One third of my rotation at the American office has already gone by and it feels like it’s going by so fast!
After I finished my rotation at the finance-department at the Gothenburg office in Sweden, I boarded flights from Gothenburg to Atlanta, Georgia, where the American headquarter is located. I’ve now been here for about four weeks, and it’s truly been an amazing experience so far. Thomas Concrete Inc., the American company, operates in three states: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. With around 80 plants across these states, it’s truly a large-scale operation here.
One of the first things I got to do here was take a trip to Greenville and Anderson, where I visited several plants and saw my very first dry-batching plant in person. In Sweden, we only use central-mix plants, so seeing how dry-batching works was super interesting! In dry-batching, the aggregates, cement, admixtures, and some of the water are weighed separately and then mixed directly in the drum of the concrete truck. One key difference is that there’s no resistance meter to estimate the slump while mixing—definitely a different experience from central-mix. Also, front-loading trucks are very common here in the U.S., which is quite different from Sweden, but I can really see why some people prefer using them over the “regular” trucks.
Another cool thing I got to witness at the Atlanta plant was a delivery of liquid nitrogen. Because the weather is so warm here in the southern U.S., they sometimes use liquid nitrogen to cool the aggregates so that the concrete doesn’t overheat before reaching the job site. That’s definitely not something we usually use in Sweden!
While I’m here, I’m primarily receiving training from the company’s CFO, who is originally from Sweden and has been with the company for many years. During this time, I’ve been involved in projects focused on process improvement, the implementation of new maintenance software, and more. It’s been a busy and exciting few weeks, and I’m learning so much every day!
By the time this blog post goes live, I’ll be heading out to visit our other divisions in South Carolina and North Carolina for a project—something I’m really looking forward to. It’s a fantastic opportunity to travel across the U.S. and gain insight into the differences between regional markets.
Also—last week, two colleagues from the office, Jack and Cameron, took me to my very first baseball game! It truly felt like a classic American experience, and I had so much fun being part of it.
