I've been with my employer for over twenty years now. I know I've mentioned my job before, but I will tell you again for the benefit of those who, like myself, have the memory of a goldfish (or a blue tang): I work in a factory that produces rubber tracks for all sorts of motorized vehicles, such as snowsleds, ATVs, wheelchairs (well, actually, they're trackchairs), industrial tractors, and even robots. I know... glamorous, right? If you have ever crossed my path just after I've finished my shift, you've most likely noticed an unpleasant odor emanating from my person. That's not pheromones, my friends. That's the fragrance of cooked rubber. In our terms, we call it vulcanized, or cured rubber. There. You now have a useless factoid you can use to amaze friends at your next dinner party.
I've built tracks for over fifteen of those twenty years. The other five years or so were spent doing various other tasks within the company. Besides production, I've worked for the safety, quality, process, shipping, and maintenance departments. I need the variety. While running a press for the production department, I've found my brain slowly turning to mush. For a while, I listened to podcasts and audiobooks with an ear bud in one ear to slow down the progression of the mushening of my brain (yes, that's a real term, so you definitely do not need to look that up). Unfortunately, they have recently decreed the use of ear buds as unsafe, however. So I have gone to lengths to find other ways to keep the ole grey matter from dripping out of my ear holes.
A few months ago, I began driving a forklift in the warehouse. I was in charge of organizing pallets of WIP (Work In Progress) tracks in stacks and rows in order to be able to easily find and send them back over to production when the next group of people need to do their thing to make the tracks a finished product. There are hundreds of different part numbers to organize, and thousands of tracks. When I started in this position, it was a complete cluster-...er, let's just say it was a big mess. Tracks were stored all mixed up together in piles. It was tremendously difficult to find what was called for. So I devised a better, more visible labeling system. I created lanes to organize them, and a big dry erase board map that anyone could utilize when searching for a particular part number. It was a fluid process, in constant motion. I essentially created and ran a valet parking service for pallets of tracks. It was a fun challenge for a while! (I actually envisioned a puzzle game for a mobile app. You'd drive a forklift around in a warehouse, making room for different part numbers as they came in, and getting calls to send those part numbers back out again. But there's limited space. That's the challenge. Some part numbers get buried, then you have to dig them out again, shuffling pallets around to pull the right ones out. I don't know, it seemed cool in my head.) But that job dried up after a while. WIP movement slowed down, and I began filling my time with doing odd jobs for people. "Hey Jamie! Can you pick up that mess over there for us? Hey Jamie, can you look in that pile from the other warehouse and see if you can find some obscure metal doohickey for the maintenance department? They need it, like yesterday."
I even started helping to write work instructions for some of their processes in the warehouse. There was not much for a new guy to refer to if they had questions about their job when there wasn't someone immediately available to ask. I saw a need. I wanted to fill it. I've dabbled in this sort of thing before, when I helped develop training procedures for press operators back in the day (I also used to train new operators). It's good to have stuff clearly written down. I'm a writer, with a hint of OCD, which is a great mix for this sort of thing. Having clear cut directions and standardized procedures represented in a visual form appeals to me. Even better with diagrams and pictures!
And now, for the last couple of weeks, I've been helping the maintenance department. It's a temporary position for the time being. I think they are testing out some ideas. I'm perfectly willing to run with it! And if I do a great job, it's possible that it could become a more long term gig. They want to start doing things a little differently than they have in the past, and I think I may be a good fit for that. I've already gotten my new area cleaned up and organized in a way that makes more sense to me. And I've developed a dry-erase map that helps people find the tooling they are looking for with more ease. I'm currently designing a form that helps ensure the changeover process goes a little more smoothly. (A changeover happens when we finish a run of a certain track, and then need to change some of the machine's parts so that we can build a different track.) I need to stage a lot of different parts and pieces for each changeover, and it's essential that I get the right tooling ready for them ahead of time so they will have as little downtime as possible. If we're not building tracks, we're not making money!
I get pretty dirty with this new job, and I think I'll get dirtier still as I take on more responsibilities. But so far, I've especially enjoyed the challenge of making the process more streamlined. And my cleaning up of the little corner I work in has seemed to impress some of the right people. That makes me happy.
I've been getting a lot of appreciation for my hard work these last few months working in the warehouse and now with the maintenance team. I enjoy doing something a little different. Well, a lot different. I've built tracks for about fifteen years of my time with the company. I'm absolutely ready to engage my brain with some new challenges. Some people prefer the stability of doing the same thing every day. And that's completely fine. There is plenty of need for that mindset. For me, though, that gets really old after a while. I'm happier learning new things. And it's great to feel like I'm making a difference. I need that. I think we all need that.
So, wish me luck with my new endeavors in the maintenance team. Strangely, my writing background plays a role in my factory job when I least expect it. I'm more than happy to combine the two worlds once in a while. I suppose that's exactly what I'm doing right now as I write this blog post about that very same factory job. That thought has a nice circular quality about it.
For fun, while I was the WIP guy at the warehouse, I started running advertisements aimed at my coworkers that called me for tracks. They went a little something like this:
Come on down to Jamie's Low Bay, where the prices are so low, you'll need a forklift to carry it all home! We have the largest stacks of tracks in the Adirondacks!
Bonus!!! Act now! Today only! Every order of at least 2 WIP pallets, we'll throw in a stack of scrap pallets! Absolutely free!
We have the north country's largest inventory to serve your SPC and stud machine needs. I hope we can do business! Don't hesitate to text or email us with any specific questions you may have pertaining to our vast inventory of quality WIP. Or, you can visit our website at JamiesLowBay.YouGottaBeKiddingMe.com
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