Questionnaire for field trip to a factory
Answers
Presuming you and the industrial company where you will be visiting agree to the above, the following are the questions that one needs to ask during an Industrial visit?
1. Can you take us through the material (manufacturing supply chain from Raw material to dispatch) and information flow (guardians of decision systems that enable the material flow) of the organization?
2. What is Organization structure of the company? Can you give us an understanding of what each function does and what competencies are required in those respective function? (For ex: understanding design department can excite an Industrial engineer to apply Six sigma and quality at design level and can be motivated to take additional courses in design along with IE to work in the design function)
3. What do you when things go wrong in the plant? How do tackle it and who is responsible?
4. What are the different software’s that you use in the company and why?
5. What is the biggest challenge for the factory today? What's the biggest challenge for the functional area today? (For ex: Operations could say that the design team & management has increased the number of varieties that the company manufactures and this has put pressure on the operations to do more with the same resources by efficient utilization and optimization. This is a classic case of understanding how operations is solving this challenge. Are they working to improve their scheduling, are they buying more machines, are they challenging the management etc)
6. If you get to meet the founder or owner of a company, his time is precious and therefore, don't ask him technical questions unless you have more time. The biggest value a person of that high stature can add to someone who has come for an industrial visit is by sharing the story of their journey, the challenges they faced, the life lessons they learnt and most importantly the mistakes they made. The mistakes they made is they key. If you can take those as words of wisdom and avoid those mistakes in your journey, it will go a long way in your career.
Trust this helps you and the larger community as a whole. All the best!
1. What product is manufactured here.
2. Are workers provided safety equipments.
3. Where does Waste materials go.
4. If an fire takes place where are fire extinguishers.
5. Is this factory Certified from the Government.
6. Are the Locality around the factory satisfied with this.