A week in the life of Operations Consultant Rebecca Nolan

Monday, July 11

• 5:30 am: Leave for O'Hare for my flight to Dallas. It is week one of a new engagement, so my team has a big agenda ahead of us—meetings at the client site, store visits, and touring the distribution center. I haven't traveled in a couple of months, so I am excited to get back to working in-person with my client and colleagues.
• 1:00 pm: We have a kick-off meeting with the client to introduce ourselves and detail the plan for the project. These initial meetings are one of my favorite parts of a project as I get to learn about the people I’ll be working with and what makes the company unique.
• 3:00 pm: Brainstorming session with my Director on the project, Derek Knueve, to map out how we want to approach the engagement objectives and lay out what the workstream will look like over the next six weeks. No virtual working session can compare to in-person whiteboarding!

Tuesday, July 12

• 9:00 am: Visit two client stores to observe key processes that we are working with the client to improve. You gain a lot of insight being at the store and seeing the culmination of the product lifecycle with the customer purchasing at the point of sale. I love hearing from the store's employees before diving into the data because it provides real-world context to the problems we are trying to solve.
• 12:00 pm: I switch gears to present a capabilities deck at the monthly retail supply chain team meeting. The team was excited to have this content to share both internally and externally. This was on the team’s list of 2022 initiatives, so I was excited to help cross it off the list.
• 9:00 pm: Facetime my significant other to catch up on how his day was before I go to bed. We talked about the craziness of our days, how I’m coping with the extreme heat in Texas, and anything else that comes to mind. I always feel extra grateful to connect with him after a long day, which puts me in a good mood. 

Wednesday, July 13

• 6:00 am: Quick workout and yoga in my room before the day starts. I always bring my yoga mat when I travel so I can work out where and when I want. Moving my body before the day starts gets me going and centers me for the day ahead.
• 12:00 pm: Work from the Dallas office with the engagement team. I had only ever seen the Chicago office, so it was fun to finally check out one of our other offices. It’s always great to have the full team together in-person!
• 6:00 pm: Project engagement team dinner and bonding time at Javier’s. I'm a big fan of chips and guacamole and margaritas, so I was very happy that we chose a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to spend time with the team when we aren't heads down working on our engagement–just getting to catch up talk about life.

Thursday, July 14

• 9:00 am: Spent the morning working on our baseline analysis at the client’s office. Now that we've brainstormed, gathered all the data, and conducted client interviews, it's time to plug in to see what trends we can find in the data. We haven't done this exact work at AlixPartners before, so it’ll be interesting to come up with new ideas and develop our own processes.
• 1:00 pm: Touring the distribution center. My background is in supply chain, so I have been in a lot of DCs before, but that feeling checking out a new one never gets old. Each DC is unique and provides insight into different ways to operate. I learn something new every time.
• 6:30 pm: Heading back to Chicago, and I am on the same flight as Natalie Panico of our retail team, so we got extra bonding time at the airport. We had never worked together before this project, but it's crazy how you can become fast friends when traveling with someone and spending a few days together. After this week, I am excited for this project since my teammates are so easy to connect with.

Friday, July 15

• 6:45 am: Went to a hot yoga class, which helps me regroup and energize myself after a long day travelling. Whenever I work at home, I try to find time to get out of the house. Some fresh air to start the day helps me get my brain started. Every day at work is different, so it is important to get my mind right going into it.
• 2:30 pm: I begin hypothesizing based on the analysis I've been putting together. The data confirms some of what we experienced at the distribution center, making it easy to connect the dots. Up next is determining how best to present this data to the client so I can start building the deck for next week's readout. 
• 6:00 pm: Sign-off for the weekend and head out to meet my friends for an early birthday dinner celebration at Time Out Market! I love this place, because you don't have to decide on a certain cuisine up front, and everyone can get whatever food they want. With all the craziness in our lives, we haven't all been together in a while, so these special celebrations are always a fun time to reconnect.

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