So the time has come for all of us to interview for our internships. We've spent most of the week prepping and interviewing with our favorite companies to try to determine where we will end up for the last half of the year as well as what we'll be doing for those 6.5 months. Pretty stressful situation even though we are all guaranteed an internship. We need to bid by the 6th of February and then roughly a week later we should know where we will end up. On the internship note, we have also been joined by the LFM Class of 2008 who are finally finished with their internships and are now back on campus for Spring. It makes a packed office space, but it is great to finally get to meet the whole class and share stories, tips, etc, with each other. So welcome '08's!
Also, I would just like to welcome everyone who is coming to InterviewFest on Friday and Monday. We have a great schedule set for you and really look forward to meeting you all. Just a note, don't worry if you haven't been invited - this isn't your last chance of interviewing. There are a bunch of students in my class who didn't go to InterviewFest who made it through. But good luck to everyone and see you Friday or Monday.
More later...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Detroit, MI: American Axle & Manufacturing
Friday, January 18th
The last day of our plant tour! We were left with only a half-day tour as well and this time it was of American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM). AAM treated us to a tour of one of their 8 plants at their Detroit facility. They have done a great job implementing lean and a pull manufacturing system. It was definitely impressive to see what they have done with their facility – they even showed before and after photos which were amazing to see.
After the tour, I drove out to my old facility in Ypsilanti and met up with a bunch of old friends. Two former bosses, three colleagues, and one of my old employees all came out to meet up with me at a local bar for some drinks and dinner. It was great being back and to see all these familiar faces. I definitely miss them all and (if you are reading this) hope that they are all able to make it out to Boston some day! Thank you for coming out, it meant a ton to me!
After dinner, I headed back to the hotel to meet up with my class and became the DD for the night as I transported classmates to CINQ in downtown Royal Oak. Our class partied it up that night shutting the club down at 2 am when we had to get on the bus at 4 am. I took a car full of people back to the hotel and then was enlisted to drive a hungry classmate over to White Castle for a bite to eat. What ended up being a car full of people and 45 minutes and a crave case later was a great last memory of the plant tour for the class of 2009. When we returned to the hotel, we had about 30 minutes to pack and get going to the airport. We all crashed on the plane and slept for both legs of our return flight home. Home. Two weeks gone and finally we were home. What an amazing trip!
Take care and more later…
The last day of our plant tour! We were left with only a half-day tour as well and this time it was of American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM). AAM treated us to a tour of one of their 8 plants at their Detroit facility. They have done a great job implementing lean and a pull manufacturing system. It was definitely impressive to see what they have done with their facility – they even showed before and after photos which were amazing to see.
After the tour, I drove out to my old facility in Ypsilanti and met up with a bunch of old friends. Two former bosses, three colleagues, and one of my old employees all came out to meet up with me at a local bar for some drinks and dinner. It was great being back and to see all these familiar faces. I definitely miss them all and (if you are reading this) hope that they are all able to make it out to Boston some day! Thank you for coming out, it meant a ton to me!
After dinner, I headed back to the hotel to meet up with my class and became the DD for the night as I transported classmates to CINQ in downtown Royal Oak. Our class partied it up that night shutting the club down at 2 am when we had to get on the bus at 4 am. I took a car full of people back to the hotel and then was enlisted to drive a hungry classmate over to White Castle for a bite to eat. What ended up being a car full of people and 45 minutes and a crave case later was a great last memory of the plant tour for the class of 2009. When we returned to the hotel, we had about 30 minutes to pack and get going to the airport. We all crashed on the plane and slept for both legs of our return flight home. Home. Two weeks gone and finally we were home. What an amazing trip!
