ISE student builds skills through Michelin internship

Riley Bishop, a senior studying industrial and systems engineering (ISE), recently spent the summer utilizing her engineering skills as a production intern with Michelin North America at the BFGoodrich Plant in Tuscaloosa. 

Working alongside the plant’s production manager, she helped improve the performance of the Transverse Flow (TVF) Team. The purpose of this team is to help identify blockages in flow within the facility, perform root cause analysis of those blockages, find a solution and then identify the next possible areas for blockages. 

“My first assignment was to do a performance evaluation for each of the members of the TVF team,” Bishop said. “Based on those performance reviews, I was in charge of suppressing eight salary positions.”

She worked alongside the plant's digital transformation team to create a flow dashboard that would display relevant data and information necessary to make decisions regarding production so the TVF team could be more proactive when it came to seeing potential blockages in production. 

“I was able to combine inventory data systems, machine statuses and production rates in relation to the plant's Kanban system to create screens for high-level management positions and production workers,” Bishop said. 

ISE gave her a broad range of knowledge going into her internship, making her stand out from other interns. 

“Having been a part of the ISE program at Auburn, I was able to come into my internship with a very different outlook on the processes within the plant compared to the other interns, and it allowed me to take part in more initiatives and discussions within the company,” Bishop said.

Bishop has been a part of undergraduate research at the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems (ICAMS) since her freshman year at Auburn. She published a paper on "Understanding the Factors Influencing Gen Z and Millennial Career Choices: What it Means for Manufacturing" through her undergraduate research. 

Bishop is also the director of selections for the Cupola Engineering Ambassadors at Auburn, which hosts tours of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering to prospective students and assists with several recruitment and outreach events throughout the year.

Upon graduation, Bishop hopes to have accepted a full-time position with a company that allows her to expand her industrial engineering knowledge. 

“I have always had a deep love for industrial and systems engineering and knew that was the field for me, but I never knew how much I would enjoy management,” Bishop said. “My ideal career is to find a role that combines both my technical and managerial skills.”