Every month, the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Lille organizes a Business Lunch, an event during which engineering students have the opportunity to meet with an organization working in their fields of expertise. On Thursday, March 15, 2018, during their lunch break, engineering students met with three employees from the Auchan group: Chloé Lesaffre, HR Assistant; Eric Orjas, Supply Chain Director; and Vincent Ducasse, Supply Chain Analyst. Product design and the supply chain were the two main topics discussed during the exchanges.
"Auchan needs more engineers."
When they started their studies,Arts et Métiers students certainlyArts et Métiers imagine that they would later work at Auchan Retail. While a few years ago the large retail group hired few engineers, this is no longer the case today.
According to Eric Orjas, "Auchan needs more engineers, people with analytical and project management skills." Indeed, the world's 35th largest employer wants to develop its own brands, such as "Qilive,"a brand specializing in electronic products, launched in 2013. New minds, with their expertise and open-mindedness, are therefore in high demand. Vincent Ducasse explains, "Qilive's new headphones were created, from concept to design, in less than a year." This short production time impresses the engineering students at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Lille. It can be explained, among other things, by the work of three motivated engineers.
Furthermore, according to Eric Orjas, "For a long time, supply chain management was reserved for engineers, but in recent years it has been studied in business schools. We need to bring this skill back to the heart of engineering programs." Eric Orjas and Vincent Ducasse would therefore be delighted to see new Arts et Métiers graduates joining Auchan Arts et Métiers possess the analytical skills required for supply chain management.
Auchan, an organization appreciated by engineering students
For Vincent Manon, a second-year engineering student and head of industrial relations, Business Lunches are a great way to discover new organizations that may hire students once they graduate. "We know that groups such as Safran are likely to hire us at the end of our studies, but it's nice to learn about new ones." The students were very interested in meeting employees from the retail group, and all the seats available at the documentation center, where the business lunch was held, were taken.
