What Do I Do? Factory Job

My dad asked me a question recently. 

"Chick, what is it, exactly, that you do?". 

This was in reference to my new job, which I'm still settling in to and figuring out, so I couldn't give him a proper answer right then and there. But it did get me thinking about what I did in my previous job...

When I was in varsity, my folks asked me a similar question:

"Chick, your degree is a very good degree, but once you're

finished studying, what, exactly, will you be able to do with it?"

There is pretty much no straight answer to these questions. As students we were told by our unforgettable Maths lecturer that as engineers, we are taught to think and solve problems.* I think that sums up pretty well, what engineers do. But it's also incredibly broad and still leaves you with no idea of what I would do on a daily basis. 

So, in a nutshell, here are some of the things I did in my previous job:

• Learnt something new most every day
• Helped to look after and maintain the software that controlled our factory operations
• Debugged code (and either fixed it myself or got others to fix it for me) when it was causing issues in factory operations, for example when:
• Valves stayed open/closed and tanks overfilled/didn't fill up - incorrect mass set points in the code
• A software sequence was stuck on a step - it was waiting for another sequence to end so it could use the same device
• Helped process engineers to optimise code by testing and monitoring proposed sequence changes with them and noting if it was physically possible or not
• Co-ordinated weekly maintenance planning meetings and followed up on planned maintenance activities carried out by the artisans
• Tracked breakdowns that occurred in the plant and put together action plans to improve the ICE (instrumentation, control and electrical) issues
• Attended project meetings
• Got called out a lot, in the middle of the night, when my team were battling to solve a software related issue or troubleshoot on the code (definitely the worst part of the job!)
• Worked on stabilising our control systems by facilitating the upgrading of our servers, sorting out licences and ensuring future projects took the control systems into account
• Helped to co-ordinate a supply chain graduate induction program in my second year (not exactly engineering, but such fun!)
• Maintained and kept track of any software change requests that needed to be sent to our 3rd party software guys
• Helped to commission some projects

This device is one of many that I had to learn to troubleshoot
on at the factory

The key is learning how to interpret the
error messages (and knowing when it's
time to replace the entire unit!)

It was a pretty stressful job, but I learnt so much from it and got to work with the most incredible team. This is just one of many types of jobs that engineers end up in. My current job will be very different from this and once I get my teeth into some proper work, I'll update you on what else an engineer does!

So, now, I hope that you have a better understanding on possible jobs that an engineer can be involved in. 

And, if you're an engineer, what does your day-to-day job involve?

*He also told us that the only three things you need to remember in life are:

1. Your wife's name. 

2. Your wife's phone number. 

3. Where you left your car keys.

And the rest of the things can be worked out if you think about them carefully enough. 

(This is difficult if you're a straight female...but I think it illustrated his point quite well:) ) 

Workplace Heros

I started writing this ages ago and found it when I was scrolling through drafts of posts - enjoy!

At my factory our jobs are hard. We're the factory that the whole business has been complaining about, week after week, for months. They 
forget that we've just completed major project, and have more projects coming, that will require us to somehow keep the factory running at full production even though we're changing major aspects of the factory.

Among the people in my team, there are those who stand out to me as workplace heroes. They are the guys who get called in at all times of the day and night to fix something that isn't theirs to fix. The guys who are in the top 10 of my favourite dialled list, just because I know that if I call them, they will be able to give me advice and help me out. The guys who have smiles on their faces whether it's 2am or 2pm. 

They somehow manage to still be interested and crack jokes with you after a frustrating session of problem solving and they're the guys who never stop learning and asking questions.

These guys are the ones who keep our factories running under hugely stressful work conditions. They're the ones who get by on minimal sleep because everyone else calls them when they have an issue. The ones who get called when people don't know what to do next. The guys who somehow still manage to be patient when explaining something they've explained a thousand times before, to a fresh-faced university graduate with no idea what's potting.

They're the guys you want on your team when you're faced with a problem that you have no idea how to fix.

I've now left this team behind and saying goodbye to these guys was something that I was not looking forward to. At the start I wasn't sure how I would fit into the team. When I left - one of them told me that when you work in this team, you become like family. This post is for those guys in my factory maintenance family - I learnt so much from all of you and am honoured to have worked side by side with you!

