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From these more cheerful parts of work...

Hi All and Every One!

After some longer break from everyday working life (the whole LUMOS Graduate group had a fantastic training event in Denmark - I'll try to write something more about it later) there has come the time to get back to (not so) grey reality and hard work. Although among this rush some of the tasks can bring really positive energy and smile on my face.

Together with some other colleagues from VELUX, including my blog-mate - Kseniya, we're going to have training for assessors in Scotland next week. In order to prepare ourselves and present our profiles during the training we're making our so called "personal shields". You can throw a look:

At the top of the shield you there is my name with my working locations. Top left corner shows some personal info, top right some details about my work experience and responsibilities. At the bottom left corner you can see my expectations from the training. Bottom right corner refers to my Lean experience and team work abilities.

Regarding bottom part of the shield you have to know one thing: Business loves TLA's - Three Letter Abbreviations. So do I ;) VMM is the VELUX Manufacturing Model - our way of working with Lean. We use PS - Problem Solving, and CI - Continuous Improvement to reduce our waste.

How do you like it?

[veluxgroup]

Line experience in use

Hello everybody!

It's been a while since I wrote my last post, so here comes some sign of life!

I would like to share a nice experience with you. As some of you may already know, here in PBC-SK, I was working on the shop floor for the first two months of my training period. I was trying out most of the positions, usually one or two week for a department.

My favourite station to work in was the GGU assembly line. I have worked on the sash line and the frame line as well, and it was very exciting to face the challenges of an operator. There are so many things that you have to keep in your mind! Standards, takt times, quality, and all this has to be in perfect synchron with the others, in order to make the production fluent. One could easily think that shooting some staples or screwing some screws is not rocket science, but I can tell you, you can cause some serious problems just with the slip of a finger. Paying close attention is extremely important, especially when you are making the fewhundredth piece the day:)

Training on the shop floor turned out to be a great adventage, highly valuable experience. These days, when I work on projects, problem solving and other things that are more or less done in the office, it is much easier for me to understand the issues with the knowledge about the actual job and the work done on the floors.

For example, one of my bigger tasks is connected to the balancing of a production line, and I can for sure feel, how my insight of the opertators' job is helping my team to take actions in the most adequate way. Sometimes the theories are so far away from the actual, physical conditions, that one cannot solve an issue by only looking at statistics and computer settings!

Have my best regards from the sunny village of Partizánske!

Ádám Jenővári

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10th anniversary

Hi all

I am very excited to share my recent cultural experience with you. Two weeks ago, people in Namyslow celebrated the 10th anniversary of the VELUX factory NM-PL. 

I had the pleasure to be part of this event, that took place right in the factory premises. 

General manager of NM-PL was very thankfull for great effort of all employees, because without it, we couldn't achieve current situation. On the same day, there was also Board meeting planned in NM-PL, so our Group Director also used the opportunity to express his thanks for hard work.

At the end, every employee received small present and were all invited for refreshments.

Martin Tapay, VELUX Lumos graduate

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One more Graduate on the board!

Hi All!

There's one more guy who wants to share with you some not always work related thoughts here. His name is Marcin and he's writing this post.

Today is passing 436th day of my working for VELUX and they were 436 exceptional days. My job is full of challenges and new experiences. This graduate programme is a very powerful development locomotive - but it's really up to you how fast you'll go with that.

And I like speed...

During my 6-month stay in VELUX Logistics in Hungary I am responsible for improving Lean in one of the departments. In order to increase our efficiency in performing daily tasks I am running series of short, practical Excel trainings. Today's topic: Macros - lesson 1.

I am from Poland, I'm living in Hungary and there is weekend in front of us! You know what they say: "Polak, Węgier - dwa bratanki, i to bitki, i do szklanki!" 

Best regards,

Marcin Talarczyk, VELUX Lumos Graduate

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VMS ready for prominent visit!

In the coming weeks, the VELUX head office in Denmark will be visited by the president of Finland. One might wonder why he will visit VELUX, however, one of the reasons for the visit is surely due to VELUXs huge effort within sustainable buildings and Co2 neutral active houses. For this special occasion, we have installed the VELUX Modular Skylight display, used at our official launch event in London, in the reception so it can bring some attention to this new exciting business area.

