Lean Challenge is an intense 6 weeks long summer internship at General Electric (GE), where groups of engineering students are selected to lead lean six sigma projects in one of the factories owned by many of GE’s industrial segments. At the end of the program, the interns present their projects to the site managers and the winner group of each factory gets the opportunity to present their six sigma project to the business leaders of other GE plants as well as an offer to continue as a regular industrial engineering intern.

I was privileged to participate in the 2014 edition of the Lean Challenge at GE Oil & Gas, Jandira site. My group’s project main contribution was the design of a new delivery box to maneuver fragile materials that are used to seal oil & gas pipes connections. This material requires handling with extra caution because its parts are mostly made of a soft metal called inconel, thus the delivery box was designed to accommodate the materials without the risk of damaging the inconel parts while employing lean manufacturing principles such as, 5S, simplicity (muda), poka-yoke and safety. Our project was voted for the best lean six sigma project in the Jandira site and we had the opportunity to present it to other GE businesses in Campinas, Brazil.

Award cerimony in Campinas