Day 11 (5/14/13)-Hela, Conservas Centauro, Bosques Del Mauco

Today we had three of the final company visits! We began at HELA where we got to witness the production processes of many of their products such as paint brushes, wire disc brushes, and rolling pins.

It was really interesting to see production lines because as an Industrial Engineer, I may be working on improving production processes such as the ones they were using. Our guide talked to us about working to keep the balance between keeping costs down while maintaining the quality of their products because if something is faulty it could destroy their business.

We also went over the ways they try to improve their products and their production processes and how they handle their business including the importing of materials from various areas of the world that provide top quality materials at reasonable prices. They get many of their materials from Germany. After HELA, we went to Conservas Centauros where we learned about the business and production processes for canned foods.

We learned about the balance they have to keep between maximizing production and only using the best fruits/vegetables available. For instance, if there is a huge rain period, they cannot use the tomatoes grown from that area for a certain amount of time because they will not taste the same. We also got to see the production line of the products and see how they start from being imported on trucks to going through machines to eliminate parts of the vegetable such as skin or seeds and then being prepared for how they are used in the product.

We noticed that there were many more workers here in packaging and preparing the foods whereas HELA had more machines that could take care of these processes. Afterwards, we headed off to our last and smelliest company: Bosques Del Mauco. This is the mushroom farm. We were quickly told that there are only two mushroom farms in Chile, and that this was the largest one! The company also owns farms to obtain straw and manure from which helps eliminate a middle man when obtaining materials needed for mushroom production.

They went over the production process which included soaking the manure and straw in water leading to microlife growth and eventually putting the soil in trays in dark rooms to allow the mushrooms to grow. We also got to see the workers harvest the mushroom which was a very simple process. The process for growing the mushrooms is fairly simple and cheap and as the mushrooms can be shipped to various parts of the world, the mushroom business as a whole is very profitable. However, the worker has to go to different mushroom farms around the world to learn about various techniques in mushroom growing to continue to improve the business.