Celia Gonzalez
Interview
Assistant Manager, EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) at Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems, Inc. (SEWS)
Joined the company in 2015
U.S.A.
I started at the SEWS El Paso Plant in Texas as a CIA Specialist, which refers to our company’s program of Continuous Improvement Activities. This gave me the opportunity to see how the company is always looking to find the root cause of problems and also how we are always encouraged to work as a team.
Within a couple of years, I was part of a team that won an internal “kaizen” (continuous improvement) competition, which gave us a chance to represent North America at a ceremony in Japan organized by Sumitomo Electric Industries. This was one of the early highlights of my career at SEWS.
Today, my position is EHS Assistant Manager. This involves plant patrols, risk analysis, safety audits, safety training, building inspections, and many other things to ensure compliance with safety & environmental standards from our parent companies and also with government regulations. We work hard to maintain a safe place for our associates.
When there are problem-solving meetings, I like to analyze everything, not only one portion, and I also like to find the brighter side and focus on the positive side of things. I enjoy that associates believe in me to give them support through safety analysis and with general feedback.
On a personal level, I am constantly seeking new learning opportunities and so I appreciate the opportunity to learn new things. In addition to the tasks that I mentioned before, I am also involved in human resources, new hire orientations, personality assessments, continuous improvement activities, internal and external kaizen competitions, plant audits, plant security, PPE inventory, and more. I am very dedicated in every assignment. Every day I wake up happy to come to work and give my daughters a good example to follow. They get to see me growing in many different areas.