Take care and more later…
Lansing, MI: GM
Thursday, January 17th
Again we woke up very early and boarded our bus to head out to Lansing, MI to visit GM’s Lansing Delta Township facility (LDT). The LDT is GM’s newest facility in the US and one of our classmates had spent the last couple years of his professional career trying to get the facility up and running. It is an amazing facility in that it is the only automotive facility that is “Leadership in Energy and Environment Design” (LEED) certified and that the union takes on an active role in the facility by co-running the facility. Every hour of training that was offered to the LDT employees was given by a salaried individual as well as a union official. This commitment even ran into our visit as all the presentations were co-run as well as all the tours were co-led with salary and hourly personnel. The facility was also amazing as it was our classes first visit to a high volume, high mix (the LDT can build three different types of cars one after the other) facility. Also it is always exciting to see an entire car put together from scratch. I can still remember my tour of Ford’s Wixom Plant back in 2000 to see the Lincoln’s and the retro Thunderbird being put together.
We also had our first casualties of the trip. Two classmates (who happened to be roommates) did not receive their wake-up call and were not accounted for on the bus due to the addition and subtraction of individuals on every leg of the trip. After waking up at 9:30 (instead of 5 am) they were brought to the facility via a cab that the hotel arranged for them. Talk about good customer service (I don’t know what a two hour cab ride costs these days, but I’m not anxious to find out!).
That evening we were left on our own to find dinner. I rented a car and took the chance to treat a couple of classmates to some of the best burgers in the US as rated by GQ magazine - Miller’s Bar in Dearborn ranked number 8 out of 20. A low-key establishment with only a handful of items on its non-existent menu, Miller’s is fabulous. My group definitely thought so as one individual managed to put away three burgers, four shells (beers) and an order of fries – very impressive for a first-timer. If you are in Southeast Michigan, a trip to Miller’s would definitely be in order.
Again we woke up very early and boarded our bus to head out to Lansing, MI to visit GM’s Lansing Delta Township facility (LDT). The LDT is GM’s newest facility in the US and one of our classmates had spent the last couple years of his professional career trying to get the facility up and running. It is an amazing facility in that it is the only automotive facility that is “Leadership in Energy and Environment Design” (LEED) certified and that the union takes on an active role in the facility by co-running the facility. Every hour of training that was offered to the LDT employees was given by a salaried individual as well as a union official. This commitment even ran into our visit as all the presentations were co-run as well as all the tours were co-led with salary and hourly personnel. The facility was also amazing as it was our classes first visit to a high volume, high mix (the LDT can build three different types of cars one after the other) facility. Also it is always exciting to see an entire car put together from scratch. I can still remember my tour of Ford’s Wixom Plant back in 2000 to see the Lincoln’s and the retro Thunderbird being put together.
We also had our first casualties of the trip. Two classmates (who happened to be roommates) did not receive their wake-up call and were not accounted for on the bus due to the addition and subtraction of individuals on every leg of the trip. After waking up at 9:30 (instead of 5 am) they were brought to the facility via a cab that the hotel arranged for them. Talk about good customer service (I don’t know what a two hour cab ride costs these days, but I’m not anxious to find out!).
That evening we were left on our own to find dinner. I rented a car and took the chance to treat a couple of classmates to some of the best burgers in the US as rated by GQ magazine - Miller’s Bar in Dearborn ranked number 8 out of 20. A low-key establishment with only a handful of items on its non-existent menu, Miller’s is fabulous. My group definitely thought so as one individual managed to put away three burgers, four shells (beers) and an order of fries – very impressive for a first-timer. If you are in Southeast Michigan, a trip to Miller’s would definitely be in order.
Detroit, MI: GM & NAIAS
Wednesday, January 16th
We woke up very early, headed to the airport and flew to Detroit, MI, my recent home for the past four years. We headed over to our hotel and then proceeded down to Cobo Hall to go and see GM and the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). GM introduced us to their exhibit and then let us loose to visit the rest of the auto show as we pleased. After running around the show for 3 hours or so, we all reconvened and were joined by a group of students from the Tauber Program at University of Michigan. It was a great chance to socialize with a group of students in a similar program. I had a great time meeting these students and I feel that this was shared with the rest of my classmates.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where the sickies all headed off to bed for the evening to prepare for the long day tomorrow.
