I was part of the internal communication service in Aluminium Dunkerque factory between April and June 2007.
I organized the Open Days of this 600-employees’ factory that produces more than a half of France’s Aluminum production. The event gathered 3000 persons, who were very happy to visit and understand more about the process of Aluminum making.
The difficulties were numerous, as I had to deal with many security issues. Indeed, the plant uses many dangerous tools and chemicals. For example, one of the danger, is that you never know whether an aluminum bar is cold or (very) hot, even when approaching the hand. The result is, in the worst case, that your hand sticks to the bar as a result of the contact between extremely hot metal and the skin. But no incident happened during the visits, safely handled.
I learnt a lot about leading a project, and meeting deadlines… and also about me and my own life project. I feel that even if industry pays rather good wages, it is a world mainly made for engineers, it is their environment and their decision will always prevail.
At last, this experience is now very useful for me as I understand more of the functioning of an industrial unit, and the major relationship between the core activities (production) and the support areas (HR, Finance, …).
