Year 2
UMCG visit
At November 19th I went an a business visit to UMCG. This was a visit from the first year students, but my mentor asked if any of us wanted to go. I said yes right away. When we arrived we got a presentation with general information about UMCG and about the project they are working on. This was about moving workplaces and renovating each ‘wing’ from the hospital. All the bed houses are in these wings so that takes some time to rearrange and renovate. After the presentation we got a tour backstage. We went all the way down. There is a lot more going on there than you might think. We also saw a few workspaces, one was already renovated and the other was not. It was fun to see the difference between those. They have made practise rooms’ or simulation rooms from operations rooms and normal rooms. This was fascinating to see. Of course I had seen an operating room before but not like this. I really enjoyed the visit and one of the employees is willing to help me for my internship, so maybe something will come out of that.
Semester 1
Procurement
This is the overall name of the subject, and it is divided into 3 subjects, legal, procurement and management accounting.
Currently it is a few days before the exam, and I am studying with mock exams and the PowerPoints. Sad enough I did not pass, so I will have the resit January 22nd. During the exam review I got to see my mistakes. Luckily, I understood most of my mistakes and the upcoming weeks I will works on the subjects that I found hard.
Law
After week 1 and 2 I was surprised that I understood this subject the best. I am glad that we do not go into laws and regulations deep. Many subjects became clear in combination with the project, so that was nice. In our schedule these lectures were mostly scheduled at the end of a day or as the only lecture. Due to this I was most of the time one of the few students at the lecture. When I had a question, I could just ask, because there were not that many people, this was nice. I noticed that I really benefit from going to the lectures, because during studying I remembered some examples and subjects that the teacher talked about.
Management accounting
This subject is like Finance of last year, but more on the transportation of goods. Not sure what I think of this subject yet. One lecture was mostly about liquidity and profitability, and I was surprised I still knew some about that from last year. Overall, it was about financial aspects in a (start-up) business. Making profit, break-even point and investments for a company.
Procurement
This subject is more on the purchasing process in a business and what to buy/sell. Something I noticed is that I like models and processes more than numbers. Models most of the time make sense to me so it is easier to study. When I am studying and can relate to the subject or create examples it is much easier. The project also helped with understanding certain points like the selection and award criteria. These criteria were explained with examples and a table, that is something I can remember easier.
Project Forum: RFP period 1
For the first project of year 2 Forum Groningen is our client. In one of the first weeks, we visited the Forum where we could ask our questions regarding the assignment and got a tour behind the scenes. This period is about setting up a tender document for the Forum. Next period the roles will be revered, and we will be the party applying to the tender. At the beginning we first decided on the table of content. Once we had that we decided who was focusing on what. Our collaboration was good. We met up online and at campus. Another thing that came with the project is using Scrum. We did this with a Trello board. (see Iterative design) At the beginning I did not know what to expect from this group, because I did not know these classmates very well, but I was very surprised. The way we worked was very nice, because we had set our own deadlines for several part of the tender. This was so we were done in time and to review the other parts. Personally, I found it good that my team members are critical (in a good way). There was a part in the tender I wrote that I misunderstood. My teammates said that to me so I could adjust it. The fact that we made our own deadlines gave me enough time to rewrite/change that part. We closed this part of the project off with a 7 on the report and a 7 on my oral. I am happy with the result and feedback I got.
Development
Marketing
This subject is mostly about knowing your company and making a SWOT analysis with it. A few other models from last year also came back here, like DESTEP, Ansoff and Porter. Last year it was more knowing the models and now it is a step further with also being able to apply them. This is harder than I thought. During the lectures the marketing P’s came back and positioning in the market. This is very important when starting you own business, because you need to know where to market your products and were you focus on. Were to focus on comes back in the model of Treacy and Wiersma, they say it is better to focus on 1 segment like product leadership, or you are likely to fail.
Quality
I was happy that we got this subject from John, because he gives great examples that we can also relate to. A few of the models that were discussed here we already had in the first year, so that was nice. I noticed that I like these kinds of lectures more than finance or ‘plain’ theory. I think that this is because I can understand models easier than theory that does not have a relation with each other.
