jabil helped me to better understand myself and encouraged me to start planning for my future.”

The success of the program is most notably seen with five girls who participated in the PGG program activities, graduated and are now working for Jabil. One of those students, Maria Quieros, now a purchasing assistant at Jabil Belo Horizonte says, “PGG was extremely important for the basis of my entire professional career: I joined the project in 2007 and have been at Jabil since then. When I entered the project, I had no idea what my future would be – I didn’t think much about it. The classes and mentors at Jabil helped me to better understand myself and encouraged me to start planning for my future.” Maria was given the chance to intern in the Purchasing department where she learned how the Jabil business works and gained knowledge that would help her with her career here. “I was given more responsibility than I had in the past and was able to begin to shape my professional profile, grow and be seen by other employees, which opened a range of opportunities for me,” she said.

Dangelo with PGG computer science class

The goal of Jabil Belo Horizonte’s efforts is to provide a positive learning environment as well as prepare the young women for careers in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and manufacturing fields, and they have done just that. “This program gives me the opportunity to share everything I’ve learned at my job to help inspire the next generation,” said Dangelo Carmo, engineering data services technician. “The best memory I have is during the first week of last year’s program there was a group of girls who told me they didn’t like the class I was teaching – basic computer skills. But in just a few short weeks, they were the first ones to the facility and always so anxious for my class. It made me happy to have changed the minds of these students to become enthusiastic about a STEM field!”

The Belo Horizonte employees who have volunteered with this program over the years are grateful for the chance to share their knowledge and inspire the future female STEM workforce, while also empowering at-risk youth to receive equal opportunities to learn and grow.

Last Updated: December 5, 2018 by Jabil Joules 2 Comments

Diversifying the Workforce & Paving the Way for Global Success

 

By MY Lee, Senior Vice President of Operations

 

As an international company, Jabil has a diverse culture and way of thinking. It’s important to create opportunities for colleagues to interact across the enterprise in order to bring novel and “disruptive” ideas to our business. This, in turn, positively affects our customers and, ultimately, our financial results.

At Jabil’s Taichung Tooling facility, we support this idea of diversifying development by emphasizing job transferring, where we breakdown the required skills needed for different positions, so we can first focus on training transferable skills. Employees then have a better opportunity to try new positions and move across the departments to gain unique experiences and perspectives. We’ve leveraged our technology-drive mindset and created videos on standard operating procedures, which are shared with all employees to broaden their knowledge of Taichung Tooling’s work.

Our goal is to make [our employees] into global leaders.

My leadership team also focuses on providing opportunities for employees to learn soft skills, like communication and leadership. We encourage employees to join customer meetings to enhance their ability to communicate and improve their English, with the goal of making them into global leaders.

By supporting diversity and inclusion efforts at the site, we have seen positive results that bring good fortune to the company, including reduced personnel turnover rate. By providing more opportunities for employees to learn from their peers and work on projects in other departments, we can better meet our workforce’s development demands and enhance workplace satisfaction.

… with the gender gap closing, I’m doing what I can to support that movement.

While supporting unique opportunities for all employees, a personal goal of mine is to support the female talent at our Taichung sites. The male workforce makes up the majority of the manufacturing field, but with the gender gap closing, I’m doing what I can to support that movement. Working to equalize our talent, I’m focused on hiring more female engineers and supporting efforts to provide leadership training to them. Recently, we had two female employees recently promoted to high management positions – Helen Lee and Christine Tsai, now both assistant operations managers.

I also support initiatives like the Manufacturing Institute’s STEP Ahead Awards and nominate our strong female talent for recognition. I’m proud that two of the four employees I submitted last year were selected as official nominees: May Lin and Nancy Chang.

At the facility, I’ve seen firsthand the different perspectives that male and females bring to the table, and how together those different ideas lead to great success. Empowerment means leading with integrity, trust and belief in others, and together with a diversified talent pool, we can all create positive change.

 

Last Updated: September 26, 2018 by Jabil Joules Leave a Comment

Mentoring Youth Around the Diversity of STEM

According to the United States Education Department (2018), careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are expected to gain millions of positions, with an increase specifically in mathematics jobs (by 15%), computer systems analysts (22%) and systems software developers (32%) by 2020.

To prepare the future workforce, especially female talent, Jabil Joules around the world are educating and inspiring the next generation of STEM employees in their communities. Their goal is to create opportunities for young females to learn about the diverse paths they can take in the industry and understand the variety of skills required.

One initiative that’s helping to bring attention to the unique possibilities is “STEM Goes Red,” a national campaign led by the American Heart Association, which teaches middle and high school aged girls how to improve their hearts and minds through a career in STEM. The program brings a unique perspective to the science, technology, engineering and math industries by showing how analytics, engineering, robotics and more play a part in health care.

In an effort to Educate and Mentor, two of the Joules’ focus areas, employees from Jabil St. Petersburg mentored at the Tampa Bay American Heart Association’s “STEM Goes Red” event.

(S) Science and Arts by Luis Herrera, principal design engineer

Science-based focus areas are only growing in influence, from self-driving cars and 3D printing to home automation, robotics, alternative energy and beyond. Because of its far reach, it’s important for us to support the different aspects of STEM, including the various skills required to successfully fill those positions. One thing I’m passionate about is the lesser known artistic development that’s needed to support the technical skills. Studies have shown art – music, especially – is conducive to scientific brain development. Using my position as a design engineer, I promote the importance of combining creativity and technical training because without both, progress can’t be made. The activity we did with the young girls at the “STEM Goes Red” event was perfect for me because we had the girls design a small robot, which was then used to create art, perfectly representing the combination of art and science.

(T) Technology and Teamwork, by TJ Lakeman, information technology compliance specialist

In order to be ‘good’ at technology, you need both the technical skills and soft skills, such as communication and teamwork. A lot of my work in IT compliance relies on collaboration and the sharing of diverse perspectives to come to the most agreeable solution. At its essence, technology can’t progress until ideas are shared across departments and enterprises. While volunteering at the “STEM Goes Red” event, I demonstrated the importance of teamwork and show the girls what can be accomplished when everyone works collectively. I focused on making sure everyone openly discussed what was working and not working while they built their robots and collaborated on making improvements together. Technology careers need the proper skill-base but in order to truly innovate, we need to work with each other.

(E) Engineers’ Responsibilities by Karen Perez, lead electrical engineer

The future of engineering is so broad, and like “STEM Goes Red” has shown, it’s important for every field, including the medical industry. I work in our Nypro division, so it was really fitting to mentor girls at the American Heart Association event – I work in an area where engineering is not typically first-associated with but is very much essential. That’s why I wanted to volunteer and help spark the interest for these young girls. I love my job, love to talk about it and love to get young girls excited about engineering. There aren’t a lot of ‘me’ in the engineering industry – a Hispanic female focusing on electrical engineering – so I want to empower any younger versions of myself out there and let them know they can do it, too.

(M) Mathematics is the Backbone by Jiao Li, finance controls senior associate

Math is widely in every industry like hospitality, engineering, marketing and manufacturing, such as Jabil where we use math for operations, production and reporting. Data and numbers are used to help leadership make informed decisions that can impact the entire company and employee-population. Often math is overlooked as a career option, but it’s crucial to every single business out there. And that is why I choose to volunteer and work with children in the community, so they can see the value of math and the possibilities it could lead to when they get older. This STEM event gave me a chance to have those open conversations with the girls in attendance and share my experiences with them, hoping to persuade a few who said math was their favorite subject to make a career out of it.

Together, these Joules are bringing STEM into the community, introducing the diverse needs of the industry and showing young women how they can all play an important role in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 

 

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