Investigating Business at RS Components in Corby For my work experience I went to RS Components. They provide components mainly for other business

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GCSE Applied Business Unit 1

Investigating Business at RS Components in Corby

For my work experience I went to RS Components. They provide components mainly for other business, they provide all types of components, and they sell electro components, tools, health and safety products and many more. I went there to work from the 20th of March to 5th April 2004. RS is in Weldon, Northants, it is a big building with many departments. The departments within the building there are:

  • Sales department
  • Finance department
  • Customer services department
  • Information systems department
  • Internet Trading department
  • Production management department
  • Operations department
  • Human resources department
  • Supply chain department
  • Workshop
  • Goods in
  • Goods out
  • Storage
  • Packaging

The school want us to get a lot from our work experiences so we can be more mature, be more focused on schoolwork and be independent. They gave us the opportunity to pick a company that can be studied for Applied Business GCSE. The school also want us to have more self-confidence, and maybe have a good reputation in the industry. And the school want to be proud of us. I really enjoyed my work experience and prepared a list of questions to ask my manager about to get the information for my portfolio. I had meetings with different departments as well as doing my jobs.

At RS Components my jobs were changed day to day.

In the HR department the jobs I did were:

  • Shredding- I had to shred about 5 kilo worth of paper a day. It was very boring and often the shredder would get over heated.
  • Faxing- I had to fax a bunch of paper to all kinds of people. I did it Wrong about 15 times until I got corrected, I had to send them all again.
  • Photo copying- I got the hand of photo copying straight away.
  • Filling in sheets- for some reason my supervisor wanted me to fill in these Questionnaire sheets a lot for some reason. I think she didn’t have any jobs left for me to do.
  • Filling in important data- peoples personal details were on a big database and I had to alter them.
  • Writing out templates- the HR department wanted to write a lot of the same sort of letters to lots of people and I had to make up a template for them even when they already had one. I guess it was another job.
  • Sorting out mail- every department get mail internally and externally 5 times a day and I had to put them into every ones pigeons holes for them.

In the customer contact centre the jobs I did were:

  • Sorting out files- there was a file for every person that worked in RS and I had to put all of them in aliphatic order.
  • Shopping- the customer contact centre does a prize give away every month and I had to carry all the shopping for them.
  • Heavy lifting- a bit if the office was getting changed around ad I had to move all the furniture.
  • Taking calls- they let me take a couple of orders over the phone.
  • Making calls- I also had to make calls to see what the problem was with the customer.

 

I encountered some problems there. There were 1000’s of folders were everywhere and sorting them out was very boring and tiring. My supervisor expects me to stay on the same job for four hours non-stop. She expects me to be able to do every thing in no time at all. There was no one there my age or any one to speak to so the for hours felt like 10 hours. There was no way I could over come these problems. I had to stay my two weeks and live with it.

The work experience has taught me a lot of things. There is a bit of technique in shredding and learned to shred properly. I got taught to use a fax machine, which was easy after I got the hang of it. I learned to use a photocopier, and I learned to fill in sheets and databases. I also got to be able to write out a respectable template and a Questionnaire. I have gained the experience to work with other people around me and I experienced working with a team. I have a rough of what type of job is available in an office and the hours required of a normal days work. The main thing I gained was the information to complete my GCSE assignment. It made it more interesting to write about a company where I had spoken to lots of different people and actually worked there. I thought that was a good thing.

My work experience helps me with the type of job I want to do when I’m older, I want to work in an office-based place. So my work experience gives me an idea of what it’s going to be like. One day I would like to have my own business and I know now that it is harder than you think.

Altogether my work experience was a success. I helped the employer with all the built up jobs that needed doing and she helped me by giving me experience to the world of work.  


RS history

They started their business in 1937 from a lock up garage in North West London. JH Waring and PM Sedestyen established a company called Radiospares Ltd, which began operating from a small lock up garage in nearby Birchington Road, supplying radio repair shop and spare parts for radios. That were RS began its journey to being the market leader it is today and will be for a long time.

From the very first day of trading in 1937, RS had a simple objective to provide and replace parts for every job, and even doing it twenty four hours a day. Their reputation was based on good quality product and service. Promised a pricelist for 150 products. In 1947with the development of televisions, spare parts were added to the price list. Radiospares provided a unique service and the company grew stedily.

In the early 1950’s however, something of a threat to the company appeared over the horizion in the shape of Sony’s revolutionary all transistor radio. It was cheap to buy but far worse for Radiospares point of view, its solid state inside meant it didn’t break down. It was at this point that Radiospares reputation for services came to the rescue. Industrial manufactures had been increasingly requested that they did not sell; here was an unhappy market, so Radiospares decided to widen its service to general industry.

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By 1981 the company was operating from five different sites and the desision was made to consolidate every thing on one site in Corby. The move from London was completed 1984 and the company transferred to a purpose built warehouse and offices. Since then the warehouse has been expanded.

RS component is now Europe’s distributor of electrical, electronic and mechanical components, instruments and associated tools. Their six massive catalogues are available on CD ROM, a medium which is provided increasing popular. There is also a WEB site. Products orders before 8PM are dispatched the same ...

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