Snow!!!

Just when I though I had actually finished a project, I get a call from the valve distributor saying that he was wrong and what we were planning on doing wouldn't work, but we can buy a new valve and have that handle installed on it.  So I try to get a hold of the engineer for that area to let him know what is going on.  I'm still waiting for a response from him on this valve issue as well as for him to explain my next project to me.

Between yesterday morning and this morning, we got 8 inches of snow.  That was measured after yesterday mornings 2-3 inches had melted and it had snowed again.  This morning I wake up as usual at 6:30 and call the hotline which says the plant is open for normal operation.  I spend half an hour shoveling out/clearing off my car and then head to work.  Typically the road right outside my apartment is snow covered, so I've gotten used to that.  However, the next road is usually fairly clear and not a problem.  Well, this morning it was just as bad as the road outside my apartment.  I have a little sedan that doesn't really like driving through snow over a few inches off of the ground.  Well, since Delaware doesn't like salt/sand and plowing there was a nice layer of ice/snow covering the road.  I actually pulled over and was ready to call my supervisor and say "hey, I can't drive in this.  I'll come in later when it clears up" but then I decide that the only way I'll get comfortable driving in it is to actually do it and there's no better time then now to do it.  The worst the was gonna happen was I was going to slide off the road into the curb (which was unlikely based on the amount of snow on the "shoulder" or someone would hit me and I'd have to deal with that.  Well 1. there were barely any cars out so that wasn't an issue, and 2. the cars that were out weren't going fast enough that it would be an issue if one of them slid into me.  So, I decided to drive into work.  It took me 20 minutes to get there and on a normal day it takes me 15 mins.  When I got there, there was one other car in the parking lot.  I didn't see anyone else until my supervisor showed up around 9:45.  He was impressed that I made it in.  Slowly throughout the day the roads got better and people started coming in.  By the time I left, roads were completely clear (with the exception of the one outside my apartment), but they will all be very icy in the morning.

Since all of my projects are in states of waiting for responses, I asked my supervisor for another project today.  This one is a design project for a rack to store dies.  My student program adviser Julio was the one who submitted it so I contacted him about scoping out the project.  He tells me that he'd be happy to help me out, but there's other projects that are higher on the priority list that he'd rather have done first.  He talks to my supervisor and my supervisor tells me that I'm working on it even though Julio doesn't want me to.  So I set up a meeting to scope out the project.  We'll see how this goes.

Canning FTK

This weekend was canning weekend number 3 for THON 2011.  My friend's a capella group Blue in the FACE was going canning in Allentown at Brandi's house and since that was only 2 hours from me, I decided to go.  I worked a half day on Friday, went home to KoP to get some warm clothes, and then got to Brandi's house just in time for dinner.  After dinner we played a game called Mafia among some other things that I can't remember and then the girls went to Brandi's grandparent's house for the night.  We were told the hill was ok to drive up even though it had snowed Friday morning so we went the short way which includes this hill.  Well, my car almost didn't make it up.  I had my friends Jamie and Katie with me and we were the last car in a three car train.  I think my car had everything going against it - I have front wheel drive, I had a loaded trunk, and my car doesn't like going up hills in good weather.  It took us a little while and a lot of spinning tires/slipping, but we made it safely to the top.

Saturday morning, we went back to Brandi's for breakfast and then went canning from 10:30-1:00, went to Panera for lunch, then were canning again from 2:30-4:00 or 5:00.  My group went to a stop sign that was the exit of a grocery store/strip mall.  We quickly learned that we did not need all 5 of us with cans and signs for the one stop sign. So, we had 4 signs and one can and were dancing around like crazy.  I got really excited because we got money from a big rig (18-wheeler) and I got to go to the driver to get it.

