Page 15 - SMEC-Newsletter-14th-Edition

ALUMNI CORNER

SKF Bearings is a leading Bearing manufacturer, also providing solutions through its five technology-
centric platforms: bearings, seals, lubrication, condition monitoring, and maintenance services.
My Experiences/story:

My job is to deliver SAP solutions to all our SKF Sales units & Factories in Europe. I run a global team of
90 people. After graduating from VIT I had plans to pursue further education. SKF picked me from VIT as part
of a Fast track Graduate Program in India. My dad is a Mechanical Engineer too and has been a customer to SKF
for a long time.

It was back in 2012 and after 10 years, SKF is my first & only
workplace! I started with SKF in 2012 as a Supply Chain Planner in
Pune factory, India. I feel this gave me a base to understand every area of
SKF (Factory & Sales) and couldn’t have asked for a better kick start.

After 2 years, I moved to Demand Chain as Business Process
Analyst working for Asia Pacific, deploying ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning) solutions for Asian, Russia factories. This role provided an
opportunity to understand the business, work culture, ways of working
at a deeper level about what makes it consistently successful. After 2.5
years, I moved into another position as Application expert for our ERP Mr. Siddarth GV (2008-2012)
applications. This gave me a chance to understand how ‘IT’ helps in B.Tech Mechanical Engineering
improving our Engineering companies and increased my curiosity to Head of ERP, Europe
explore more. SKF Bearings, Sweden
After another couple of years, I applied for a Global position in IT Service Management as SKF “Change,
Problem & Asset Manager”. This gave me exposure to our IT Vendors, IT ways of working and opportunity to
improve our processes with best market practices. This was game changer for me professionally. I grew as a
Planner, Demand chain, process knowledge etc and now had IT knowledge too and know how best we SKF will
benefit from IT. With this experience and hunger to achieve great things, I was handpicked to be part of global
SKF ERP Program in Sweden (2019) as Deploy Manager.

And now lead this entire team for EMEA in 2022. The fact that I am part of a high paced project
improving SKF future ways of working. Interacting with almost 100 colleagues, day-in day-out in itself is a
learning. And of course, the cultural diversity we have, I enjoy the conversations of how different cultures
perceive things and different ways of working.

Challenges & Suggestions:

I didn’t know how or where I would fit in a manufacturing industry. Being a Mechanical Engineer, I
know the theory but to apply it in a practical world is entirely different. I had to find my way into it, adapt and
give my best shot. Supply chain for us in VIT is one elective or part of Industrial Engineering, but out in SKF it
is an important function and long full value chain attached to it.

What I realized is VIT gives you the knowledge needed and the analytical skills, but you need to work
hard and adapt. Important part is to keep an open mind and grab knowledge as much as you can.
There were many challenges, where you are challenged for your practical knowledge. My
suggestions, keep you head down, learn, adapt, and prove yourself. Also, when working in global world, try to
keep up with the industry, equip yourself with latest knowledge available and try to keep a global outlook
and not think for any specific country.

VIT gives a great platform for learning and provide with options to learn. But it’s up to you to utilize
what interests you. Engage yourself in the variety of clubs and events we have. It helps a lot with your social
and organizing skills. When entering an industry, knowledge is one part but handling people Is a bigger
challenge.
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