We woke up very early, headed to the airport and flew to Detroit, MI, my recent home for the past four years. We headed over to our hotel and then proceeded down to Cobo Hall to go and see GM and the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). GM introduced us to their exhibit and then let us loose to visit the rest of the auto show as we pleased. After running around the show for 3 hours or so, we all reconvened and were joined by a group of students from the Tauber Program at University of Michigan. It was a great chance to socialize with a group of students in a similar program. I had a great time meeting these students and I feel that this was shared with the rest of my classmates.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where the sickies all headed off to bed for the evening to prepare for the long day tomorrow.
St. Charles, IL: Honeywell
Tuesday, January 15th
We woke up early and drove out to St. Charles, IL to visit Honeywell’s facility there, though the signs all read Sensor Systems. Honeywell manufactures fire alarms, fire alarm modules, and sprinkler system flow controls. We sat through a brief introduction to Honeywell and the St. Charles facility and then we were all taken out for a tour of the facility. Then during lunch, we were able to enter a smoke room to see how disorienting a smoke filled room is while trying to find the exits. Let me assure you, it is amazingly difficult. My public service announcement for the trip would be to definitely identify any and all emergency exits upon entering your hotel as some of these buildings get very intricate with twisting hallways and many, many doors. After lunch, we were left on our own to tour the floor and discover areas in which the facility could improve their operations. With 50 some eyes out on the floor we were able to come up with about 3 pages worth of suggestions that the plant manager was eager to hear about. I thought that the plant manager of this facility gave a refreshing light to the idea of off-shoring your work. He was a definite advocate for looking at and evaluating off-shoring at the total cost level and he also sought to keep his more manual labor (that is also more flexible) instead of moving to more of an automated facility. A very refreshing viewpoint that I believe needs to be adopted by many other American companies.
After our tour finished, Honeywell took us out to Giordano’s Pizzeria, a Chicago traditional deep dish establishment. They make their pizzas upside-down, but they are still very tasty. I’d definitely suggest checking them out while in town! Once dinner was over, we headed back to our hotel for the night. This was about the point in the tour that roughly 50% of the class was sick so we’d head to the pharmacy in groups buying up all the cold & flu medicines that they had. I guess that is part of the problem with intense traveling and a tight-knit group like we have had over the past nine days!
We woke up early and drove out to St. Charles, IL to visit Honeywell’s facility there, though the signs all read Sensor Systems. Honeywell manufactures fire alarms, fire alarm modules, and sprinkler system flow controls. We sat through a brief introduction to Honeywell and the St. Charles facility and then we were all taken out for a tour of the facility. Then during lunch, we were able to enter a smoke room to see how disorienting a smoke filled room is while trying to find the exits. Let me assure you, it is amazingly difficult. My public service announcement for the trip would be to definitely identify any and all emergency exits upon entering your hotel as some of these buildings get very intricate with twisting hallways and many, many doors. After lunch, we were left on our own to tour the floor and discover areas in which the facility could improve their operations. With 50 some eyes out on the floor we were able to come up with about 3 pages worth of suggestions that the plant manager was eager to hear about. I thought that the plant manager of this facility gave a refreshing light to the idea of off-shoring your work. He was a definite advocate for looking at and evaluating off-shoring at the total cost level and he also sought to keep his more manual labor (that is also more flexible) instead of moving to more of an automated facility. A very refreshing viewpoint that I believe needs to be adopted by many other American companies.
After our tour finished, Honeywell took us out to Giordano’s Pizzeria, a Chicago traditional deep dish establishment. They make their pizzas upside-down, but they are still very tasty. I’d definitely suggest checking them out while in town! Once dinner was over, we headed back to our hotel for the night. This was about the point in the tour that roughly 50% of the class was sick so we’d head to the pharmacy in groups buying up all the cold & flu medicines that they had. I guess that is part of the problem with intense traveling and a tight-knit group like we have had over the past nine days!
