Daniel Acosta - HM Electronics (HME)

Technical Overview:

Intern Project (Flexible Assembly Lines):

Created a 5 station flex line with 3 assembly benches, a testing station, and a packaging station to handle a wide range of products.
Organized the bill of materials, tools used, and testing equipment needed to find similarities to help group products together.
Oversaw the one flex station for cycle times, changeover times, and operator feedback on the changes.
Worked with the inventory/stockroom department to see how they deliver product to the manufacturing floor to find a new delivery solution for flex lines.
Attended meetings every Tuesday and Thursday to update the manufacturing team on my progress.
Used Fusion360 to create a model for the assembly lines, and created multiple floor plans for the manufacturing floor in AutoCAD.
Presented my findings to the CEO, management, and other interns as a final presentation to the company.
Presented a poster at the Jacob School of Engineering for faculty, students, working professionals. (Can be seen below)

Day to Day Responsibilities:

Review new work instructions for mistakes or improvements.
Update older work instructions with better pictures, and instructions based on ECOs and MCOs.
Worked with electrical engineering department to track the changes made to a set of prototype boards which electrical issues. Kept track of reworks, testing, and assembly of these boards.

Other Tasks Given:

Facilitated new assembly processes for prototypes and worked with operators to get feedback on the process.
Organized an assembly line that was receiving new equipment and fixtures. Got it ready for operation again.

Poster Presentation for JSOE

HME Poster.pptx

My Story at HME

I started working at HM Electronics (HME) the summer before my last year of undergrad. I was scrambling to find an internship before summer started and I had found this job posting and luckily enough HR reached out and contacted me for an interview. I was super exited, and then the nerves hit me. I had agreed to interview at the end of the week and the last interview I had was with Trader Joes when I was 17, where they had asked me things like "What do you do for fun?" and "What is your favorite food?" LOL.

I don't think I did much that week outside prepare for that interview, I spent the week reaching out to friends, family, and professionals on how they would prepare for their interviews. I felt prepared for my interview, but the uncertainty was making me really nervous. I really wanted this to lead to something I could learn from and get my foot in the door.

The interview was via a Teams call early in the morning. I remember joining about 10 minutes early and I was just sitting there in silence. I definitely got too much in my head and was overthinking it. The hiring managers Brian and Gary joined, introduced themselves and got straight to asking me some technical questions. I am not going to lie, it threw me off guard because I was at least expecting some sort of small talk before to lighten up the interview. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN AND IT THREW ME OFF SO HARD. Looking back the technical questions weren't all that bad but my nervousness got the best of me and I was stumbling on my words and I was struggling to answer some basic questions. However, I did manage to pull it to together for the "important" questions, as they explained during my internship when I asked them why they hired me. I left that interview feeling terrible, I thought I was ruined my last chance to secure an internship and I was pretty sad about it...

Fast forward a week, I'm ill in bed and the week before finals around 10 AM. I get a phone call that honestly woke me up. I answer disoriented and I hear a really happy sounding voice saying I received a job offer to work at HME. I couldn't believe it, I wondered if they had called the wrong person in all honestly. I accepted the offer over the phone, hung up the call, YELLED FOR A MOMENT IN EXITEMENT, and then went back to sleep. Two weeks later I started my first day at HME.

During my time at HME I learned a lot about manufacturing. Specifically in top level assembly where they prepare products for final shipment to customers. I also got to see how their PCB assembly occurred to prepare for top level assembly. I actually enjoyed the being on the manufacturing floor so much and I was learning not only from the engineers, but also the operators who assemble the products day in and day out. My manager Brian instilled a lot of confidence in me, which I honestly lacked at the beginning of the internship. I was experiencing an extreme case of imposter syndrome, and I felt out of place at times. Overtime meeting more employees at the company I was able to feel more comfortable day to day and at the end of the internship I was sad to not be working at the company.

During my time there I ate lunch with all the interns practically everyday and it was a really good time spending time with them. We played ping pong and foosball at times at the companies game room. It was also a good way to network with other employees and hear about their experiences.

Overall I really enjoyed my time at HME and I would recommend it to undergrad students as their first or second internship.