Michelin tyres are the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world. Founded in 1889 in France, they have operations in over 170 countries with over 70 production facilities worldwide. 

As a student I undertook a placement with Michelin tyres in partnership with Loughborough University.

I was part of a team which included ergonomics, product design, engineering and health and safety. 

There were 6 areas of tire production which required regular assessment and refurbishment in order to provide the best level of practical, usable and safe working areas to help Michelin achieve quality and production targets.

Daily tasks included speaking with operations team and managers in order to understand and assess any issues they may have in their area with respect to the often manual labour they were being asked to perform.

With the help of operations managers, design and engineering, we would consider ways in which problems could be resolved.

 This might require custom parts to be designed and made, purchased or even a change in operational process.

Key considerations were:

• height

• weight

• repetition

• access

• stress

and many others within the context of the task they were being asked to perform.

With the help of others I believed I helped play a small part in improving the standards of both quality and safety within each of the 6 working areas. 

Across the 112 acre site, they employed close to 1000 people producing 1.4 million truck and bus tyres annually. This was made more safely and efficiently through the work of those teams.

Moving to live and work in Northern Ireland as an english student gave me a good grounding in the challenge of adapting to new surroundings.

It was a pleasure to meet some of the people I did during my time at Michelin, building great relationships in and outside of work.

As my first step in to full time professional work I learned a lot from the people and skills I was fortunate to benefit from, including:

• Applying theoretical knowledge to practical situations from my undergraduate degree

• Learning to manage projects both independently and as part of a team

• Improving transferable skills such as time-management, communication and problem solving

Step 1: Selection and preparation of natural and synthetic rubbers

Step 2: Raw materials are mixed

Step 3: Mixed rubber is formed in to sheets and cooled

Step 4: Preparation of components such as the tyre tread.

Step 5: Assembling the component parts usign pressure and heat.

Step 6: Curing and vulcanisation.

Step 7: Final inspection and testing.

Step 8: Ready for the road.