American Fudge Brownies - Recipe

So, the side-effect of leaving for Cape Town last week was that I got to visit my boyfriend and all I had to do was present at a GirlEng workshop (which, for a free flight, was completely worth it!)

And since I'm a good girlfriend and like to bake, I made him some DELISH chocolate brownies. And since I was in the creative mood, I took some pics so that you could see how to make chocolate brownies too (and this is probably the best chocolate brownie recipe in the whole WORLD!)

SO, the recipe for American Fudge Brownies (or just plain old Choc Brownies, if you prefer) goes something like this:

Ingredients:

250 g margarine (lucky for me it's free!)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
8 T cocoa
1 cup flour
salt
*you can also add some chopped up nuts

Method:
1. Melt the marge so it's soft (it doesn't have to be completely runny, just soft)

2. Cream the marge and sugar

3. Add the eggs and vanilla to the creamed mix and mix it some more, until all the eggs and vanilla is mixed in

4. Sift the flour, cocoa and salt (see below, it looks really pretty when you sift them together like I did!)

5. Slowly add the sifted ingredients (otherwise you just make a mess of flour/cocoa everywhere) to the creamed ingredients so that you end up with a mixture looking kind of like the image below

7. Put the mixture into a roasting pan (think mine was about a 12x30 cm roasting pan)

8. Bake up 180 degrees C for about half an hour (this is very dependant on oven type!)

9. When you take the brownies out, don't worry if it seems a little bit liquid (but if it's a lot liquid, leave in the oven for a while longer).

10. Let the brownies cool. Once they've cooled, cut them up and sprinkle icing sugar over the top (if you have some lying around) for an extra bit of yum.

And there you have it. Easy, yummy chocolate brownies!

Margarine 101

So, as I briefly mentioned in my About Me page, I work at a factory. On my site there are a number of different factories producing a number of different products, but at my factory we produce margarine. Of all the exciting factories I could have been allocated to, I was allocated to the margarine factory.

As you can imagine, I (a dedicated butter eater) had been allocated to work at a margarine factory. In the maintenance department. No other females in my office. It was TOUGH. I mean, really tough. For the first 6 months I was not a happy person. I missed Frosty. After spending almost 3 years together seeing each other every day I had to go months weeks without seeing him. I had no clue what I was meant to be doing. I was just dropped in the deep end and left to figure out where I fit in to the department.

After about 6 months, I finally started to get into my groove. I started helping the guys in the ICE (instrumentation, control and electrical) team troubleshoot and solve maintenance issues with the software that controls the processes in our plant. I've now been driving software and ICE in the maintenance department and we are slowly seeing improvements. Yesterday there was an issue similar to one we encountered a few months ago. A few months ago it took us a WHOLE WEEKEND to solve this problem. Yesterday, once we identified the problem, it took us about 2 hours. Middle of the night call outs (for me at any rate) are decreasing. We're starting to see the light!

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering how marge gets made. More importantly, I'm sure you're all sitting there thinking 

          "Finally, someone who can answer me this age old question! Is
           margarine black at any stage of the process?"

You'll be surprised to discover that NO at no stage in our process is margarine BLACK!

Let me explain to you the basic process of margarine making (without giving away any secrets), and then you can decide for yourself if you believe me or not.

Recipe for Marge

Ingredients

Oil (mainly sunflower, can add other types of oil too)

Water
Brine
Milk Whey
Minor ingredients

Method

1. Refine the oil, add a few secret ingredients and store it in a big tank (Oil Tank).
2. Mix together the water, brine, milk whey and minor ingredients and store in another big tank (Aqeous Phase Tank).
3. Mix oil and aqueous phase together in desired fat percentage (lets say 50-50, to make life easy) and store in another big tank.
4. Pass the oil through a series of heating units (heat exchangers) and chilling units (Margarine Processing Units). The temperatures are essential for the correct formation and breakage of crystals and need to be controlled to varying degrees of precision - ask your nearest marge processing engineer what these temperatures are.
5. Once the marge has got the correct consistency, pack it either into tubs (for the lower fat % marge) or bricks (for the higher fat % marge).
6. After packing the marge, store it in a cool place to allow final crystal formation for a few days.

And there you have it, folks. Marge 101. And I'm sure you'll agree with me, it's impossible for oil and water mixed together to turn black.