Starbucks

Kevin Horstman

Briefly describe your major project over the summer.

This summer I was the Global Supply Chain intern in planning, improvement and analytics at Starbucks.  My projects over the summer were to create a map of the metrics currently being kept track of across the supply chain, as well as the owners and sources of those metrics.  I was then to make recommendations on an executive dashboard, used to assess supply chain health from month to month. 

What is the most important thing you learned from your internship?

The most important thing I learned during my time at Starbucks is that research needs to matched up to the needs of the organization.  Sometimes what is said in research needs to built upon in order to be useful in the business. 

What do you think was the most critical factor in preparing you to succeed at your internship?

The most critical factors in preparing me for this internship would have to be the work ethic my parents instilled in me when I was young, as well as the speaking and management skills I acquired during my past internship with College Works Painting.  I learned a lot and am very happy with my experience at Starbucks. 

Alec Simon

Briefly describe your major project over the summer.

I worked on 3 major projects throughout the course of the summer, the first being an entitlement cost model for LTL shipping.  An entitlement cost model is essentially what it should cost for carriers to move our shipments, and I took a previously built model and updated it for better accuracy, and then created a model that allows Starbucks to know the entitlement cost of any shipment, by carrier, at an instant.  I also worked on a fuel consumption model that attempts to determine how much fuel Starbucks is responsible for using in LTL.  Finally, I worked on a natural gas project where I assessed the feasibility of using natural gas in our network as a transportation fuel.

What is the most important thing you learned from your internship?

For me the most important thing that I learned was the process that goes into a project and how much time and work it takes to get a project from start to finish.  I also learned a lot about how important it is to work with people, and how important it is to develop relationships, both personal and professional, to being successful.

What do you think was the most critical factor in preparing you to succeed at your internship?

I think the most critical factor in preparing to succeed was being able to act professionally.  At a large organization, with a set corporate culture, being able to acclimate to that culture is incredibly important