When we were done for the day, we ended up with $1,545 FTK.  We played Mafia again and then a game called Shazam (or Shabam, or Shawam - we didn't really remember the name of it).  It's kind of a combination between Catch Phrase and Charades.  Everyone writes down a couple of famous people or characters or people everyone knows, and then they all go in a basket.  You sit across from your partner and you have 30 seconds to get your partner to guess what is on the slips you pull out of the basket.  You keep going around the circle until all of the slips are used.  For the first round, you can use as many words and actions as you want but you can't say anything on the slip.  The second round you can only say one word then you have to act it out, and the third round you can't say anything.  It is very amusing to see what come up.

After the game, some people went in the hot tub and/or watched a movie, but I was really tired and not feeling too good, so I went and fell asleep in Brandi's bed.  A while later, we were ready to go to Brandi's grandma's house for the night so she came and woke me up and we went over.  We took the same way as Friday night, but the hill was clear this time so there were no problems.  The second I hit my pillow, I was out.

Today, all of the FACErs went out canning again.  I stayed at Brandi's house with her family because I don't want to get any sicker than I already am.  I played Rock Band for an hour or so with her brothers.  When they came back, we counted the money and ended up with a grand total for the weekend of $2,002.  FACE reached their goal of $10,000 for the year and has now set a new goal of $12,000.  I think they'll make it because we still have another canning weekend left and THONvelopes are still being returned.  FACE then sang some song from Brandi's family then we left and everyone else went back to school.

I had a wonderful weekend and was really happy I got to see my friends.  In a few weeks I will be going up to school for the weekend and can't wait to see them again.

WEP Wed

So today at work I actually finished most of my first project (at least the part I can do).  We sat down and discussed our options for the valve and decided on only replacing the handle which is a lot cheaper and easier.  We then ordered it and are working on expediting the shipping.  The MOC was also fairly painless because it was a paper version not a computer version.

As I'm writing this, I'm skyping into the WEP Wednesday meeting up at school.  It's awesome, I just wish Emily's video was working.

"Sit Tight"

Work has begun to pick up.  I now have 4 projects and feel like I am making progress on all of them. 

1. Valve Project - last week was just a bunch of waiting for responses.  One of the reps kept giving me a quote for a valve that would work perfectly if not for one thing and each time he changed it, he left something else out.  It wouldn't be so bad if the last one he gave me was the exact valve we have on there now - same part number and everything.  This afternoon I finally received quotes from the other two reps and will actually be able to sit down with someone tomorrow to discuss our options.
2. Drain Project - still waiting for our customer to respond with their ideas
3. Clicker Press - I saw the area where it is supposed to go and now I need to collect samples to test on the existing press
4. Grooving - I'll get to see a current trial in a few days then I'll be able to really get started.  For now I have just been messing around with the statistical software

This past weekend I went home to work and spend time with my family.  I spent all day Saturday working an auction which actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I was exhausted by the time we got home at 4pm.  Sunday I went to Cabela's with my dad, step-mom, and some of her friends.

I'm really excited for this upcoming weekend because I'll get to see some of my friends while canning in Allentown.

Workstation

Week 2 begins.  The day started off slow because I still didn't have a workstation (seems to be a theme here right?).  I ended up cleaning out my GMail inbox and got it from almost 400 messages (16 unread) down to  39 (0 unread) and I can still get rid of most of those.  For those of you who don't know, I'm very OCD about how things are stored on a computer.  I have folders for everything and they are very logical so I can find anything.  Well, my e-mail is similar in the sense that I probably have about 75 labels for different things and I filter most e-mails directly to those labels.  I got a little lazy this semester and didn't filter everything, but now all I have to do is go through those labels and get rid of e-mails I don't need anymore.

