Have you ever wished you could go on an epic tour of the US
with your friends stopping along to way to explore your hobbies? If your hobbies include touring diverse
manufacturing plants and exploring dive bars, then you need to go on Domestic Plant Trek (DPT). (For
more stories check out the LGO Tumbler page and scroll back to January for more
stories from more people).
For those new to the term, DPT is a cross country plant tour
taken by all first year LGOs. This year
we visited nine companies over 14 days by way of bus and plane. We flew 10,000 miles and drove another 500
during the journey.
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| A map of our journey |
For each stop on our trip I will highlight my personal
favorite of the official and unofficial activities that made DPT awesome. There was too much to talk about with DPT so I split it into two posts. the unofficial trip stories are coming soon.
Best Official Parts of the trip:
· Caterpillar
– We had the opportunity to visit the Demonstration Center at
Caterpillar. We were in the audience
with customers as they demoed their products.
Demonstrated seems like an understatement for what we saw, put on a show
would be better. The show started with a
pitch black arena and silence, then the music started. AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasted from the
speakers then the earth moving machines started up. Navigating using only their headlights in the
dark arena, they danced around each other.
Then the lights came on and they started showing off the real power of
the equipment. The crowning glory was that after the show, we go to go down
into the arena and climb on all the equipment.
It was impressive and memorable.
·
Danaher
– The first class I attended at MIT Sloan was a strategy class during Ambassador
Day that was covering a case on Danaher.
It was cool to see the topics covered in class that day out on the plant
floor.
·
PG&E
– At PG&E we went on site to a combined cycle natural gas power plant. For a full scale power plant I was shocked by
the small number of people needed to keep everything running. The size of the turbines and the water
cooling processes was a little gasp inducing.
I have never been up close to a power plant and it provided excellent
insights into the industry.
·
Nike
– First surprise, Nike still has some in house manufacturing in the US. I thought that they would have moved it all
overseas but they manufacture the air bags that go their shoes on their
Portland campus. It was great talking to
the process engineers about all the details that go into manufacturing
something I have always taken for granted, the things that go inside my shoe.
·
Amazon
– Being the operations nerd that I am, I have a “bucket list” of plant tours
that I would like to go on. At the top
of that list was always the FedEx main distribution center in Memphis on third
shift. After touring Amazon, there is no
need, because the process at Amazon was that cool. The FC (fulfillment center)
we toured was a Kiva facility. So one
side of the operation was “dark” and filled with programmed Kiva robots (now
Amazon Robotics) that were loaded up with shelves full of product. We followed the life of a product from the
robot, through the picking process, onto a merge shelf, and then packed and out
the door. Now replacing FedEx on the top
of this list is to see Amazon during “peak” period some December.
·
AIP –
We toured one of AIP’s companies called Waterjet. And, guess what, they manufacture waterjet
machines. The morning was all about the
technology that differentiated them in the market, specifically we heard from
the man who invented and patented the abrasive waterjet. The afternoon was out on the factory floor
and we finally understood why they had been acquired by AIP, there was a lot of
room for improvement. Seeing the
contrast between the technology and the execution was fascinating insight into
the reality of manufacturing.
·
Boeing
– We toured all of their different aircraft final assembly lines. I loved seeing the differences across the
different products. They were originally designed over many different decades
so the technology designed into the assembly process changes leading up to the
787.
 |
| Team 7 hanging out in the Dreamliner Gallery |
·
Raytheon
– We got to see their new technology around design for manufacturing that
included a headset that allowed you to move the object in front of you. I am being vague because I am not sure what
all we are allowed to share. But believe
me, it was cool (and a little nauseating for those recovering from our night
out in Tucson)!
·
Amgen
– The tour at Amgen required appropriate attire, in this case a full change of
clean room clothes. It was a humbling
experience to struggle to get into the proper attire and have to ask for help,
only to realize you are speaking the wrong language. Many of the workers at the Amgen plant in
Puerto Rico are fluent only in Spanish and unfortunately my Spanish is only as
good as bathroom, beer, and counting to ten.
DPT is planned and executed by a
committee made up of first year LGO students.
I had the opportunity to be one of the co-chairs for the committee and
it was an excellent leadership experience.
So if you think part of this sounds awesome but you would want to do
part of it totally differently? Cool,
totally up to you, each class of LGOs can choose their own DPT adventure.
More unofficial stories to come....
