Intern Impact

By Matt Hawkins

John Deere’s manufacturing plants will feel the impact of Bradley industrial engineering intern Christine Kerrigan ’16 for years to come.

Last year, Kerrigan made her mark through projects addressing safety, quality and productivity issues in John Deere’s construction and forestry division. This summer, those initiatives are still in place, and now she is standardizing data and worker training processes.

“It’s very rewarding to see work I did last summer still being utilized,” the Chicago native said. “Being able to contribute to the success of a project that helps improve safety and productivity of operators and quality of the product is an unbelievable opportunity. I’m grateful that John Deere gives interns opportunities to work on real projects that impact the company.”

She also is calculating a base pay as part of an incentive plan for a team. Because of systems knowledge and complex calculations to complete the task, such work is often reserved for engineers with decades of experience.

“It’s a great learning experience to work with a team on engineering a base,” she said. “I doubt many other college students can say they’ve worked on a project of this magnitude.”

Kerrigan also collected data to help the company standardize processes for six-way power hoists to be used across the corporation. This involved scheduling data collection times with operators and fellow interns. She then created a reference for a guidebook that will be used throughout John Deere.

In addition to the experiences at the Quad Cities complex, Kerrigan was able to job shadow factory automation and product development at several nearby sites. Those visits gave her greater understanding of corporate structure and showed her a range of employment opportunities.

The summers have challenged Kerrigan’s abilities beyond her Bradley-acquired technical skills. Though she trusted her academic knowledge, she was thankful for mentoring she received from Bradley industrial engineering alumna Rachel Briskey ’13 and a group of helpful co-workers.

“The transition from the classroom to a corporate working environment is tough,” Kerrigan said. “It is difficult not to question yourself when you are working alongside engineers who have decades of experience. However, I learned to be humble and ask a lot of questions. As a result, I’ve learned more than I ever expected.”