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Now it’s no secret that I really like cool devices, so when Kevin got here throughout our Should Have RV Upgrades Article and invited us to return out to the MicroAir headquarters and get a behind the scenes take a look at how they function we had been there the subsequent day. Not many issues are made right here anymore, however pulling up out entrance you’ll be able to see that they’re happy with the truth that all of their merchandise are.
Not simply assembled right here from parts manufactured some other place, Made right here, Assembled by hand, and each single product high quality examined at a number of factors all through their manufacturing course of.
The very first thing I discover after we stroll within the door is chatter, like the type that stops when the boss walks within the room most locations. I didn’t understand this was the very first thing I seen till a lot later in our go to. Kevin met us within the foyer and confirmed us to the convention desk so we may sit and chat for a bit earlier than taking a stroll by means of the manufacturing line.
As we chat with Kevin about Micro-Airs product line and historical past individuals stroll by, all with a pleasant wave and a good day, on their method to the place ever it was they had been going. We continued speaking with Kevin concerning the increasing line of merchandise they make, and the way they’re designed and constructed proper right here.
The primary cease on our tour was the design room. The very first thing that got here to thoughts was The Matrix. There have been work stations with a number of screens with designs of circuit boards to return subsequent to prototypes subsequent to items that had handed and failed high quality management checks so that they might be dissected and retooled to make enhancements for future generations of merchandise.
Additional down the hallway is the door to the manufacturing facility flooring. On the opposite facet of that door is an meeting line so environment friendly that it could make Henry Ford take discover. Micro-Air has been getting increasingly orders, and has been beginning to outgrow the quantity of house they’ve, so in flip has arrange their manufacturing facility flooring to make use of each inch of obtainable house to extend manufacturing with out sacrificing high quality.
The very first station we see is the retooling station. The retooling station is mainly the “oops pile”. Kevin made it a degree to carry out consideration to it, which at first I believed was odd, as a result of we may have simply walked proper previous it to the very subsequent station the place meeting was being carried out.
I believed to myself ‘why would you level out your oops pile when you have to be exhibiting us how superior your manufacturing facility is?’
Nicely, it seems Kevin is smarter than I’m, and by exhibiting us the oops pile he was exhibiting us how superior they’re. On the conclusion of each station alongside the meeting line is a top quality management verify. Now after I say each station, I imply each station. QC is finished after every set of parts goes into every product, not simply on the finish of the road.
If at any level throughout your entire course of a bit fails its high quality verify, it’s labeled with the place it was within the course of and introduced right here. If its a bit that wants a remodeling on the schematic it may go proper by means of the door to the left and into the design room for its replace. If its a bit that simply wants an additional little bit of solder, it may get that and be returned again into the work circulate on the applicable station.
After the retooling station is a protracted part of house with 4 rows of labor stations. One in opposition to every wall and two head to head down the middle of the room, in order that items on line might be accomplished, then handed to the subsequent station on their means all the way down to packaging.
After we had been chatting with Kevin within the convention room about their merchandise being constructed by hand, I had assumed he meant “constructed by hand”. , the identical means the whole lot is “constructed by hand”, a connection right here or there was carried out by a human, however the a lot of the elements had been put collectively by some tremendous environment friendly robotic.
Nope. Kevin meant Constructed By Hand. With Satisfaction and a spotlight to element just like the phrase American Made was meant to embody.
It was severely spectacular to see all of the issues that “used to” be made by American Craftsmanship truly being carried out by actual people who take pleasure in what they’re doing. Hand crimped wire ends, Hand soldered wires, Hand examined controls, Hand carried out weatherproofing, Hand assembled circuit boards.
One factor you’ll discover within the footage of the tour, is Folks. Folks doing the whole lot. In reality, there is just one machine doing something in your entire place. Its a comparatively current addition to the road too. Proper subsequent to it’s its “handcrafted” predecessor that was solely changed due to the necessity to make extra complicated circuit boards with a number of layers of pathways.
Now I do know it’s possible you’ll be considering, “a lot for handcrafted, this factor is doing a lot of the work”. Nope, under no circumstances. Consider it like making dinner. You do all of the prep, all of the cooking, put all of it collectively on the plate and serve it. This machine simply makes the plate,
These two pretty girls are those who put the small parts on the circuit boards by hand in order that they are often handed on to the correct meeting traces whether or not it’s for RV or Marine use, Air conditioners or Thermostats, or any one of many varied different merchandise that Micro-Air makes.
If you happen to recall the very first thing I seen after we walked within the constructing was chatting. That was a standard prevalence all through our tour. Now, by no means am I suggesting that everybody right here must be diligently ignoring their coworkers and simply mindlessly cranking out merchandise for his or her customers.
Whereas taking this image I had truly talked about to Kevin that everybody right here appears to be in a fantastic temper and that this have to be a fantastic place to work or everybody right here is admittedly good actors. All of us spent a while chatting and joking round about who was going to win the Academy Award for Happiest Worker, and in doing so got here to be taught that smiles like that may’t be faked.
Lots of the individuals right here have been right here for his or her total profession. That is a kind of locations the place you get employed as your first job and find yourself retiring from. The ambiance all through the manufacturing facility is fairly laid again. Everybody enjoys what they’re doing and truly likes coming to work and it reveals within the merchandise they put out.
I personally have Micro-Air products on my RV, and that was from earlier than the manufacturing facility tour, which made #1 on my should have RV Upgrades record.
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