Learning from the best at ACME Whistles

My name is Lukas Ting, I am 18 years old and I live in Germany. My school asked me to do work experience in a foreign country. I decided to do two weeks of work experience with ACME Whistles to get an idea of what it is like to run such a big and internationally successful company.Of course, I had some expectations before I came to the UK.

I thought it would be strict and formal, but not in a bad way. I also expected a strict relationship between the employees and the management, in the way that the employees only follow the orders from the management. My biggest expectation was to learn a lot about economics and macroeconomics and to understand how you lead a company to success. I also wanted to get to know the English culture, and the living and working habits.

Two weeks with the ACME Whistles team

In the past two weeks I’ve worked in almost all the different departments at ACME. In the first week, I worked in all the production departments; in the second week I’ve been working in the office to get an understanding of how the departments are connected, why their work is important, and how they are lead by the management.

The first department I worked in was the press shop, which is the department for the production of the metal whistles. I worked with the machines to get an idea of what it is like to work as an employee of ACME. I realised that they put a lot of effort into keeping the tradition alive and making quality whistles. They try to keep a balance between modern and traditional production to keep the authenticity of the whistles.

After that, I went to plastic production, which is more automated. There are fewer employees, but all of them work very hard. The thing is, if you automate a production process you still need some people to control the machines, and to do the work that the machines can’t do.

The last department I went to was the packing department. They have an important job because they receive the orders and then they have to check if the stock is available or if it needs to be requested. They have to take care of the stock and be mindful of the time, because if they request something incorrectly it will have an effect on the time plan of the entire production. So, they have a lot of responsibility, and it can be extremely stressful because they are always working against the clock.

In my last week, I spent some time in the office to get an understanding of how everything is organised. I would say that the office is the brain of the whole company, because they are responsible for all the orders and organising the processes within the factory. They also manage the marketing and, of course, all the paperwork.

What I learned at ACME Whistles

To be honest, I learned a lot during the work experience at ACME. I can’t write it all down, because I learned a lot of things through conversation and discussion, but I can tell you the main things.

The first thing is that you need to have a good working environment. This means that the management and employees have a good relationship. If you are able to create a good atmosphere, and your employees are enjoying their work, you won’t have problems with the efficiency of your employees.

I also learned how important communication is within a company. You can’t be successful without good communication between the departments and individuals. If one of the departments has a problem it’s like a chain reaction and every department could be affected.

The last really important thing I learned os that there should be a high level of trust between the employees and the management. But the management should always have and eye on the sales figures etc.

I think these two weeks were much better than I expected, and I was definitely wrong about how strict things would be. In my opinion, ACME has the perfect balance between being strict and formal, but also having a good relationship with their employees.

A fantastic experience at ACME Whistles

To conclude, I can say that I’m really glad that I decided to come to ACME Whistles.

It is a very nice and impressive company, which has international success and huge influence in the world of whistles.

I just want to say thanks to the whole company for being so friendly and patient with me.

I especially want to say thank you to Simon Topman for teaching me a lot about the world of business and economics.