After lunch my workstation finally came!!!!!  Surprisingly I only had about 25 e-mails to deal with.  It was nice an easy.  I then wanted to download Communicator (the Dow version of Instant Messenger).  I tried to find it, but couldn't so I search the Dow Intranet files for help.  Those help files didn't help at all so I ended up opening a ticket with the eGSD (electronic Global Service Desk).  I find it is easier to "chat" online with them than it is to talk to them over the phone.  So I'm chatting with someone and he/she (I'm not sure) takes remote control of my computer and tries to get it to download.  I took note of how to find this for future reference.  After about half an hour of trying, the person I am chatting with thinks he/she has figured it out and asks me to restart my computer to complete the installation.  Well, it didn't work and instead of trying to deal with the eGSD again, I tried it myself and it worked this time.  I restarted my computer and was on my way to communicating.  I later used this information to help my friend Rob (a co-op in Midland, MI)  download it onto his workstation.

Around 4:00 I received a chat via Communicator from the eGSD person asking me if I was successful at downloading Communicator.  He/she was excited/surprised when I said that I had been successful.  Remember, he/she contacted me via Communicator to see if it had downloaded correctly.  If it hadn't downloaded correctly, would I be available for chatting on Communicator?

After work I ventured to the post office to pick up my mailbox keys.  If you want my address, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.  When I got home I had a Skype dinner date with my friend Katie then I did some workouts to reach my fitness goal for Bella.  I feel like today was very productive.

Friday!!!

It's finally Friday!!!!!  I survived my first week!  The past two days haven't been too interesting.  Still no workstation, but I have become quite good at Solitaire and I have read 280 pages of a 410 page textbook on some statistical analysis that I don't think I could explain if I wanted to.

Anyway, my friend Katie told me I should do a little video tour of my apartment instead of pictures so here it is.

Accomplishing Things

Slowly but surely I'm becoming a real member of the team.  Today was even better because I feel like I have accomplished something work wise.  I still don't have a workstation, but I have started using my PSU e-mail as a work e-mail for now just so I can actually do something.  Someone still needs to log me onto the internet, but once I'm on I can keep the browser window open and not lose the connection even if my computer goes to sleep.

Today I was able to go onto the floor with the Ops Leader (I think) of the area and define the scope (details) of my first project.  We got a part number off of the current valve so I could look it up and see what I am trying to work with.  I called a few suppliers and gave them the info I had so they could search through their products and see if they had something that would work.

This afternoon I sat down with Andy and we went over my "start of work" checklist to see what there was still left to do.  Most of the stuff is scheduled or we are waiting on it.  He then gave me a binder about the process of improving/designing something in the plant and a textbook that I can read to learn about the theory behind what process engineers do.  It will be so "light" reading for the rest of this week when Andy is out and I don't have much work to do.  The next two days I'll probably be seeing some of the projects and tests that my two cube-mates are working on just so I'm not sitting at my desk bored out of my mind.

I also asked today about working a flex work schedule and about spring break time off.  Starting next week I will be working 9 hours M-R and a half day Friday.  I will also be able to take off a week for spring break so I can do things with friends.

Projects

Today got better throughout the day.  I arrived at work at 8 and was told I needed to report to the HR person immediately when I arrived.  Well, she doesn't get in until 9/9:15 and neglected to inform us of that so I spend the first hour sitting around and walking back and forth between her office and mine.  I then went to a meeting with the leaders from one of the manufacturing area and got my first and second project.  Unfortunately, I still don't have a computer so I can't do much work or contact anyone.

Just before lunch, Andy came over and told me I could use my laptop and do some searching for valves for my project.  He walked away and I discovered that I couldn't get online even though he said I should be able to.  Since he goes home for lunch and had a meeting immediately after, I took the opportunity to re-organize/clean up/delete stuff off of my computer.  Around 1 he came over and we called some tech person to find out how to get me online with my laptop.  The only way was to reset my password by calling the global service desk (GSD) and in the meantime someone else could log me on with their id.  Andy logged me on and I actually accomplished a lot and learned a lot about valves.  I have a meeting with someone tomorrow morning to go over what I found.