// Henrik Gyll Winther Larsen

VELUX Modular Skylights

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H there,

Here`s my small message just to update you on what`s going on here in Gniezno.

It`s almost 2 months since the start of the final period of our Velux Graduate internship.

Generally speaking I`m having now the preface to project management experience that`s going to start...

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Hi all,

Hope you are fine and enjoy the beginning of spring like I do. Yes, I know it`s not so warm nowadays but at least we have some sun here in Gniezno and collegues say that it`s going to get better after the Easter.

Ok..I`ve decided to start this morning not with cup of coffee but...

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Safety first !

Safety became part of our lives in VELUX. We always try to think about our safety and also safety of others.

Last week there was Safety assessment in our NM-PL factory. Assessors appreciated the way how all employees think about safety. It is really nice to see how big step forward the company made, comparing to previous years.

Today we had a cake celebration, because of the score, that we achieved in safety assessment. It was probably the biggest cake I have ever seen. And was very tasty :)

So, congratulations, NM-PL !

For me, as a new person who came from another VELUX company, it is really interesting to watch how they deal with safety, but not only safety. It all reminds me our factory in Slovakia. These two factories are very similar in every aspect. They even look almost the same :)

Best regards 

Martin Tapay, VELUX Lumos Graduate

[veluxgroup]

How I'm doing here:)

Hi my dear readers,  It's been quite long time since I left my last poste.. So I'll update you on what's going on here in Gniezno and in my beloved Velux.  First of all weather.. Sorry, polish friends, but it's soo cold here, may be because my expectations about the weather in Poland were much higher. But I got Velux sweater this week,  so, like we sometimes say in production, "problem-solved".  Concerning the working issues, it was really FRUITFUl  week! I spent a lot of time with Grzegorz, who's the supervisor of one of the production halls, he showed me not only the work of his department but also made some valuable introduction to the theory of wood structure and its influence on the production processes. This weekI felt sometimes like a student - so much knowledge I got!  But this Friday, guys, was "WOW" one!! The whole day I spent at another Velux factory located in max 1km from the one I'm working at now. It produces metal and plastic fittings for Velux windows worldwidely. The factory is rather young, just 12 years old (please correct me if I've made a mistake). Soo.. The production looks so impressive!! Can you imagine giant automatic presses that operate with 400tonnes pressure? And the process is soo fast and smooth.. I was fascinated by this smart..unbelievable..machines..I couldn't stop watching them (even I was a bit afraid). The same feeling I had when I was observing robots making some operations in one of the Velux factories in Hungary. These high technologies are amazing. Sorry, guys, can't share with you any pictures. We have been working more than 70 years to get this level of technologies and we can't lose it so easily :) Another things that made my day were the managers and supervisors and in general all the people there. It was awesomely nice ( my English teacher would be surprised with this expression) to communicate with them, can you imagine that from the first minutes you fell like home in some kind of invironment? I can  :) They have very nice tradition: every Friday to have a social meeting, that means that for half an hour they're drinking tea with sweets and fruits and discuss everything they want. Sure today I was paid a lot of attention, not just during this meeting but during the whole day. I think I told the story of my life 5 or 6 times today :))) I really like this social meeting idea. It's Wonderful teambuilding activity, and so easy to organise - wow!  Hope you havn't get bored from reading my memories, so now I just want not to forget to say some THANX to some people:) Special regards to Grzegorz and Joanna ( HR specialist) who brought me amazing DVDs, so now how I'm going to spend Sunday:)) Also greetings to Slawomir ( my BOSS in NB) and Justyna (HR manager from the factory I visited today) who organised my trip on Friday.  And I would also like to say Thank you to my buddy colleague Mihau who's going to show me Poznan tomorrow!  Sitting now in Pietrak restaurant in Gniezno and enjoying beautiful polish cuisine dinner,  Kseniya

[veluxgroup]

Newcomer

I couldn't brake the tradition of newcomers, so today I brought some cakes to the office. My new colleagues were really happy and enjoyed them.