Milwaukee, WI: Harley - Davidson
Monday, January 14th
We woke up early, boarded the bus and headed to Milwaukee, WI in order to go visit Harley-Davidson. What a great trip that was. The Harley culture had the attention of the whole class and everyone was psyched to meet and greet with employees and executives. We were warmly greeted by Jim McCaslin, President and COO of Harley-Davidson, as well as Ron Hutchinson, Senior Vice President of Product Development – two very laid back and entertaining speakers which also helped get the class warmed up to the Harley-Davidson culture. After lunch we headed to the Pilgrim Road Plant where they manufacture the engines and drive trains for the Dyna, Softail and Touring product lines. This plant was great as it completely reminded me of my summer internships at Visteon in Michigan working at the Sterling Heights Plant manufacturing ring gears for the F-Series pick-up trucks. It was very cool to get back to my manufacturing roots and be surrounded by the smells, machines and products that I knew so well back in the day.
After the tour, we were taken to a local Harley dealership so that we could go and sample the products and interact with the finished goods and be more ingrained in the culture. There were many beautiful and amazing works of art (the bikes) at the dealership and the owner was very excited to talk with us about the Harley-Davidson Dealership operations. When all of our questions were answered, we were whisked away to Maxie’s Southern Comfort for an amazing dinner of pulled pork and other southern dishes. What a meal complete with some local beers, New Glarus’ Spotted Cow - awesome. After dinner, we drove back down to Chicago and hit the sack.
We woke up early, boarded the bus and headed to Milwaukee, WI in order to go visit Harley-Davidson. What a great trip that was. The Harley culture had the attention of the whole class and everyone was psyched to meet and greet with employees and executives. We were warmly greeted by Jim McCaslin, President and COO of Harley-Davidson, as well as Ron Hutchinson, Senior Vice President of Product Development – two very laid back and entertaining speakers which also helped get the class warmed up to the Harley-Davidson culture. After lunch we headed to the Pilgrim Road Plant where they manufacture the engines and drive trains for the Dyna, Softail and Touring product lines. This plant was great as it completely reminded me of my summer internships at Visteon in Michigan working at the Sterling Heights Plant manufacturing ring gears for the F-Series pick-up trucks. It was very cool to get back to my manufacturing roots and be surrounded by the smells, machines and products that I knew so well back in the day.
After the tour, we were taken to a local Harley dealership so that we could go and sample the products and interact with the finished goods and be more ingrained in the culture. There were many beautiful and amazing works of art (the bikes) at the dealership and the owner was very excited to talk with us about the Harley-Davidson Dealership operations. When all of our questions were answered, we were whisked away to Maxie’s Southern Comfort for an amazing dinner of pulled pork and other southern dishes. What a meal complete with some local beers, New Glarus’ Spotted Cow - awesome. After dinner, we drove back down to Chicago and hit the sack.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Seattle, WA: Downtime
Sunday, January 13th
We were able to sleep in again before traveling to Chicago. We arrived in the city and a group of us headed to Portillo’s for some delicious burgers, Italian sandwiches and beer. Portillo’s will definitely be on my list when I return to Chicago in the future. We then toured around Chicago looking for a good bar and wound up at Rock Bottom so we could play pool for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, January 12th
Our first totally free day! Sleeping in felt great and was VERY relaxing. Too bad we didn’t have more sleep-ins over the course of the first week, but every tour was definitely worth it and I wouldn’t want to trade the experiences that we have had. My younger brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, T’ien, drove up from Portland, OR to come visit me in Seattle. When they arrived in town, we headed to the Experience Music Project Museum (and with that we gained free admission to the Science Fiction Museum which was an interesting experience). The EMP Museum was pretty cool with a neat music lab exhibit that would teach you how to play different instruments (guitars, basses, drums, piano, as well as how to mix tracks). I would definitely suggest going to see it, but it wasn’t as cool as I had heard that it was. A trip to Seattle isn’t complete without a stop at the Pike Place Market. What an interesting place – beautiful fruit, tons of crabs and fish, flowers, and art spread through 3 floors on the hillside down to the waterfront all bustling with hundreds if not thousands of tourists and locals alike.
