DHL Supply Chain interns gain ‘real-world learning and experiences’
Miami University double major Isabelle Campbell rises to challenge of organizing warehouse ‘graveyard’ filled with nearly 600,000 units of merchandise
DHL Supply Chain interns gain ‘real-world learning and experiences’
Growing up, Isabelle Campbell was always very organized, especially with her school work and her bedroom.
These days, the Miami University senior keeps a calendar on her desk to track her busy schedule as a double major in Finance and Supply Chain and Operations Management with a minor in Geology.
So it’s no surprise that Campbell would take on a seemingly daunting project during her summer internship at DHL Supply Chain in Columbus — organizing the warehouse “graveyard” and its nearly 600,000 items tucked away inside boxes on hundreds of pallets.
“Organizing the graveyard has been a long and tough task but is going to benefit the warehouse's inventory control for the future,” said Campbell of New Albany.
The lululemon athletic apparel warehouse where she works is a returns center and distribution center for footwear and yoga mats. “All of the inventory stored in our warehouse is either a returned product, a footwear unit, or a yoga mat unit,” Campbell said.
Colorful labels were part of the solution.
“Taking an inquiry on each pallet and labeling each accordingly has taken a long time but has finally come together to make the graveyard’s inventory organized,” she said.
Campbell is still working on the project to ensure all pallets that arrive at the warehouse will arrive in their correct location. A final map will be made displaying where each inventory type goes.
Campbell will graduate in December and hopes to work as an operations supervisor or an operations business analyst.
“After learning more about these roles from my internship at DHL this summer, I feel both of these roles will allow me to apply both my Finance and Supply Chain majors in the real world,” she said.
Helping students transition from college to careers
Miami alumnus John Oldfield, business development manager for DHL Supply Chain, graduated in 2019 with a degree in Supply Chain and Operations Management. He has served on Miami’s Center for Supply Chain Excellence’s Young Alumni Board since November 2022.
“I joined to help students transition from college to their careers. This switch can be daunting, and I found it helpful to lean on young alumni for advice during my own transition,” he said. “The experience has been incredibly rewarding, and I continue to mentor recent graduates — providing tips, tricks, and insights into the professional world.”
The Princeton Review ranks Miami No. 12 for Top 20 Best Schools for Internships (Public Schools).
Oldfield said that at DHL Supply Chain, student interns such as Campbell receive valuable experience from their paid internships, while the company can gain “a fresh perspective from a new generation of talent and grow our college recruiting program by offering full-time positions to qualified candidates.”
He hopes Campbell learns as much as she can about what DHL does, how the company operates, and why they constantly put themselves in their customers' shoes.
“As one of more than 300 interns, she will also have a great opportunity to network with peers and present a continuous improvement project to senior-level leadership during the capstone event at the end of July,” he said. “Ultimately, Isabelle should gain real-world learning and experiences that she can utilize in any future career path she chooses — hopefully with DHL.”
An earlier internship experience led to her double major
Campbell started at Miami as a Finance major because she was always good with numbers “and liked learning more about how different companies' financials worked,” she said.
She took a gap semester in fall 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and started at Miami in spring 2021.
“During my time off, I got the opportunity to complete an internship with ODW Logistics, which allowed me to learn more about the supply chain industry,” she said. “Specifically, I completed projects and tasks in the inventory, value-added services, packing, and processing departments.”
She has been working on the capstone project with her group of seven for about a month. They will present a solution to the problem they were given to a group of general managers, directors, vice presidents, and others.
“My capstone group is working on a slotting project for Wella Professionals, (for which DHL Supply Chain handles all of the distribution). This project has been a great experience for me. We got to analyze raw data, implement possible solutions, meet with general managers and directors, and see the operations of a site other than my own,” she said. “I think working with a group to solve a problem in a real-world setting compared to in a classroom has been beneficial to my professional development.”
Campbell noted DHL’s on-site finance analyst has met with her throughout the internship “to give me some insight into what financial processes they work with on a day-to-day basis.”
Overall, the internship has made her more disciplined and given her a good look at what it would be like to be an operations supervisor.
Her biggest takeaways? Learn as much as you can and ask questions, learn a general overview of each department of the operation, and take part in some day-to-day activities.
“Even if you are not specifically working in returns, for example, as a supervisor or manager it is important to get an understanding of how each department of the operations works,” she said.
