adammil1
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2001
- Location
- New Haven, CT
I thought i would try to start a new thread here like the one on great hardware stores years back which generated lots of great reads where people could post about great manufacturing facilities that they have been thru over the course of their lives/careers.
I have had the privilege of working/visiting a some neat facilities in my career (from large powerplants, to Pratt and Whitney, Sikorsky, Airbus et... )I think the one that was most memorable to me, in terms of size, diversity of work, and overall employee experience was when we were installing a new machine our company made down in Delta's Tech Ops center at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta.
If you have ever flown into Hartsfield airport when you look out your window you will see the most iconic 1960's era neon sign that says "FLY DELTA JETS" From the air the sign doesn't look like much but up close it is an amazingly massive piece of Americana.
The shifts start at 6am at the TechOps which means that this sign greets you fully lit up as you arrive for the day's work. I was told by the guys working at the plant that the thing consumes so much electricity that back around 9/11 when all the airlines were loosing money it needed to be turned off to save money. When the airline returned to profitability they actually held a formal lighting ceremony that was a great source of pride for all the employees. I can only imagine right now the thing has likely been turned off this year.
I have always wondered what it must have been to get a tour of some of the great locomotive builders Alco/Baldwin/Lima etc.. of years past or what it must have felt like to walk thru the PRR's shops at Altoona. The trip to Delta TechOps is probably the closest modern day equivalent one can find.
The facility is enormous and employs over 10,000 people who work their repairing every part of the aircraft. Work ends there around 3:00 or so I think and after we were done for the day one of the plant mechanics who we were working with asked if we wanted a tour of the facility. We walked around the plant for about 3hrs and I am told we still didn't get to see more than about 30% of the facility.
If you ever get the chance to visit the plant mechanic is the guy you want giving you a tour around the facility, these guys are on call whenever one of the various machines, test stands, or any other piece of equipment in that facility goes down so they know the place really well.
They have shop that specializes in repairing every last part that exists on the aircraft. We went thru their machine shops where massive lathes were truing up bearing surfaces on turbines. Thru the hangers with magnificent Boeing 777's in for overhaul.
The shop was locked for the day and we weren't able to get in but the place is so comprehensive in what they can do that they even do hot drop forging of replacement parts onsite. Having never seen hot drop forging in person this was something I really wanted to see but unfortunately we weren't able to get in.
I wish I was able to take pictures of all the different stuff we saw along the way. The heavy engine overhaul was a site to see but what stood out for me was just all the little shops like the one we delivered our equipment to each one with 20-40specilaized test stands each specializing in testing/rebuilding a different part of the airplane. Each of these little shops tended to employ 10-30 dedicated craftsman who each specialized in repairing their little piece of the aircraft. A lot of pride goes into that line of work when you know millions of people's lives each year will depend on the work you do.
I tried searching and I did find this website that had some photos if you would like to see them;
5 Things I’ll Never Forget From Delta’s TechOps Wonderland
The other major thing too that stuck out to me unlike any other facility I have ever been to was the qualty/pride and employee morale. Delta apparently treats their guys very well and most of the people I worked with had been there 20-40yrs.
I had the weekend off while I was down there and visited the Delta museum. Something I thought that was really neat was the airplane the Spirt of Delta. Here's an article I found on it How Delta Employees Bought The Airline A Boeing 767 - Simple Flying. Short part of the story was in 1982 the airline industry hit a massive recession and all the major carriers were laying off employees. Delta pledged to keep everyone on no matter the cost and out of appreciation the employees donated money to buy the company an airplane! I thought it was a pretty neat story and one of the old timers in the shop we were working in proudly told us about how the contribution everyone made was rather significant like ($2000 in today's money) but that they all did it because they felt as though the airline was a part of their family almost. Never in my career have I seen anything like that before.
As a side note I believe Delta is the only airline left in America that does their own maintenance on any large scale. I know United does some work in San Francisco and American does some in Oklahoma but I don't think anyone is on the scale of what Delta does. Most of them just swap parts off the plane and I hear nowadays many of the other airlines even fly their airplanes to China for overhaul and repair.
This thread is not meant to be an advertisement for Delta but after spending about 4weeks working down there with these guys I always go out of my way to fly Delta and recommend them to everyone I talk to. It kind of makes me sad to think how hard of a time those guys must be going thru down there right now with the current state of the airline industry. I hope they can bounce back soon.