After our sight-seeing, we headed back to the hotel, picked up some pizza and beer and watched the Patriots defeat the Jaguars on their way to the SuperBowl and a 19-0 season. What a season they have had. If you haven’t seen it, you should go check out their game versus the Ravens to see just how close they were to losing that perfect season (you can find a highlight clip at www.patriots.com) – definitely a tense season at times. We had a low-key evening with a bunch of LFM’s joining us to celebrate the win and just hang out.
We were able to sleep in again before traveling to Chicago. We arrived in the city and a group of us headed to Portillo’s for some delicious burgers, Italian sandwiches and beer. Portillo’s will definitely be on my list when I return to Chicago in the future. We then toured around Chicago looking for a good bar and wound up at Rock Bottom so we could play pool for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, January 12th
Our first totally free day! Sleeping in felt great and was VERY relaxing. Too bad we didn’t have more sleep-ins over the course of the first week, but every tour was definitely worth it and I wouldn’t want to trade the experiences that we have had. My younger brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, T’ien, drove up from Portland, OR to come visit me in Seattle. When they arrived in town, we headed to the Experience Music Project Museum (and with that we gained free admission to the Science Fiction Museum which was an interesting experience). The EMP Museum was pretty cool with a neat music lab exhibit that would teach you how to play different instruments (guitars, basses, drums, piano, as well as how to mix tracks). I would definitely suggest going to see it, but it wasn’t as cool as I had heard that it was. A trip to Seattle isn’t complete without a stop at the Pike Place Market. What an interesting place – beautiful fruit, tons of crabs and fish, flowers, and art spread through 3 floors on the hillside down to the waterfront all bustling with hundreds if not thousands of tourists and locals alike.
After our sight-seeing, we headed back to the hotel, picked up some pizza and beer and watched the Patriots defeat the Jaguars on their way to the SuperBowl and a 19-0 season. What a season they have had. If you haven’t seen it, you should go check out their game versus the Ravens to see just how close they were to losing that perfect season (you can find a highlight clip at www.patriots.com) – definitely a tense season at times. We had a low-key evening with a bunch of LFM’s joining us to celebrate the win and just hang out.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Seattle, WA: Boeing - Day 2
Friday, January 11th
We had a great day planned for us to visit the 777, 747 and finally the 787 Dreamliner at the Boeing Everett facility and then following, a visit to the Dreamliner Customer Experience Center. We were taken to the largest facility by volume in the world that houses all three of these product lines. Some interesting stats are that the facility has 1 million light bulbs, spends $60K a day on electricity, the doors (and there are many) are the size of NFL football fields, and there are a number of other very impressive stats to give you some idea as to the sheer size of this facility. We had a wonderful day on this tour as we got to see the process of making a multitude of airplanes and VERY up close and personal views of the process and product. We got to see the interiors of the airplanes, the cockpits – a couple of us actually got to sit in the pilot’s and co-pilot’s chairs, the attendents’ rest (a spot for extra crews on the long distance flights to get some rest that are located above the customers), as well as the cargo hold. Pretty interesting to see all of these parts of the planes that we had been travelling on over the previous 5 days that we hadn’t seen yet.
After these tours, we were brought to the Dreamliner Customer Experience Center to see how each 787 customer will modify and specify all the details of their great purchases. From the fabric, window treatment, seats, safety equipment, lighting scheme, galleys, and layout, every aspect of the plane is seemingly adjustable. Not open to the public, we truly saw a very unique side to the airline business through this tour. Hope that you will be able to go on this tour next year too LFM ‘10’s!
