| A factory floor plan resembles a chessboard of strategic relationships.
Alter the location of a machine, and production races forward. Tinker
with the assembly line and workers no longer complain about carpal
tunnel stress. Mechanize a repetitive process, and costs decline,
boosting the company's bottom line.
As an Industrial Engineer, Patrick Heese ponders the intricacies
of factory layout for an Energizer Battery plant in Greensboro,
North Carolina. Although Heese has only been with the company for
a few months, he is hardly a rookie. During Heese's junior year
at the university, a UNL professor helped him procure an internship
at the Energizer plant in Glenville, Arizona. At the time, the company
was considering various methods for increasing the plant's capacity.
The questions posed by plant engineers and managers prompted Heese
to suggest simulating plant operations with a software package known
as Simul 8. The company granted him permission to order one copy
of Simul 8 for himself. Heese suggested the software because "it
is practically free to use, you don't have to physically go out
and move things around to test your ideas."
After many revisions of the simulation model, Heese's research
yielded an astonishing observation: Capacity would grow if the company
reduced plant equipment. New additions were not needed to increase
production. At first, Heese and his collaborators doubted the results;
however subsequent tests confirmed the model.
As a result of the findings, Energizer flew Heese to a corporate
facility in Westlake, Ohio, where he presented his discoveries to
company officials. A month after his internship concluded, Energizer
bought copies of Simul 8 for all of the company's industrial engineers
and conducted on-site training for the application.
Even prior to Heese's graduation from UNL in August of 2001, Energizer
groomed him under the supervision of a senior engineer at the Greensboro
plant. Within a year, Heese's mentor will retire and Heese will
assume full responsibility for the plant's cathode and anode mixing
stations. As Operations Improvement Program Coordinator, he will
monitor plant performance and will track proposals for improvement.
Heese also serves on the Noise Abatement Team, creating a healthier
and more comfortable environment for plant workers.
His education at UNL empowered Heese to develop the skills that
led to his success with Energizer. According to Heese, the atmosphere
of the Industrial Engineering Department encouraged interaction
with the professors. "It is such a small department that I
was able to know so many of them and made great friends. Friends
meaning students and faculty," Heese said. An education at
UNL ventures beyond lectures and libraries. Professors helped Heese
obtain several internship and co-op positions, including his work
at Energizer. In his senior design class, Heese completed a project
for the Skinner Bakery in Omaha. Heese's suggestions vastly improved
efficiency and quality control, saving the company $2,000,000. Heese
enjoys making the decisions that increase plant efficiency. He especially
likes his job when his efforts improve working conditions for Energizer
employees. "The most satisfying part is when I make a machine
face a different direction or be a different height and the change
makes a worker safer or more comfortable," he said. |
