Meet Lea Kraps, eager to throw herself in the deep end

Lea started as a Global Graduate in September 2021, and since then, she has worked in Germany, Sweden and Italy.

”As a business student, to start in the production environment was certainly a jump into the deep end. At university I learned all about the theories of lean deployment and material flow, but being able to apply these in practice with the SKF Production System Team was a whole new challenge. Learning about and therefore also gaining a profound appreciation of the core of the business and having hands-on experience was the best start I could have had.”

The main takeaway for Lea has been to continuously reflect on her working methods and thought structure. Being surrounded (mostly digitally) by all the other graduates from different cultural and educational backgrounds has made her see beyond her horizon and openly discuss successes and failures.

“Living in an open ‘failure culture’ helps me learn and grow. Being part of SKF’s sustainability journey is really inspiring and makes me proud of working in this company. Being in the role of a forerunner is challenging but nonetheless exciting.”

For Lea’s second rotation she moved from Schweinfurt, Germany to Turin in Italy, to work in sustainable purchasing, with the main goal to start creating transparency in our upstream emissions, meaning the footprint of the materials SKF sources from suppliers. This development is in accordance with our Net Zero goals; by 2050 we aim to be carbon neutral.

Next, Lea will be moving to S?o Paulo in Brazil and join the automotive sales team. She will get to know our customers better and learn to understand their needs and how to develop full value chain solutions by taking their perspective.

“The fast-changing environment we are living in is highly dependent on reliable and fast adapting supply chains, and I am looking forward to the challenges SKF has in store for me. Because one thing I am sure of is: I will be supported in continuing to step out of my comfort zone, gain new perspectives, learn from mistakes, improve myself and develop the projects I am working on.”

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