We were on our own for dinner that night so our class split into many sub-groups to go celebrate the weekend and have a good time exploring Seattle. I trekked to Buckley’s over by the Space Needle and would definitely recommend it to any and all Seattle bound travelers.
We had a great day planned for us to visit the 777, 747 and finally the 787 Dreamliner at the Boeing Everett facility and then following, a visit to the Dreamliner Customer Experience Center. We were taken to the largest facility by volume in the world that houses all three of these product lines. Some interesting stats are that the facility has 1 million light bulbs, spends $60K a day on electricity, the doors (and there are many) are the size of NFL football fields, and there are a number of other very impressive stats to give you some idea as to the sheer size of this facility. We had a wonderful day on this tour as we got to see the process of making a multitude of airplanes and VERY up close and personal views of the process and product. We got to see the interiors of the airplanes, the cockpits – a couple of us actually got to sit in the pilot’s and co-pilot’s chairs, the attendents’ rest (a spot for extra crews on the long distance flights to get some rest that are located above the customers), as well as the cargo hold. Pretty interesting to see all of these parts of the planes that we had been travelling on over the previous 5 days that we hadn’t seen yet.
After these tours, we were brought to the Dreamliner Customer Experience Center to see how each 787 customer will modify and specify all the details of their great purchases. From the fabric, window treatment, seats, safety equipment, lighting scheme, galleys, and layout, every aspect of the plane is seemingly adjustable. Not open to the public, we truly saw a very unique side to the airline business through this tour. Hope that you will be able to go on this tour next year too LFM ‘10’s!
We were on our own for dinner that night so our class split into many sub-groups to go celebrate the weekend and have a good time exploring Seattle. I trekked to Buckley’s over by the Space Needle and would definitely recommend it to any and all Seattle bound travelers.
Seattle, WA: Boeing - Day 1
Thursday, January 10th
We woke up very early (~4 am) to catch the 5 am bus to the airport for our flight to Seattle, WA. Once we arrived in Seattle, we headed straight to our hotel to drop our bags off and then immediately went to the Boeing facility in Renton, WA where they build the 737. We had a nice mezzanine tour of the facility and then got to travel down to the production floor where we got an up close and personal view of the 737 mid-production. After a brief lunch and panel discussion, our class was split in two and one half was presented with information on the 737 engineering efforts with lean and the other was able to go visit another Boeing facility where they manufacture the wings and fuselage for the F-22. I was on the latter tour and got to see a very impressive facility that manufactures a very impressive fighting machine. The facility houses lots of composite materials and titanium that are in use throughout the plant and we were given a nice tour of their amazingly large composite manufacturing facilities including a massive autoclave (a pressurized oven to cure the composites) – one of two in the facility.
After the tour, we were treated to a tour of the Museum of Flight and then were hosted to dinner and a happy hour at the same museum. Some good socializing with various LFM grads and Boeing managers helped close out the evening as we were all very exhausted from a VERY long day.
We woke up very early (~4 am) to catch the 5 am bus to the airport for our flight to Seattle, WA. Once we arrived in Seattle, we headed straight to our hotel to drop our bags off and then immediately went to the Boeing facility in Renton, WA where they build the 737. We had a nice mezzanine tour of the facility and then got to travel down to the production floor where we got an up close and personal view of the 737 mid-production. After a brief lunch and panel discussion, our class was split in two and one half was presented with information on the 737 engineering efforts with lean and the other was able to go visit another Boeing facility where they manufacture the wings and fuselage for the F-22. I was on the latter tour and got to see a very impressive facility that manufactures a very impressive fighting machine. The facility houses lots of composite materials and titanium that are in use throughout the plant and we were given a nice tour of their amazingly large composite manufacturing facilities including a massive autoclave (a pressurized oven to cure the composites) – one of two in the facility.
