Responsibilities
During the summer of 2019, I had the pleasure of interning for the second time at Anheuser Busch (AB); this time with the Solutions group. This team is responsible for developing innovative technology & processes to support other pillars at AB.
This summer, I was tasked with aligning on the current state of a repayment program in the Peoples team’s off-boarding process, identifying the root cause of a problem that was hemoraging millions of dollars from the company annually, and implementing short- & long- term solutions to counteract the addressed process issue.
My Expectations
When I initially received these project details, I was amazed at how much impact the problem I would be trying to address was having on company deficits. I had to be ready to proactively approach other stakeholders in the repayment process, learn about key methods of identifying the root cause of problems in such processes, and keep an open mind about potential solutions (especially by considering the inputs of others in the Solutions team who could provide details about powerful technologies to leverage).
Results
I first connected with stakeholders of the current state of the repayment process, and built process diagrams to align on the details of the process. From here, after learning about Six Sigma methodology, and key methods in how to remove waste from processes, I led Six Sigma meetings where stakeholders & I were able to identify parts of the process that were unnecessary or added potential failure. This was an especially eye-opening experience because, as an engineering student, I originally had little experience with thinking about processes from such a high level, and detaching myself from the inner-workings of each subsection of a system. By considering these issues, we identified that all three pillars of what makes an effective process failed: people, process, & technology. From here, I was able to come up with potential solutions and revise accordingly as we put short- & long-term plans in place. The final long-term plan for the repayment process has an annual ROI of $1.48M! Overall, this internship really pushed me outside my comfort zone and think about problems and consider other’s opinions differently, to ensure that the final product is as effective & efficient as possible.