|
||
Internship 2010 at Volvo in Sweden5BHWII, 5BHMIM
Karin Reiter, 5BHWII, Special Vehicles & Service
At this department my job was to change parts of damaged cars or to prepare them for the paint shop and after the paint shop mount them on the car again together with a student from the technical college Klagenfurt. It was also a part of my job to drive the cars in the car wash, into the workshop and then drive them out on the parking. Markus Prötsch, 5BHMIM, Body-Shop (Karosseriefertigung)
On my first day I got a fascinating tour through the body shop of the company. This department should also employ my later work. The second and third working day I spent with workers from the workshop. They told me a lot of the production process and I also had the change to ask questions. These two days were very informative, because my responses have been well detailed and specific. On Thursday I started with the originally work. I was able to evaluate the cycle times of robots with a stopwatch and compare it to a computer system. It listened not very exciting, but it was still funny. I got a list of robots that I had to evaluate. I was able to plan out what robots I want to analyze first and what robots I want to analyze at the end of my practical time. For coffee breaks, of course, was also time. It was generally a quite relaxed working atmosphere and I always had the feeling to be welcome. Romana Schlager, 5BHWII, Quality-Department
I was assigned to the quality-department, where I worked together with a pupil from Wolfsburg (Carinthia). My work there was very interesting because I had insight into the entire production process, from the body to the finished car. In the four training weeks, I had the task to implement a project to improve quality, with the help of my colleague from Carinthia. In the first weeks we had to check the A-pillars and dashboards for defaults (scratches, dirt,...) and to take down notes. Then we had to identify where the defects came from, we went through the whole production hall and wrote down abnormalities. After finding reasons for the defect, we were looking for ways to reduce waste. At the end of the internship, we were allowed to present the work we had done the four weeks, including our suggestions for improvement. Florian Stehrer, 5BHWII, und Gerry Moser, 5BHMI, Paint Shop
Our workplace was the Department TB4 in the paint shop. It took about an hour before we met there because we had to change the bus for a few times. The primed bodies come in and a kind of glue against dirt and moisture was put on the car. Before they leave this department they are cleaned. Our task was to develop a quality, - process, - and assessment system. We got a similar, already existing system from Saab and adapted it to our department. The whole document was written in English. We did this work it the office on a laptop, which was provided from Volvo. We were also allowed to take them home in our apartment. On the whole we were very satisfied about our work, especially of our flexible working hours. Another positive aspect was that the coffee was free in the whole Volvo factory and also at school. FreizeitGöteborgGothenburg is a city with many opportunities to spend free time. Any place was easy to reach by tram, and to get to the center it just took us a few minutes. In Gothenburg, there are lots of museums and the harbour is very nice and worth visiting it. In our neighborhood there was a large shopping center, where we spent a lot of our spare time.
InselnIn our spare time we also visited several islands. You can do quite walks there; because of the few cars on the roads, several islands are even car-free. The rocky and green landscape is beautiful and you have a great view over the sea. It’s also a must to visit a restaurant there and try one of the well-tasting, freshly prepared seafood-menus.
Vergnügungspark LisebergLiseberg was on the opposite side of our apartment and therefore very fast to reach. There are many fun attractions, such as the largest wooden rollercoaster in the world, called "Balder", the rollercoaster "Canon", on which you are upside down, or the chamber of horrors.
Park SlottskogenThe park is a beautiful green plant with including a small zoo. There you can find moose, deer, horses, penguins, aquarium fish and birds. There are also cafes, restaurants and museums.
MuseenUniverseumThe Universeum is a huge museum with a rain forest and many large aquariums. There you can see various kinds of fish, monkeys, frogs and many other animals. You can also learn about the latest technology, such as eye scan in hotels and fingerprint for security, etc.
Volvo-MuseumHere you can view many old, current and also future Volvo models.
AusgehenAt the weekends (and sometimes during the week), we had the opportunity to get to know the swedish nightlife a little better. At first it was a big surprise for us that in many locals entry isn’t allowed under 20 years. There are many clubs and bars, and despite the age restriction, we soon found our favorite restaurant, called PARKEN. Unfortunately everything is more expensive in Sweden, especially alcohol. Nevertheless, we have always had great fun when we were going out, and we made many new friends.
Malmö-Kopenhagen-Helsingborg
The next morning we explored the city with all its attractions, until we finally went to Copenhagen. The connection between Sweden and Denmark is a 24-kilometer bridge that crosses the sea and ends in a tunnel that carries out under the water. In Copenhagen, we had some problems with finding a suitable hostel. Exhausted by the search, we decided after a long party night to sleep in the car again. On Sunday we went on towards Helsingborg (Denmark). There we took the ferry to Helsingborg (Sweden). Of course, our car was on board. Tired and exhausted from our trip, we came back Sunday night in Gothenburg.
AccomodationsThanks to our predecessors, we weren’t allowed to stay in the same apartment they did, so we were accommodated in a hostel, which was far too expensive for what it offered. We slept in pairs in a room. While the girls had a spacious, but not very beautiful room, the boys had to be satisfied with their mini rooms. Each room was equipped with a TV, a refrigerator and a closet in which wasn’t even space for half of our clothing (also for the males!). We had no common room; there was only an extremely small kitchen as a community room. Also a toilet and shower were in our area, we also got two more showers provided, but these were not cleaned very often. |
||||||
The highlight of our stay was
definitely the "Road Trip" Gothenburg-Malmö-Copenhagen-Helsingborg. Mark P., Florian,
Thomas, H. Mark and I rented a Volvo S40 for the whole weekend. On Friday afternoon,
after work we went off to Malmö. After about two and a half hour drive we were going
out. It was a very funny evening and we spent the night in our car. 