Domestic Plant Trek - Week 1

The Domestic Plant Trek (DPT) is one of the highlights of the LGO program, when we travel around the country with our whole class and visit the sites of our partner companies.  The trip gives us an opportunity to learn more about the partner companies, and to be able to see what we’ve been learning in class applied to real-life situations.  This year visited 7 different cities:

Detroit, Michigan (GM)

Portland, OR (Nike)

Seattle, WA (Boeing)

Los Angeles, CA (Amazon)

Tucson, AZ (Raytheon)

Austin, TX (Dell)

San Juan, PR (Amgen)

The itinerary for a very busy 12-day trip!

The trek got off to an interesting start when we woke up last Sunday to find out that our flight to Detroit was cancelled.  It turned out that they were having a major snowstorm and record low temperatures (later we found out it was called the Polar Vortex).  After scrambling most of the day to figure out how to move 50 people over 700 miles through winter conditions, we settled on a solution: minivans!  So on Sunday night, we all gathered at Logan Airport and hit the road in a fleet of 7 minivans, headed west.  Our summer team Five Alive re-united for the epic journey.  Our van drove until about 1:30am and then decided to rest for the night in central Pennsylvania.  Waking up the next day, we learned that two of the vans had pushed through the night and arrived in Detroit in time to make the GM tours.  Now that’s some hard-core trekking!  

As for us, we drove through the day on Monday, hitting snow in Toledo and crawling up to Detroit through a sea of semi-truck carnage.  By the time we made it to Detroit the sun was setting and road conditions were quickly getting worse, so we decided to head straight to the hotel and hunker down.  The temperature when we got there was -10F and the wind-chill was -34.  It was so cold that the windows in the hotel were frozen on the inside!  Unfortunately, we missed all of the GM events so I’ll have a wait a while longer before I see the inside of an auto plant (we’re talking about returning to Detroit over the summer for a make-up session).  Luckily our hotel was at the same site as GM’s headquarters, so we did manage to see a few cars.  Since going outside may have led to frostbite, we turned in pretty early to get some sleep.

We got used to this view after 14 hours of driving

The air was so cold that it turned some pretty amazing colors.  This was the view from the hotel.

We didn't leave Detroit empty-handed;

You know it's cold when the windows freeze from the inside!

On Tuesday we woke up early to drive the vans to the airport and head out for our next destination: Portland.  The flight connected through Denver, and we had some excitement when a delayed flight left us only 10 minutes to get to the next plane.  We made it to Portland by about mid-day and then headed straight to the Nike Store in Beaverton.  That worked out really well because afterwards my aunt picked Cynthia and me up from the store and headed to dinner with my Dad.  This was my first time back in Portland since May and it was wonderful to see everyone.

The carpet at PDX: A sure sign that I'm home!

Doing some shopping at the Nike Store in Beaverton

Tuesday was our day with Nike out in Beaverton.  We headed out to their corporate campus and heard about the company from several operations executives, got a tour of their campus, and visited their In-House Manufacturing (IHM) plant.  Even though I had grown up just a few miles away, this was my first time actually going on the campus.  The grounds were spectacular and it was amazing to see how everyone was in great shape (it helps that there are 2 gyms on site!).  Everywhere we went, there were mementos or tributes to famous athletes.  The original pairs of Air Jordon’s, the Amateur Cup that Tiger Woods won before turning pro, and the original waffle iron that was used on the prototype shoes in the 70’s were all there.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the IHM factory, where Nike builds all the air-bags for their shoe suppliers.  This was our first plant of the trek (for those of us who didn’t make it to GM), and it was definitely interesting to see how the bags were made. 

The entrance to Nike World Headquarters

Some original shoe prototypes...and the waffle iron that made it all possible!

Where it all started: selling shoes out of the back of a VW bus

Walking around the beautiful Nike campus

Thursday morning we headed up to Seattle for our next company: Boeing!  This was my first time back in Seattle since I left in May and it was great to get back and be able to show the company off to the whole LGO class.  We had some free time on Thursday afternoon to get some great Pho and run some errands around town.

Cynthia enjoying the "Seattle Sunshine" along the waterfront.

Friday was our day with Boeing and we had a full schedule all over Puget Sound.  We started in Renton and walked through the 737 production line.  I’ve been there several times before, but it is always impressive to see how efficiently they can make the planes (now up to 38 per month and soon headed to 42!).  From Renton we drove up to Everett and had lunch with several execs and LGO alums at the Future of Flight Museum.  Before lunch, we had a chance to wander around the museum and get some photo-ops in front of the 777 and 787 engines.

Checking out engines at the Future of Flight Museum in Everett

After lunch, we headed over to the Dreamliner Gallery and had a chance to see how airline customers get to configure their 787s, with options including galleys, seats, and lighting.  Boeing made a big push for standardization of the interior on the 787, and created a catalog of options that can be included in the purchase price.  This allows the airlines to get a great product, while limiting the costs of customization to Boeing.  Win-win.  

 

In the lobby of the Dreamliner Gallery

What seat do you want on your Dreamliner?  Come here and take your pick.

After the Gallery, we headed over to the Everett factory, which until a few months ago was the largest building in the world by volume.  We got a tour of the 787 and 777 manufacturing lines and then heard about all the Boeing internships that are being offered.  No matter how many times I go to that factory, it’s still impressive to stand next to the GE90 engines of a 777 and realize the scale of the products we build!  It was great to be able to share the factory with all of my classmates.

After a full day of touring, we had a pretty quiet evening catching up with some friends.  Then on Saturday we had the whole day off and spent it getting together with friends and going climbing.  I’m not sure when I’ll be in Seattle next, so I was really glad to be able to catch up with everyone while I was there.

On Sunday we headed down to Los Angeles for some warmer weather and the start of Week 2 of the Plant Trek!

On our way to sunny California, with a great view of Lake Tahoe (no, we weren't on a Boeing airplane *sigh*)