May 14th: Company Visits

Out of all of the days during this trip, today was one of the most intense academically. Last week, we completed two company visits on two different days, and today we completed three more. The first place we visited was the factory of a tool company named Hela. There, we were shown the process for manufacturing paint brushes, smoothing brushes, and paint rollers. At Hela, the processes we were shown all involved a large amount of manual labor. As an example, the paint roller process begins with someone feeding a plastic rod through a machine so the fabric can attach to it. Then the rolls are moved across the room to be cut into the correct size by someone feeding the rod through a machine with a saw that enabled the lengths to be uniform without previous measurements being taken. After being cut, the rollers are then measured to make sure they are the correct size and blown to eliminate creases between the strips of fabric. The Hela representatives said that their company plans to acquire new machines to further automate the production process. I am guessing that tool manufacturers in the United States have more automated machines than Hela partially because labor in the US is more expensive and partially because automation is more precise and efficient. However, as these machines are introduced to the company, some of the workers' jobs will become unnecessary, so I hope Hela has plans to make the transition as smooth as possible.

 

Our second tour was at a canning company called Centauro. At the start of our tour the owner who was originally supposed to lead our tour was in a meeting to discuss a possible solution to the company's current peach shortage, but he joined us by the end of our tour. As with Hela, there was a fair amount of manual labor required to complete the process of making and packaging products. When we visited, the product on which people were working was jalapeños for another company. The main products for this company, though, are tomato based items such as tomato paste and tomato sauce. It seemed to me that one of the biggest challenges for Centauro is to make enough product to meet the demands of their customers each year, but not have a lot of extra stored because of the limited shelf life of food products.

 

After lunch, the last place we stopped was Bosques del Mauco, a mushroom factory. Upon exiting the bus, the first thing I noticed was the smell of the factory, which soon got significantly worse as we walked deeper into the site. The reason for the strong smell was the manure that is used for cultivating the mushrooms. It seemed to me that the most complicated part of the mushroom growing process is preparing the compost that is later used to grow the mushrooms. During the preparation process, the mixture of manure and hay must be properly moisturized and at the same time not have harmful bacteria growing that could later infect the mushrooms and be rich in the necessary nutrients for mushroom production. The mushrooms are grown in this mixture on trays in the factory. We got to see steps all along the production process including the growth, picking, and packaging of the mushrooms. Aside from the smell, this visit was very interesting to me, and the man leading the tour was very informative.

 

Tonight, Hannah, Alex, and I plan to spend some time touring Viña del Mar with our new friend Diego.