Although this was one of our earlier mornings, I was too excited to sleep on the bus. Waking up at 5am seemed easy, with the rest of the busy London-ers this morning. We all shuffled on to the bus where most of us resumed sleeping, but this was my first time out of London, and my first time to get a chance to see a little of the country side. I was in maximum "tourist" mode, taking pictures of the sunrise hitting the green and yellow- flowered hills as the bus sped by. I felt as if I was in a movie seeing farmers getting ready to tend to their sheep in the fields! But nothing could get me more excited then when we finally arrived to our destinations; the Jaguar and Range Rover manufacturing plants.
I had chosen to go to the Jaguar plant because ever since I was younger that was "the" car to have. When I think of Jaguar, I think of power, pride, and speed. Walking into the foyer of the factory was so exciting, being able to see the newest models of the XJ, XF, and XK made me even more ecstatic to be there, and to learn how this ever growing company makes these diamonds in the rough. Even though we had to wear vests and dorky goggles, I couldn't wait to get inside and see the busy shuffle of the factory floor.
At first, I was surprised by how organized it was. In my head I was imagining a huge dark building, with confusing pathways and loud crazy noises. But this plant was so clean, so bright and almost, well simple. The noises were soft hums of machines and cracks of ignited sparks, I just wanted to learn about every process to making these perfected sports cars; which I did. Our tour guide was wonderful, he would stop at every station and explain how each machine and employee worked. He would ask us questions to get our minds thinking, through which I feel we better understood why they did what they did. For example, they use aluminium metal for most of their parts and for the body of the car because it is lighter, and more efficient when it comes to dynamics and speed. And one of my favorite things that I learned about this plant is how the employees communicated. If, for example, the station where tires were being put on needed assistance, the employee would pull a string which would initiate a jingle to play throughout the factory. Each station had their own jingle, so when "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" would echo throughout the plant, someone would know to assist the tire placement station. I thought that was so smart because it is a fun way to communicate with each other in the most efficient and effective way. Which brings me to something else that I learned from visiting this factory, that time management is one of the most crucial aspects of being successful in a business. The Jaguar plant taught me that yes, they do need to get their products finished and sent to the customer (because their customers are usually custom ordered or special requests) as quickly as possible, but they also need to take the time to make sure their product is
perfect. Quality over quantity is one of the motto's they go by, which makes perfect sense to me. If they find that the dimension of a bumper is off even by a centimeter, it will make the rest of the manufacturing process a failure. They take pride in their products, which is why they are gaining more and more demand around the world today. This trip was definitely worth the hour drive at 5 in the morning, and the business techniques concerning the manufacturing of products and appealing to your target market will be useful throughout my life.
Maggie Keane, Class of 2014