After the tour, we were treated to a tour of the Museum of Flight and then were hosted to dinner and a happy hour at the same museum. Some good socializing with various LFM grads and Boeing managers helped close out the evening as we were all very exhausted from a VERY long day.
Reno, NV: Amazon.com
Wednesday, January 9th
Our day consisted of a trip to the Amazon Fernley Distribution Center followed by a dinner and happy hour at our hotel sponsored by Amazon. When we arrived at the Amazon facility, we were met by most of the Amazon senior managers including Jeff Wilke, LFM ’93, who is the Senior Vice President of Amazon’s North American Retail branch. It was quite a day at Amazon with a great tour of the Distribution Center. It was a little weird for me to see a three-story library in the middle of a factory, but that is part of what Amazon does. They have some great technical skills and operations but even they are still pressing to get continuously better. That is some great inspiration for us all that even though we think that we are doing a good job, we can always do a better job. Amazon is very focused on the customer and does a wonderful job of maintaining this focus. I’ve seen other companies that claim they are customer focused, but while they say so their actions don’t follow suit, so this is quite refreshing.
The highlight of my day was the opportunity to have lunch with Jeff Wilke with four other LFMers – a truly exceptional experience! After our tour, we headed back to our hotel and then to dinner with Amazon. After dinner, the LFM class was unleashed on the city of Reno. Trips to the casinos for some roulette and craps (not to mention the penny slots) was a great time for some class bonding and low-key fun before another long day.
Our day consisted of a trip to the Amazon Fernley Distribution Center followed by a dinner and happy hour at our hotel sponsored by Amazon. When we arrived at the Amazon facility, we were met by most of the Amazon senior managers including Jeff Wilke, LFM ’93, who is the Senior Vice President of Amazon’s North American Retail branch. It was quite a day at Amazon with a great tour of the Distribution Center. It was a little weird for me to see a three-story library in the middle of a factory, but that is part of what Amazon does. They have some great technical skills and operations but even they are still pressing to get continuously better. That is some great inspiration for us all that even though we think that we are doing a good job, we can always do a better job. Amazon is very focused on the customer and does a wonderful job of maintaining this focus. I’ve seen other companies that claim they are customer focused, but while they say so their actions don’t follow suit, so this is quite refreshing.
The highlight of my day was the opportunity to have lunch with Jeff Wilke with four other LFMers – a truly exceptional experience! After our tour, we headed back to our hotel and then to dinner with Amazon. After dinner, the LFM class was unleashed on the city of Reno. Trips to the casinos for some roulette and craps (not to mention the penny slots) was a great time for some class bonding and low-key fun before another long day.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Austin, TX: Dell
Tuesday, January 8th
We all woke up, packed, checked out of the hotel and boarded the bus to start our amazingly long day that lay ahead of us. We made our way to one of the many Dell facilities in Austin and were greeted with a nice breakfast snack as the tour guides arrived and took small groups out on the floor in one of the two facilities at that location. We then had lunch and took a tour of the other of the two facilities. These two facilities built all types of Dell desktops that are available as well as Dell servers. It was very interesting to see the many differences between the two facilities that are located only a hundred yards apart, but unfortunately we didn’t gain too much insight into the reasons for these variations. After a talk with some Dell LFM alumni, we were very privileged to meet and talk with Michael Dell. What a treat that was! We spent roughly 45 minutes asking a barrage of questions and enjoying meeting this amazing CEO. A great memory for all!
When our visit at Dell concluded, we headed to the airport for our flight to Reno via Las Vegas. Our flight left Austin at 7:30 CST and we arrived in Reno at 11:30 PST. Although very tired and ready for some sleep we made our way out to the Harrah’s Casino (where we were staying) floor to experience some of the gambling and other activities that Reno can provide. Such a long day, but what an amazing experience we are all being treated to!
