Whew! time flies by so fast. I cannot believe I’ve already spent 3 weeks at the thyssenkrupp elevator manufacturing in Middle-of-Nowhere, TN (just kidding, its actually Middleton, TN but you get what I’m trying to say) trying to learn everything that goes into elevator manufacturing. I took the job as an engineering CO-OP earlier in August after going through some interviews. I was skeptic at first since taking this opportunity meant delaying my graduation by a year! A year! But upon careful consideration and thinking and advising I finally realized that I wouldn’t necessarily be losing a year. I would be learning to put my knowledge to test, utilize it to actually do things that I was meant to do in the first place. With several such reassurances I finally accepted the position. My first day was August 27, 2019.
Having spent about 21 days already, I’ve had numerous different experiences in the plant. I have been amazed, and terrified at the same time. I had never in my life seen any magnificent factory of such in action. Of course I have watched countless episodes of Megafactories in the National Geographic Channel growing up but its a way different feeling to see it in person.
On the first day I had a brief tour of the facility. I got to see all the autonomous robots in action, huge lasers and plasma devices that operated 24 hours punching and cutting sheet metals (I’ll drop a video at the end). On top of that I could overhear people talk about several manufacturing plant jargons: ECOs, SOPs, MRB, Kaizan, 6 Sigma (I knew that one), Lean, Leed, Kanban… and a lot more. I was clueless to what all those meant. However, I didn’t let that overwhelm me, it was only my first day. I was paired with a machine shop engineer for the first week. Every now and then I would try to ask him what each of those words meant. He was generous enough to answer all of my questions in a calm manner.
I was amazed to see the amount of work that went to the elevator production. Several production lines working independently to meet their deadlines while maintaining a safe working environment was inspiring. If one production line was to shut down production for some reason, it could have a huge domino effect eventually shutting down the whole production leading to a huge backlog.
Now the thing that scared me was the fact that everyone should be constantly aware of what’s going on around them. The first thing everyone stressed on was texting and walking. I’m sure everyone has texted and drove before and hopefully not gotten into a wreck. It might sound silly to say that using phone while walking in the plant is actually more dangerous that texting and driving. Yes, at least 60 forklifts are constantly operating throughout the plant lifting heavy metals and equipments on the same path where people walk. There are designated walking path marked up but it always comes in the way of forklifts and mini go-carts. On top of forklifts, there’s lifting devices lifting heavy metals everywhere. It is the responsibility of each and every individual to observe everything going on around them and never get distracted. As a new employee I need to wear a high-viz vest which helps everyone to be considerate to me and help me if I make some mistakes along the way. People have been really nice to me and have helped me be safe.
And here’s the video of the laser in action. This thing can travel upto 600 ft/min? I’m not really sure as of now, please don’t quote me on that. It is really really fast though.