Lessons learned as a TI Intern

As I begin my seventh week as an intern at Texas Instruments, it's hard to summarize into one short article how much of an impact this experience has had on me. I've been able to learn countless lessons from seasoned industry professionals, not just watching and listening as a student traditionally does, but also with getting hands on with day-to-day work and long term projects. Getting to see how these projects will carry over to TI even after I am gone is a gift in itself. Through my article, I will discuss the following:

• Texas Instruments' Supply Chain
• How my learnings from the classrooms help me in the field
• Supply Chain necessary skills and behaviors

Texas Instruments Supply Chain

Before we break down their supply chain, it's important to understand what Texas Instrument does. TI is a leading global semi-conductor company that manufactures and designs analog and embedded processing chips. This allows them to constantly be shaping technology and electronics on a global scale. In order to accommodate for such a large scale, it's critically important that TI has a strong supply chain. I have had the privilege of working with the Worldwide Procurement and Logistics Transportation team. This means I have gotten to patriciate first-hand in all of the interactions between TI internal teams, freight-forwarders and 3PLs alike. Not only am I privy to their operations on a domestic scale, but internationally as well. Something also immensely valuable that I've gotten to be a part of at TI is being hands on in this process. Although I haven't been making any international trips to meet our suppliers, I've gotten to work through the process of how assets are received and handled before they get put to use. Considering it takes very expensive machinery to create semi-conductor chips, its critical that this process is done with care and attention.

How my learnings from the classroom help me in the field

My learnings from the classroom apply to my current internship in 3 key ways:

1. Helping Optimize
2. Fostering Efficiency
3. Identify Improvement Areas

Firstly, my general learnings of supply chain principles such as risk mitigation helped me assist in optimizing the processes at TI. Being able to quickly identify areas of risk or bottlenecks and present a list of potential solutions helped my team implement new processes with ease. This on top of the general principles of logistics led to a quicker and more thorough understanding of the projects I was a part of so I could start contributing. Secondly, my courses regarding transportation logistics helped me get a key foothold on areas of improvement. Whether it be analyzing costs or acknowledging unnecessary steps in our process, I was able to insert a fair evaluation of how things could be improved. With effective solutions, I was able to help foster efficiency across multiple facets of the business. Lastly, identifying areas of improvement was a key role that my course learnings played in my internship. Leaning into my procurement courses, I put an emphasis on prioritizing managing supplier relationships. This didn't only mean maintaining the ones we had, but rather identifying areas where we could be making better deals for TI.

Supply Chain Necessary Skills/Behaviors

Something that was important to recognizing during this internship is that critical supply chain skills lie far beyond the reach of Excel proficiency. Although knowing Excel is a large piece of the puzzle, there are a few things I think are important to consider when you enter a supply chain workforce:

1. Ask Questions. This is something that I cannot repeat enough and will help carry you wherever you go. Every company will have it's own way of doing things or speaking or even have thousands of different acronyms. No matter what you might be asking about, be sure to ask questions. Supply Chain processes aren't built in a day and there will always be someone with years more of experience to guide you. If you don't know the answer, there is always something to be learned.
2. Don't be afraid of failure. In supply chains, things are always out of your control. Whether it's the behavior of a supplier/vendor or even a natural disaster, there will always be a wrench in your plans. The key to surviving the world of supply chain is resilience in the face of adversity, because it is inevitable you will face it.

Again, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an amazing team at TI and I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store!