On Tuesday, my IME class went on a tour of 'Spice Center' and we talked about production of this seasonal packaging company. The linear production systems started at one side of the building with the measuring out of material and the mixing of this recipe before packaging. Next it is passed into a completely automated conveyor belt where each can was filled, sealed, and labeled. 40,000/Day! Finally, a team of inspectors measured weight to check if each bottle was within specification.

One Manufacturing task was the study of the least effort required to transport and inspect each product. Also, minimizing repetitive processes like the washing or mixing of the spices. Finally, the engineers are always working on machines and simple time saving devices like the bulk shifter below.

We also learned about perato charts, which are graphs of causes and trends and can be used to pinpoint problems within the system. The techniques in human demographics is a major planning process as they never want one person doing the same job all day. Then there are inspections and trying to get a check as close to the situations as is economically worth while. This was probably the most boring as all it involved was cost estimation and guessing at how much a process is worth.

Over all, I felt good about the small business atmosphere and the focus on lean production. Although this may be suited for an Industrial engineer I did enjoy seeing how they build machines to do all sorts of jobs. This is in fact what I grew up doing... This tour brought back memories about when our family pulled apart used machines and ripped out pneumatics lines just to get a single part to sell or use. I look forward to visiting again, and possibly getting a part time job there.