CSR
To be honest I found this a bit of a vague subject. Most of the time it was about how to be a sustainable company by following the SDG,s and incorporating them. Another part of this subject was about stakeholders and a stakeholder analysis.
Project Forum: Entrepreneur role period 2
The second period has just started. This part already started out rough. During the pitch training and the actual pitch, we could not get a hold of 2 teammates, so I had to do it with 1 other teammate. (see pitch for explanation) This was the same with the oral. Luckily, we informed our coach about the situation, and he said to first discuss it within the group and after that he would also talk to the group.
Although this situation with the group is not ideal it is good for my own development. I can be shy or too hesitant, but with this group I need to be direct and very clear. This is a good part of this project.
We just had the market at Forum for promoting our ideas/solutions. It was a great experience. Our solution did not win, but the teachers did want to use our prototype at the open day, that is also a good sign. In the week after the market, we sat down to discuss how to divide the report. The same teammates unfortunately did not show up once again. (during this time the exchange student was back in our group) We noticed that when the 3 of us were discussing all the parts that needed to be done, that we already left the others out. This was for us to point to make the decision to finish this project in a group of 3. We informed the teammates and the coach. After this decision there was more peach in the group which was very nice. We are now in the last 2 weeks before the deadline of the report. I do not think that this is the hardest report, because in many chapters it is reacting to the request for proposal.
This is what our booth at the market looked like.
Year 1
Semester 1
Facility and Hospitality
This is my first theoretic subject. I have liked this subject from the beginning. All the things John has discussed so far, I really like. On the days that we do not have lectures I read the literature and I really like to read about all the different methods and processes in many companies. Some things that we discussed I already knew from the economic subject at highschool.
One of the things we learned about was formulating strategies . The part I find difficult now is remembering all the different methods and strategies. The more I will use it in the project I think it will become more common.
I noticed that I like the hospitality part. I like to make people happy and to come to a good solution together. We just had our last lecture of this class, now I am studying for the exam. It is already paying off that I read all the literature part by part each week. Besides reading the literature I took notes during the lectures (mostly from the PowerPoints and some examples). Now I am reading all those PowerPoints back and making notes from that again and looking at what I already wrote down. I made a few flashcards for the most important terms(I did not use this much in the end). I passed the test first try.
People and Organization
This subject was more about the human side of strategies and models. A few of the models and strategies from facility and hospitality also came back here. This was nice because you then learn about them again, but on the other hand it sometimes was difficult because some are really alike.
Something I have learned and adapted for this course is summarising the study book. I passed the test for Facility and Hospitality, but I found out that for the higher grades I needed a few answers that were in the books. I did read the books but I did not study them so that is what I am going to do for People and Organization.
Thanks to a tip from a classmate I learned with mock exams from Copilot, this was really helpful. I passed this test first try.
Project 1: Waste Management
At the beginning I was a little bit scared to work in a project group, because of the groups I worked in the last few years. Thankfully I have a nice group and if there is a problem, I know that we/I can ask each other if we are stuck or even Maris if needed. It is good to know what is playing in the background of de Hanze like with the waste problem. Now we are still in the beginning of the project. I am looking forward to coming up with a good idea/ solution for this problem. About half way through the project we had a peer assessment talk with Maris. During this my ‘teammates’ told me that they could already see improvement when it comes to being less doubtful. At the beginning of the project I said that I can be a less hesitant about telling my own ideas, so it is nice to hear that they see improvement in those few weeks already.
I learned that it is important to keep asking questions during an interview, because you want as much answers when it is still possible. Something I found out (and partly knew) was that I stress a lot about unnecessary things. I would stress if we made our own deadline and not everyone was finished or before a presentation. I take from this that I do not need to focus so much on everyone else but just let everyone do their own thing. I know from myself that I can present I do not have to doubt that.
Semester 2
Financial management
One of the first things I noticed is that even though I have had economics in high school in English all the terms are different and that was confusing sometimes.