I went to another meeting this afternoon that was similar to this morning's but with a different area.  I think I understand the procedure of submitting innovations better than the people who were the reason the system was created.  I didn't get any more projects out of this meeting though.  I went back to my desk and kept doing some searching and learning about valves and P&IDs.  Around 4 I decided I should call the GSD and reset my password.  It was a good thing I waited until then because it still wasn't letting me on even after the reset and when they had me restart my computer I couldn't log back onto the internet.  I don't think they understood that I was on my personal laptop not my workstation even though I tried to explain it ten times.  Anyway, I sat there and played Solitare for the last 15 minutes until I could leave.

I definitely think this is going to be a good rotation.  It's only my second day, I don't have my computer yet, and I'm already on my way to submitting a Change Request and MOC for one of my projects.  Definitely a lot better than my last rotation.

First Day in DE

So the first day of work went fairly well.  Because my supervisor (Andy) didn't find out until Tuesday that I was starting today, I didn't have a computer or phone or anything.  He started by showing me my cube and introducing me to the process improvement engineers I would be working with as well as the design engineers I will have the opportunity to work with too.  There is a meeting of everyone in Andy's group tomorrow or Wednesday where they will go over all of the current projects that need to be assigned.  There is a list of 97 improvement and a lot of design projects and I'll be able to pick what I want to work on based on my interests.

Because there was nothing for me to do, I went to Andy's meetings with him.  The first one was a little awkward because it was the site leader and two other managers and me talking about some project that I knew nothing about.  The second was a little better because a few more people were involved and they were all involving me/joking around with me.

We went to TGIFridays for lunch and then we had some time to kill before the second meeting so he drove me around Newark and University of Delaware so I could find my way a little better.

The rest of the afternoon was a tour of part of the plant.  The manufacturing process is spread out among a few buildings in an industrial park so I only got to see some of it, but it was all pretty cool.  For being a chemical company, this plant is dominated by Mechanical Engineers as far as engineering employees goes.

I'm really excited for the rest of this rotation.  I think it will be a good one.

Delaware

Might as well start updating this again now that I'm on co-op and not at school.

This semester I'm working for Dow Chemcial in Newark, DE.  I'm only about an hour from home so it's not too bad.  It's also not in the middle of nowhere.

Because of New Years Day, I couldn't move in until today (Sunday).  My mom and I left this morning and decided to try out the GPS my step-dad got for Christmas.  My mom was leading and I was following.  So we go to get off 95 in Delaware and she misses the exit.  Later I found out that she didn't think I had made it back into the exit lane in time after I had to get out of the way for a merge.  So, there is a rest stop coming up where we can turn around but it's 1/2 mile away so we cut across 4 lanes of traffic to turn around.  We then get back onto 95 and there's a lot more traffic going this way and we only have 1/4 mile to get over 4 lanes before the exit.  That didn't happen.  Let me add that this whole time I can't see behind me using my side mirrors because they were all fogged up due to the rain somehow.  My mom decided to let the GPS guide us now and we eventually made it to my apartment complex. 

We brought everything in and decided to go get groceries and find where I'm going to work.  We end up at a Safeway Grocery Store and it was closing so they didn't really have much but they did have Stickies from the Diner in State College.  Of course we got a box!  After this failure of a shopping trip we decided to find where I'll be working.  After a few wrong turns and ending up at the University of Delaware (it's only a few minutes up the road), we found it hidden back in an industrial park.  We then found a better grocery store and went back to my apartment.  I'll post pictures of my apartment in a few days, but it's HUGE and I have it all to myself!!!

Work starts tomorrow.  I'm thinking this week is going to be fairly slow because my supervisor didn't find out until Tuesday that I was starting tomorrow and he, along with most of the plant, was off last week.  My supervisor said that I may not have a computer or phone for the first few days, but I do have an office area set up for me and I'll be able to do some plant tours while I don't have anything else to do.  He also said the team has a lot of projects to work on so we'll have time to sit down and figure out what I really want to work on.  I am going to be a member of the Process Improvement team so I'll actually be doing engineering stuff and I'm really excited for it!