Experience report Dr.-Ing. Volker Große-Heitmeyer

"The education at the IFA has left a lasting impression on me and I can only recommend anyone to follow this extra path of being a scientist at the IFA."

I studied mechanical engineering at the Leibniz University of Hannover with a focus on production engineering. Through my own student work and activities as a research assistant, I got to know the Institute of Factory Systems and Logistics (IFA) at the Leibniz University of Hanover and began my own scientific career there in 2000, which I successfully completed with my doctorate in 2005. Through joint research projects at the IFA, I was able to get to know various interesting companies and finally decided to work for Sartorius in Goettingen, a leading international supplier of laboratory and process technology. My career start in business was classic: assistant to the production manager. Here I was able to spend two years both applying my acquired knowledge and experience and continuing to keep my own learning curve high. After that, I had to set up and manage a department for lean manufacturing. I also had the challenging opportunity to manage various production projects, including the planning of the new laboratory equipment production building at the Göttingen site. In this building, I have been in charge of assembly with 180 people for more than 3 years now.

Throughout my career, I have always been able to draw on the institute's very good experience and training elements of teaching (leadership), research (scientific work) and industrial consulting (implementation orientation). In addition, the network created by the IFA is priceless. Be it in terms of alumni, the exchange of knowledge (best practice) among each other or cooperations. To this day, I also actively participate in production-related research projects on behalf of Sartorius and support teaching both through practical lectures and by supervising student work.

In summary, I can say that the training at the IFA has had a lasting impact on me and has given me many valuable elements to take with me on my career path to date. I can only recommend this extra path of the scientist at the IFA to everyone.