The last few weeks of the lecture the classes became smaller and smaller. For me that was nice sometimes because I was able to ask all my questions. For the preparation of this test, I practice a lot of the mock exam questions. With these kinds of subjects, I learn the best by doing it so making exercises. When I did not understand the question or the answer, I saved it and asked it at the next lecture. This really helped me because the teacher had a way of explaining the material that I understood. I think that so far this is/was the hardest subject.
17th of April: I just had the exam; it was a long exam. Most of the time I have a feeling on how an exam/ test went but this time I have no clue. I feel like most of the theory question where not that hard but some of the calculations were.
I passed! It is nice to know that even though I did not always like this subject, with hard work I can do it.
Investment and exploitation budget
This was part financial management and more like a workshop. At first, I thought that I wouldn’t like it because we had to use excel again. The opposite happened because when he had explained everything it could mostly figure it out. It is fun to see afterwards what you made because all the tables were connected to each other so when you changed one thing the rest did too.
During the project it became clear why we did these workshops. For our own chosen company, we had to make a global cost estimate. At first this did not seem hard, but the sneaky part was in the motivation. Filling out the excel sheet (with your company in mind) was indeed not that hard, but then you need to motivate each part of your costs in relation to the company. The hardest part was (for me) to find good sources preferably from the UK that related to our thoughts for the new office of the company.
Information management
Most of the lecture information I found interesting, like VR, Augmented reality and things about IoT and databases. During one of the lectures, we did a test about cyber security and how much you knew about this. Some of the questions were surprising for me. Something that I think really helped with these lectures was that I was interested in most of the subjects already. During one of the lectures, it was about IOT (internet of things) and I just then realized what it meant. This was funny to me because my dad works in IT and uses IOT a lot (and talked about it before). This was also a reason why I liked this subject, because I could talk about it with my dad and understand the material better also I now know why and were he uses IOT. For the preparation of this exam, I make the mock exam multiple times and ask Copilot to make more mock exams with those subjects. For me this is helpful because you get different questions every time and you can ask for explanations.
At the end of the 3rd period, we had a guest lecture from someone that works for Sony and works with smart equipment. These kinds of lectures are very nice because it is another form of learning/information then the standard PowerPoints. For me these kinds of lectures are helpful because I am a visual learner and need examples. One of the things I find interesting in IoT, this also came back in the guest lecture. He told us that they use it a lot because Sony has offices at different places in the world. 17th April: I just had the exam, most of the question I could answer relatively easy. A lot of the question from the mock exam came back, this was nice since I practiced these. My feelings about exams or tests are not always right but about the information management part of the FIM exam I feel good. I passed!
Dashboard
Another part of these lectures was about making a dashboard and working with Power BI. To be honest I did (and still do) not like this very much, but I do understand why this is an important skill for facility managers. We learned that there are several steps you need to take to make a proper dashboard. Finding the right information, numbers and KPI’s/CSFs was the hardest part for me personally. Once everything is in your excel sheet (or whatever you use) it is quite easy to insert it into Power Bi. I say quite easy although I was struggling the first time, but this was because I did not save my file in the right OneDrive.
Project 2: vital buildings
For the first part of the project, we were in pairs and after 3 weeks we made the project groups. After those 3 weeks we made the groups and started with our first assignment. This was more of a practice report I feel like, and it was called MOP. This was very nice because this project is totally different from the previous one. The first project was more focused on people and an end solution or product while this project is about design and some kind of design as product. One of the steps of the MOP was determining the rooms you wanted in your office. During this we noticed that there are many rooms that you would not think if easy. For this ‘problem’ the teacher had a book with a variety of rooms in it for offices, this ranches from meeting rooms to pantry’s even with the required square meters per person.
It is very interesting to see how different everyone is and how that makes every project group different. For the first few weeks we did as much work as we could during the classes on Wednesday and we divided the rest. On most Mondays our first lecture would start at 11:30 so we also had time before that to work on the project. So far I like this group and a good thing for me is that I can kind of take the lead and practice with that to become less shy. Almost at the end of period 3 we started with the ‘real’ first part of the project. Now I also get why dashboards are important for the facility staff (for my dashboard experience see information management). For this part we also need to make one.