So anyhow I am not the best of story tellers here but I hope you may have enjoyed. I am looking forward to hearing what other great facilities people have been thru.
I have had the privilege of working/visiting a some neat facilities in my career (from large powerplants, to Pratt and Whitney, Sikorsky, Airbus et... )I think the one that was most memorable to me, in terms of size, diversity of work, and overall employee experience was when we were installing a new machine our company made down in Delta's Tech Ops center at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta.
If you have ever flown into Hartsfield airport when you look out your window you will see the most iconic 1960's era neon sign that says "FLY DELTA JETS" From the air the sign doesn't look like much but up close it is an amazingly massive piece of Americana.
The shifts start at 6am at the TechOps which means that this sign greets you fully lit up as you arrive for the day's work. I was told by the guys working at the plant that the thing consumes so much electricity that back around 9/11 when all the airlines were loosing money it needed to be turned off to save money. When the airline returned to profitability they actually held a formal lighting ceremony that was a great source of pride for all the employees. I can only imagine right now the thing has likely been turned off this year.
I have always wondered what it must have been to get a tour of some of the great locomotive builders Alco/Baldwin/Lima etc.. of years past or what it must have felt like to walk thru the PRR's shops at Altoona. The trip to Delta TechOps is probably the closest modern day equivalent one can find.
The facility is enormous and employs over 10,000 people who work their repairing every part of the aircraft. Work ends there around 3:00 or so I think and after we were done for the day one of the plant mechanics who we were working with asked if we wanted a tour of the facility. We walked around the plant for about 3hrs and I am told we still didn't get to see more than about 30% of the facility.
If you ever get the chance to visit the plant mechanic is the guy you want giving you a tour around the facility, these guys are on call whenever one of the various machines, test stands, or any other piece of equipment in that facility goes down so they know the place really well.
They have shop that specializes in repairing every last part that exists on the aircraft. We went thru their machine shops where massive lathes were truing up bearing surfaces on turbines. Thru the hangers with magnificent Boeing 777's in for overhaul.
The shop was locked for the day and we weren't able to get in but the place is so comprehensive in what they can do that they even do hot drop forging of replacement parts onsite. Having never seen hot drop forging in person this was something I really wanted to see but unfortunately we weren't able to get in.
I wish I was able to take pictures of all the different stuff we saw along the way. The heavy engine overhaul was a site to see but what stood out for me was just all the little shops like the one we delivered our equipment to each one with 20-40specilaized test stands each specializing in testing/rebuilding a different part of the airplane. Each of these little shops tended to employ 10-30 dedicated craftsman who each specialized in repairing their little piece of the aircraft. A lot of pride goes into that line of work when you know millions of people's lives each year will depend on the work you do.
I tried searching and I did find this website that had some photos if you would like to see them;
5 Things I’ll Never Forget From Delta’s TechOps Wonderland
The other major thing too that stuck out to me unlike any other facility I have ever been to was the qualty/pride and employee morale. Delta apparently treats their guys very well and most of the people I worked with had been there 20-40yrs.
I had the weekend off while I was down there and visited the Delta museum. Something I thought that was really neat was the airplane the Spirt of Delta. Here's an article I found on it How Delta Employees Bought The Airline A Boeing 767 - Simple Flying. Short part of the story was in 1982 the airline industry hit a massive recession and all the major carriers were laying off employees. Delta pledged to keep everyone on no matter the cost and out of appreciation the employees donated money to buy the company an airplane! I thought it was a pretty neat story and one of the old timers in the shop we were working in proudly told us about how the contribution everyone made was rather significant like ($2000 in today's money) but that they all did it because they felt as though the airline was a part of their family almost. Never in my career have I seen anything like that before.
As a side note I believe Delta is the only airline left in America that does their own maintenance on any large scale. I know United does some work in San Francisco and American does some in Oklahoma but I don't think anyone is on the scale of what Delta does. Most of them just swap parts off the plane and I hear nowadays many of the other airlines even fly their airplanes to China for overhaul and repair.
This thread is not meant to be an advertisement for Delta but after spending about 4weeks working down there with these guys I always go out of my way to fly Delta and recommend them to everyone I talk to. It kind of makes me sad to think how hard of a time those guys must be going thru down there right now with the current state of the airline industry. I hope they can bounce back soon.
So anyhow I am not the best of story tellers here but I hope you may have enjoyed. I am looking forward to hearing what other great facilities people have been thru.