Her Story
About Bethany
I started my career journey in high school through internships, initially in marketing when I was young, which was going to be my field of study in college. I'm very thankful to that internship program because it helped me decide that marketing wasn't for me - that was not what I enjoyed. I noticed a production control internship position that became open at the same company, and my dad thought that would be a really good field for me because I'm very into numbers, mathematics, and statistics. I interviewed for it, got the job, and I've loved it ever since. Through my internship experience and studies through college, I actually became a production planner before I even graduated college because of my success in the internship. That was a very big win for me. Shortly after I graduated college, I became a senior production planner at Everbright, the company that does the McDonald's sign and the Redbox unit. When they were closing their South Milwaukee plant, there was a production planner position open at Rexnord in Milwaukee, and I took that role on. There I was able to learn more about the purchasing side of things because I had to purchase materials on the outside of producing the parts - services like anodize or passivation - and I had to work with suppliers on that. Ever since then, I got a taste of the purchasing side of the business and I just flourished ever since. I have managed purchasing, scheduling, production scheduling, inventory, and also the warehouse and logistics. Materials is the heart of every manufacturing company - I say that to everybody I talk to, and almost all the executives agree with me on that. There's never a typical day because anything a different department does affects my department, and if I do something on my side of the system, it affects finance, customer service, and sales. We review customer demand for sales orders and components daily, use MRP to maintain good flow of materials and a lean manufacturing environment. We face different challenges every day - supply chain disruptions, parts stuck at ports, working with scheduling on shortages, communicating with sales about late orders, finding alternative suppliers. Your brain is constantly going all day, every day, and that's what makes supply chain and materials so much fun - because your brain never stops.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Bethany
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute a huge part of my success to my mentors Rick Sharrow and Brad Polquette. Without those two, I would not be where I'm at today. I worked for both of them when I was at Rexnord, and they were very patient with me. There was never such thing as a dumb question to them - I mean, sometimes there was, but they never made me feel uncomfortable about it. They explained the why to me, and I think that's why I'm so open to helping people that want to be in this field and need to have their certification. I'm willing to help them and explain the why to them and help them get their certification, because you can't learn what you don't know. Beyond my mentors, I also believe in the power of networking and making connections. If I didn't meet people and meet connections, I probably would not be where I'm at today. Even if you're out at a bar watching a game and you start talking to someone, they might end up becoming your supplier and help supply parts for you. Connections are just great.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
If you want to get in this field, start with an internship, and start looking for them in high school. When you're a junior in high school, start looking for them. They are there. Always look around the wintertime, around winter and spring, because companies will look for summer interns around that time. The internships are totally there. As you're going to school and doing your prerequisites, I would advise you to sign up for your APICS certifications right away. If you don't know whether you want to be in purchasing in a supply chain environment or you'd rather be in scheduling, go online and Google some of this, and Google some of the questions that get asked under the APICS certifications, and see which questions you like more or feel that they're more like you. Another thing I would say is try and keep your internship more than summer, and work with your boss at the company during the summer and say, hey, this is what my schedule looks like, would I be able to come in for 4 hours Monday, Wednesday, Friday and still work for you during the school year. Companies are really willing to do that. The biggest challenge for somebody starting out is don't be afraid of harsh conversations or tough criticism. Manufacturing's a tough world. This is not a field you can be crying in. No crying in baseball - save your tears for the pillow.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges are obviously supply chain disruptions. Those will always be the biggest challenge that you face. Overall, the challenges include identifying bottlenecks and making sure the item parameters in a material master is correct. Those are the biggest challenges that I face from a supply chain standpoint, an operations standpoint. Now, when I talk about this stuff, I'm kind of talking in two separate avenues, because anyone that's just starting out is not going to know both purchasing and scheduling. They're either going to fall into one or the other, and then as you grow within a company, then you become part of both. As far as the biggest challenge for somebody starting out, don't be afraid of harsh conversations or tough criticism. Manufacturing's a tough world, so this is not a field you can be crying in.
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