Austin, TX: Flextronics/Cisco
Monday, January 7
We arrived at the Flextronics facility around 8:30 and were greeted by Cisco and Flextronics employees to begin the first tour of our trip. After hearing from a number of managers on the background of Cisco and Flextronics as well as the unique partnership the two corporations share, we were broken up into 8 small groups and were given a very thorough tour of the massive facility where they produce many routers and servers such as the CRS-1 which a super server that could transfer the entire contents of The Library of Congress in just 4.6 seconds as well as connect 3 billion phone calls a second – this is due to the fact that the unit can process 1.2 TBPS (yup, that is Terra bytes!). We definitely felt that the red carpet was rolled out for us and we had a great time learning all about the manufacturing process of these amazing machines.
After our visit, we left Flextronics and Cisco and went to The County Line BBQ to have a dinner hosted by Dell. We arrived about an hour before the Dell employees so we all headed to the beautiful patio behind the restaurant that bordered a lazy river that meandered by the restaurant. When Dell arrived, dinner was served and we all ate like kings. Many among us enjoyed the local brew, Shiner Boch – hope to enjoy it again sometime soon. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and then once again out to see 6th St. It was interesting being back on 6th St. The last time that I was in town was roughly 6 years ago on a cross-country road trip. My arrival in Austin on the road trip coincided with the opening night of the SXSW Festival – a truly amazing time in Austin. 6th St during that time was blocked off and packed end to end with thousands and thousands of people. This latest visit lacked the thousands of people, but there was still a very healthy night life (especially for a Monday night!) that was a lot of fun.
Austin, TX: Cisco/Flextronics
Sunday, January 6
The LFM class of 2009 departed for our two week domestic plant tour today. The first leg of our trip brought us from Boston to Austin, TX in order to visit Cisco, Flextronics and Dell. We arrived in Austin on Sunday afternoon and went in search of lunch prior to any required meetings. Most of us found some great BBQ at Stubb's BBQ on Red River Avenue which was just around the corner from our hotel. Talk about some good food! We had some delicious pulled pork sandwiches and I had the mashed yams which were excellent! If you make it to Austin, Stubb’s is one of the many famous BBQ joints in town and definitely deserves a visit. After lunch we had our first meeting with Prof. Shoji Shiba who learned about lean manufacturing from Deming himself and has had a very distinguished career helping manufacturing companies around the world become better at what they do. We are very privileged, as were the previous 20 LFM classes, to have him join us and teach us to see problem areas in the plants and companies that we will visit. Through an introductory lecture, Prof Shiba taught us his 7 key points for observing the invisible and unknown as well as the visible proof of corporate pros and cons. In brief, his 7 key points were to 1) observe details, 2) observe the periphery, 3) observe the unusual, 4) observe what is missing, 5) observe symbols, 6) observe shadows (try to see beyond your mental barriers), and finally, 7) observe comparisons. I hope to gain a lot of insight from Prof. Shiba during this tour on these ideas as well as to start to see the manufacturing facilities as he sees them.
After our lecture, we headed out to The Main Event where Cisco and Flextronics were hosting us for the evening. If you have ever been to Dave & Buster’s or Chuck-E-Cheese, you get a general sense of The Main Event. They have a bunch of arcade games, bowling alleys, a mini-golf course, a rock-climbing facility and a laser tag arena. A competition of bowling, arcades and laser tag kept our hosts and us very busy for the entirety of the evening with the laser tag being our favorite. Definitely a lot of fun was had by all! As the evening ended, we returned to our hotel and most of the class headed down to 6th Street to see the local Austin nightlife for the rest of the night and you can check out Sean’s blog to see some of the action photos from the night (definitely check out the photo of the flaming Dr. Pepper’s that they had).
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Hope that you all had a great and safe end to 2007 and an awesome beginning to 2008!
Take care and more later...
Take care and more later...
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