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 come back out to the MicroAir headquarters and get a behind the scenes have 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 someplace else, 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 notice this was the very first thing I observed till a lot later in our go to. Kevin met us within the foyer and confirmed us to the convention desk so we might sit and chat for a bit earlier than taking a stroll by way 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 hiya, on their option 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 come back 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 will make Henry Ford take discover. Micro-Air has been getting an increasing number of orders, and has been beginning to outgrow the quantity of area they’ve, so in flip has arrange their manufacturing facility flooring to make use of each inch of obtainable area to extend manufacturing with out sacrificing high quality.
The very first station we see is the retooling station. The retooling station is principally the “oops pile”. Kevin made it some extent to carry out consideration to it, which at first I believed was odd, as a result of we might have simply walked proper previous it to the very subsequent station the place meeting was being completed.
I believed to myself ‘why would you level out your oops pile when you have to be displaying us how superior your manufacturing facility is?’
Effectively, it seems Kevin is smarter than I’m, and by displaying us the oops pile he was displaying us how superior they’re. On the conclusion of each station alongside the meeting line is a high quality management test. 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 the complete course of a chunk fails its high quality test, it’s labeled with the place it was within the course of and introduced right here. If its a chunk that wants a remodeling on the schematic it will possibly go proper by way of the door to the left and into the design room for its replace. If its a chunk that simply wants an additional little bit of solder, it will possibly get that and be returned again into the work stream on the applicable station.
After the retooling station is an extended part of area with 4 rows of labor stations. One in opposition to every wall and two nose to nose down the middle of the room, in order that items on line could be accomplished, then handed to the subsequent station on their manner all the way down to packaging.
Once 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”. You already know, the identical manner all the things is “constructed by hand”, a connection right here or there was completed by a human, however the many of the components had been put collectively by some tremendous environment friendly robotic.
Nope. Kevin meant Constructed By Hand. With Delight and a spotlight to element just like the phrase American Made was meant to embody.
It was critically spectacular to see all of the issues that “used to” be made by American Craftsmanship really being completed by actual people who get pleasure from what they’re doing. Hand crimped wire ends, Hand soldered wires, Hand examined controls, Hand completed weatherproofing, Hand assembled circuit boards.
One factor you’ll discover within the photos of the tour, is Folks. Folks doing all the things. In truth, there is just one machine doing something in the complete 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 advanced 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 many 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 numerous different merchandise that Micro-Air makes.
In case you recall the very first thing I observed 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 needs to be diligently ignoring their coworkers and simply mindlessly cranking out merchandise for his or her shoppers.
Whereas taking this image I had really talked about to Kevin that everybody right here appears to be in an important temper and that this should be an important place to work or everybody right here is actually 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 complete 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 exhibits 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 number one on my should have RV Upgrades listing.