The 4th and last period just started. We just did a peer assessment. In this conversation I heard that it is nice that I am really motivated to deliver a good product, but it is not a crime to give some of the tasks to my teammates. I take from this that I can be a bit too eager sometimes and must give the others more the opportunity to choose the task if we are dividing them.
After the feedback we got from the first report we decided to change our company, because OpenAI (our first choice) was a bit to difficult for this project.
I am trying to ‘only’ do my part and not stress about everyone’s part. (this was kind of a success at the end because I was sick so could not do anything)
For this project we had a business visit to Oving in Assen. It was interesting. First, we got a presentation about the company and what they did. Afterwards we got a tour of the showroom and we got to take pictures for inspiration of our future office. During the presentation and tour a few things already got to mind on how and what we could implement in our future office. I like these kinds of trips, because you really get an idea of how things in the work field work and it contributes to the project.
(for global cost estimate see investment and exploitation budget)
Here you can see a picture of the Alcove sofa from Vitra, it is a sofa/ small seat that can absorb sound because of the soft material. I really liked this design and we also used it in our design for the project.
Now we are almost at the end of the school year, but we have not passed everything. Thankfully we can an extra change from the teacher for our reports. The 4 (used to be 5 one stopped with the study)of us have split up in 2 and each couple is working on a report. It is now really important that we get it done in time, we look at the feedback and structure it in a way that it is understandable and not written by 4 people.
Space management
So far it is an interesting subject. Some of the lectures are a bit long-winded and that had an impact on my focus, but I was able to make notes. The PowerPoints were helpful to look at after the lectures to maybe add to your notes.
It is fascinating to see what kind of offices there are and what the interior can do for the image of the company. It could even have an impact on what side the door open, inwards or outwards.
At the beginning the teacher showed us a video from the google office. If you wanted to you could practically live there because they have everything from a restaurant to different sport and even slides. He told us that there are even offices that provide a cleaning services for your clothes, this was you could bring all your clothes to the office and pick them up clean after your shift.
An important aspect from this subject is keeping your goal for the company in mind. If you design a beautiful building but nobody uses it, then it is a loss. Nowadays working from home (hybrid working) is common, this means that the occupancy for the average office building increases. Something else that has to do with space management is a small thing like to which way the door opens, to the hallway or in the room.
Technology
One of the things I find the hardest (also with other subjects) is implementing methods or rules you learn about in these lectures. For example, the acoustics in an office building needs to be good otherwise you would not be able to work efficiently.
For this subject I find the literature the hardest. The book we had to read was more focused on physics. I did have physics for a few years but in English is different.
It is interesting to see/hear that there can be many causes for a bad indoor climate. Thermal comfort, air quality and humidity all play a big role in this. When I am reflecting on it know I notice that I probably find this interesting because it has something to do with health. This can also be seen in my reports (research and the project) because the parts about health are most of the time the longest.
During these lectures and the project noticed that there is a lot more to designing a building then just the outside and interior. For the inside you also have to take care of the air quality, acoustics, lighting and indoor climate. It was interesting to do research on this for the project.
Law
This subject contains of 2 lectures/workshops. When I first saw that we had this subject I was not thrilled about it and thought it would be boring or tiresome. The first lecture proved that it is not that bad. Thankfully we do not have to go into it as deep as the law student do. There is much more law and legislation involved in daily tasks or activities, this was surprising for me. Something I learned during the first lecture is that not everything about laws and legislations also has to do with the government. If there is something about you and your boss, the government is not involved but it can still be part of laws or legislation.
Test space management, technology and law
I just had the test and I have no idea how it went. Some questions I could answers relatively easy, but with others I had no idea. I was so busy with the project that I sometimes forget to learn so I hope that I will still pass it. I learned with mock exams of Copilot and with the powerpoint, notes and the literature. I passed!!