It think this is one of the best ways how to build good relationships :)

Martin Tapay,VELUX LUMOS Graduate

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Valentine's day contributions

Life in Partizánske could have some lovely surprises! Today one of my colleagues brought in some heartful ornaments, made by sick children in a hospital no so far away. For some donations, I could make a nice moment for a loved one for the upcoming Valentine's day, and contribute to the well-being of these children.

Happy Valentine's day in advance!

Ádám

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Hi my dear readers,

As you might remember, last week I was about to move to Gniezno, Poland. Sooo – I`m already here! On Wednesday I had to change 3 planes (Moscow-Riga-Warsaw-Poznan, that was quite risky actually as I almost missed the second one) and then took a taxi to Gniezno..

So my...

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Time passes so quickly...

It's been already one year since I joined this excellent group of people in VELUX LUMOS Graduate programme. A lot of very interesting work I have done already and it still seems to me like it all started just few months ago.

I finished my second rotation period in Russian VELUX factory last week and I prepared a small farewell party with some cakes and sweets.  After all I was a bit sad, because I had to say Good-Bye to my colleagues with whom I spent last half year,working on many interesting projects and expanding my VELUX Group network, so frankly the last day wasn't easy.

Now there is another interesting challenge waiting for me and that is VELUX factory in Namyslow,Poland. Next week it all starts and I can't wait to see all the assignments that they prepared for me.

More info from my beautiful stay in VELUX Namyslow is comming soon :) 

Best regards

Martin Tapay, VELUX LUMOS Production Graduate

[veluxgroup]

Hi all!

Just before moving from Denmark to Hungary for my next rotation I visited BUDMA that is a large exhibition for the professionals of the building industry in Poland. At the exibition we presented new generation of VELUX Roof Windows V22.

Our performance at the exibition was really...

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Just realised that today is exactly one year I`m employed in Velux. It`s difficult to believe.

The time has flown by so fast!

The ones who aren`t familiar with Velux Lumos programme - it`s just awesome. 18 months, 3 different companies within Velux Group, at least one of the locations is...

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The official launch of Modular Skylights in Germany at the BAU

Some months ago, as a part of our roll-out of VELUX Modular Skylights (VMS) in the German market, I was sent to our German sales office in Hamburg. The goal was to support and aid in our roll-out plan and act as an internal consultant, with the purpose of transferring knowledge to the German team and share best practice. As the final part of my stay in Germany, I helped prepare the VMS participation in the by-annual fair called BAU, where VMS would officially be launched in Germany. Now - BAU isn’t just any fair. It is the World’s leading trade fair for architecture, building materials and systems with over 16 halls activated for 6 days and more than 238.000 visitors.

VELUX was well represented with a big stand, where VMS was only a small part. On the stand, VELUX served both sausages and beer for free (hurray for the German culture!). The overall theme was: work hard – play hard! Every day, the show started at 9.30 (of course we had to be there 9.00) and did not end until 18.30 in the evening. Even though the days were long, people were always cheerful in the end of the day. For those who wanted, it was always possible to get a few beers on a local brewery, some good traditional German food - all well guided by our local VELUX sales people!

In the end the BAU was a great success for VMS or “Modulares Oberlicht system” as they say in Germany. We won a prize called “Innovation Award for Architecture & Building”, and at the end of the fair we had more than 700 concrete leads to follow up on!

Even though I now go home to Denmark, our German VMS team will be very busy in the time coming, following up on the massive amount of attention and leads generated from the fair!

///Henrik Gyll Winther Larsen

Links:

BAU: http://www.bau-muenchen.com

Pictures from the BAU at VELUX Germanys Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/VELUX.de

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.386514998107174.88401.126757344082942&type=3

Picture 1: Myself and our German VMS team

Picture 2: The VMS section of the stand

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Moving foward

Hi all,

Today is one of the last days at my current location in Moscow, Russia. Soon I`m moving to Gniezno, a small town which is 30 km from Poznan, Poland. Just need so arrange some visa formalities, pack my luggage, book tickets and that`s it.

New country, new team, new language (though quite similar to Russian) and new tasks. I think I`m ready for this experience..

Just have had an idea that TUMBLR can be my new friend. I will share with him what`s on my mind.

Will you follow me on TUMBLR?

Best, Kseniya