Three Things I Hope to Accomplish
1 . Become more familiar with equipment used in agriculture and related industries (turf / landscaping, construction). This includes tractors, implements, and their accessories.
2. Put into practice mechanical skills I developed in a classroom setting
3. Explore potential career opportunities. I am interested in precision ag and Stotz equipment has a large precision ag department since John Deere is the leader in the market.
My first week at my internship started a little slow. I think that helped with the transition into my new role. I got to meet my new coworkers and found out a few of them are AGTM graduates. First, when I arrived I found out the warehouse associate had recently been let go, and I would be absorbing his duties. I am familiar with working in a warehouse setting. For my first couple weeks I'd be spending the mornings receiving parts and afternoons with the salesman
Learning to receive parts was a bit confusing as I was unfamiliar with the software used. I enjoyed working with the salesman by maintaining the yard and meeting with customers walk them through the tractors and determining what they need.
The second week was very similar to the first. At this point, I was getting the hang of receiving and began doing so without the assistance of the parts manager. Parts we receive daily fall into one of three categories: items for stock, customer orders, or work orders from the shop. Additionally equipment such as tractors arrive throughout the day, and I receive them upon arrival. This week was the start of our inventory. Basically I would go through each and every bin with a list of items in stock and count them to verify availability. In all honesty, it was very tedious however I am glad it happened since I have worked a job with a terrible inventory system
Something interesting that happened this week was I participated in a meeting with teachers from a local elementary school. Stotz Equipment had donated towards a project at this school in order to build an outdoor classroom. It was great to see the community involvement at this company.
Week three was for the most part similar to weeks one and two. It was the conclusion to this inventory cycle, so in theory quantities in stock should be correct. For sales this week I did get to do something especially fun. I was sent to deliver parts to a customer in Sierra Vista. I was given two hydraulic hoses meant to be fitted on his excavator. I arrived only to find out the service manager had forgotten a necessary component in his toolbox. The hoses required two couplers in order to attach to the machine. I returned to Marana, took a lunch break, then returned to Sierra Vista and helped the customer install the hoses and verify his auger functioned properly before returning once again to Marana. I spent the majority of the day on the road and loved every minute of it.
Week four was the week I had been waiting for. By my fourth week I could hop into any piece of equipment and comfortably operate it. This is important as one of my main responsibilities is to load / unload equipment off trucks and maneuver them into the yard. This was satisfying as one the main things I hoped to accomplish here was to become more familiar with the equipment used in agriculture and related industries. In addition to that, the time had finally come for me to work in the shop. This week I assembled a few box blades.
Week 5 was extremely unique. Once a month each of the Stotz Equipment branches holds an event called "continuous improvement". The idea is to find one particular area requiring attention and a team of 4-5 will make a plan and tackle the project. Our project this month was yard optimization in preparation for a building expansion. As it stands the yard is messy with abandoned equipment, old pallets, etc. Space is limited as is, and will be even more restricted with plans to expand the shop and warehouse taking place this year. Although we will be taking on this project over the next few weeks, this week we started by clearing two tons of pallets. It was hot and hard work, but I enjoyed the opportunity to do manual labor
For most of week 6 I was primarily in the shop. I got to install my first mod on a tractor, a third SCV kit for a John Deere 1025r. This kit allows for additional hydraulic hookups. What made this particularly interesting was that none of the other technicians had installed one. I spent three days taking apart the tractor in order to access the hydraulic lines which I would be replacing. I worked slowly because this was my first time working on one of the tractors themselves. If needed, I am confident that I could now do the work in a matter of a few hours.
Week 7 I got to do some more shop work. This week I assembled post hole diggers. They were a pain. As much as I love working in the shop, post hole diggers in particular are the worst. First of all they are extremely heavy. Second, for whatever reason when they do the machining they do not deburr the ends of the female side of the gear box. In other words, there is a shaft that is supposed to slide over the gearbox, however the hole on the shaft is smaller than the side it slips over. As a result, the first one I attempted to assemble is now stuck and after days of hammering refuses to come apart. I have yet to figure out how I am going to take it off.
Week 8 brought a new challenge. One of the parts specialists was out this week recovering from surgery. Considering I am a native Spanish speaker and none of the other parts department employees are bilingual, I absorbed his duties, communicating with his customers, working at the desk, and taking phone calls. Prior to this I had only played around with Parts Advisor (John Deere's parts database), but I hadn't needed to search parts for customers yet. By the end of the week I had become a bit quicker at identifying parts. I have made it a habit to send customers pictures to confirm the appropriate part.
This week I was involved in another CI event, this time for July. This month's project was a continuation of June's project. Instead of participating in as many meetings this time, we went out and completed a lot of physical labor such as reorganizing stacks of loaders, implements, and machines. Also making preparations for massive storage containers to be moved in anticipation for building expansion.