Room to grow

Women in Industry sponsor Rockwell Automation is committed to ensuring that all its employees have room to develop and grow. Logistics & Materials Handling caught up with recently appointed logistics manager Jigna Kumar about her new role and her experience working at Rockwell Automation.
How long have you been in your current role?
I took over the Logistics Manager role a couple of months ago. I’m new to this role but I have been at Rockwell for about eight years. I have always worked around customer support and it makes sense for both Logistics and Customer Care to work hand in hand.
What does a standard day for you look like?
There is not often a standard day when you deal with customers usually but right now, I am focussing on getting to know my stakeholders, I have been spending time with my team, mainly getting to know them as I have never been directly involved with the logistics team before. From a business perspective I am connecting with our internal and external stakeholders, including our transport partners. I want to get an idea of where we are at, what we are doing well and what we can do better.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There have been a few career highlights within Rockwell Automation. One of the biggest changes we’ve had here at Rockwell Automation was centralising work to India. This was a project with not just systems and processes perspective, but also the people and culture side of things. When I moved to a process lead role few years back, it gave me an enormous opportunity to meet more people and different team globally. I was also nominated for Professional Women’s Council (PWC) Annual Recognition Event in the category of Mentor Champion. And now the journey continues.
What do you like about working at Rockwell?
Rockwell is a great company with so many diverse employees. It is not just focused on work but on its people development. Personally, the South Pacific team is like a small family to me– “you never think coming to work as a task”. I migrated from Malaysia about ten years ago and Rockwell is the first company I have joined in Australia. Eight years down the journey, I am still as passionate and energised like I was on day one.
What do initiatives like the Women in Industry Awards and Conference mean to you?
I think this is a great platform to get groups of women to acknowledge, discuss, communicate and share experiences. It’s also breaking through the mindset of people feeling certain industries are male-dominated. I come from a non-technical background but I found a great career path in an industry and technical focused company. There is nothing impossible and it’s all about what we want to do.
How does Rockwell demonstrate diversity?
When I joined the company in 2010, I met many people from different backgrounds who had been at the company for a very long time. One of our company focus is to diversify our team, whether it’s based on gender, age or background. We celebrate many events throughout the year, like International Food Day, Lunar Year, Halloween and many more. Even Pet Day was celebrated in the last couple of years. It feels great to see so many people from across various countries and cultures under one roof.
What are you most looking forward to in this new role?
I am very excited moving into this new extended role. This is a great opportunity to learn and understand more about the logistics sector of the business. Whether it is sourcing, supply planning, transport or warehouse, there is a lot of opportunities to meet more people, to learn and share ideas with. Connecting with people has always been my forte and I am looking forward to more.