Today was a record-setting day: I walked three miles. Jokes aside, I spent today with Lou, the mixing specialist of the plant. We spent the day following the entire mixing process from time zero through the end of quality control (at the end of the ovens). I learned countless many metrics about Kellogg’s production, saw the workers make an unexpected line change (it even changes the recipe slightly), and learned a few top-secret secrets. Lou and I perused the flour silos, played with the dough to ensure its quality, and tasted a few Chz-ITs straight from the oven. In actuality, we spent a lot of time in the “command center,” monitoring every portion of the line. At one point, we changed the recipe of the crackers to accommodate the oven on the backup line.
Fun fact: Kellogg’s Cary plant has a blower that “blows flour so powerfully that it turns into a liquid.”
Beyond my time with Lou, I met up with Okey and discussed my plans for tomorrow: packaging. After that, it was all meetings and attempting to fix some faulty VBA code for Gary.
The meetings were an eye-opening experience for me: on one hand, I saw people in my (currently) chosen profession path (consulting), but on the other hand, I saw why middle management dislike consultants.
