Real-world technical — and cultural — experience in Germany

Approaching her senior year, supply chain management (SCM) student Shelby Brunner was looking for opportunities to make her resume stand out. She hadn’t yet started her summer internship with PepsiCo, and she wanted to gain some corporate experience in the meantime. When she found out about the new Lean Six Sigma study abroad program, she knew it was a perfect fit.

In May, Brunner spent two weeks in Germany with other SCM and engineering students earning the international Green Belt Certification in the Lean Six Sigma methodology, which is often used in supply chain firms to eliminate waste and make work more efficient.

The students studied the curriculum leading up to the trip, and while in Germany they put what they learned to the test, working on real operations projects at Schaeffler Technologies, a global manufacturer headquartered in Schweinfurt.

When she started at PepsiCo a few weeks later, Brunner was much more confident about her ability to excel and about speaking up.

“I wasn’t as nervous coming to my internship because we did so much in Germany,” Brunner said. “I felt like I had already experienced a whole internship.”

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“This was an incredible interdisciplinary opportunity for our students because of the strong connection between supply chain management and industrial and systems engineering. Both disciplines focus on solving complex operational problems, and Lean Six Sigma provides a structured methodology that is highly valued across industry.”

Supply Chain Management Professional Experience Program Specialist Courtney Arnold

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The study abroad program was the first of its kind at Auburn. While students can earn the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification in the classroom at Auburn, the Germany program gives them the chance to apply the skills right away and also learn what it’s like to work with international colleagues. The program is hosted by the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department’s AU Lean Lab in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and conducted in partnership with the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt.

The program is an extension of a preexisting partnership between the Departments of Supply Chain Management and Industrial and Systems Engineering. In another long-term study abroad program in Spain, students in both disciplines work with international companies to enhance their warehouse and production processes. The program in Germany provides a practical skill set that students can put on their resume and use in any future internships and jobs.

“This was an incredible interdisciplinary opportunity for our students because of the strong connection between supply chain management and industrial and systems engineering,” said Harbert Professional Experience Program Specialist Courtney Arnold, who participated in the trip with the supply chain management students. “Both disciplines focus on solving complex operational problems, and Lean Six Sigma provides a structured methodology that is highly valued across industry.”

Three SCM students were part of the inaugural trip. Like Brunner, Noah Younce, another senior, was drawn to the program for the real-world experience. Younce worked on a project with a micro brewery, helping them address a storage issue. He also took advantage of his first trip to Europe and traveled with other students to Bamberg, Germany, and took a weekend trip to Switzerland.

Younce is interning at the global aerospace manufacturer Pratt and Whitney this summer, and he said the experience in Germany helped him gain a broader understanding of his options post-graduation. The experience opened his mind to living and working abroad one day.

“It was really interesting to get a view on problem-solving for a smaller business,” Younce said. “The company I work for is massive. They have facilities all over the world. So getting to see a small business owner’s problem-solving method and communicating with them was fascinating.”

Senior Ethan Eads followed up the Germany program with the six-week study abroad program in Pamplona, Spain, which focused on DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control), the framework used in the Lean Six Sigma methodology. The Germany trip prepared him well for the technical, cultural, and linguistic challenges he encountered in Spain. Both trips together also enhanced what Eads has learned in the classroom at Auburn.

“A lot of times in the classroom, the teachers offer a perfect scenario,” Eads said. “But the perfect scenario doesn’t account for when things don’t go the way you hope. Having to pivot and change depending on what happens in real life made me reflect more on what they teach in the classroom.”

Eads aspires to work for a global company one day, and his time in Europe reinforced that idea. For all of the students, the experience allowed them a clearer glimpse into their future professional lives.

Brunner, who is the secretary for the student-run Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence at Auburn, was inspired by the women leaders she met in Germany. At PepsiCo, she is one of only a few women in her internship cohort. She returned from the trip motivated.

“It made me feel seen in a way,” Brunner said. “A lot of the people we interacted with were women, and that really stuck with me.”

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Learn more about the supply chain management major in the Harbert College of Business