What I took home from 3M was: Research research innovation innovation. This is so important for the today society, where companies keep producing new items, creating the demand. Someone said (I forgot who) that: Manufacturing and advertisements are the twin cylinders that keep the economy going. Therefore, in todays society, there is a need to create, be it necessary or unncessary. 3M is already on top of that, dedicating so much resources on Research and Development, but would this effort necessarily pay off?
As standard protocol, we were led to the auditorium and given an introduction on 3M. There was heavy emphasise on innovation. Create. Design. New. These are the keywords that linger in the minds of people. These are the ideas that companies prey on in order to secure their profits. In profit-making enterprises, it is extremely important that innovation takes on a huge role in raking in cash. As how to company had put it, Innovation is the knowledge that is used to create money. Another attractive feature of the company in order to keep their talents is that employees are able to switch between jobs inside 3M. As incredulous as it sounds (some may have the impression that if one changes field, his efficiency would be drasically reduced) , it is justified that such talents should remain in the company and contribute whenever he can, whatever he can. Also, 3M believes that when professionals enter new fields, they bring in more knowledge which he would be able to build on and making products or the manufacturing process more effective and efficient.
Safety is a prime consideration in 3M. Every nook and crany is filled with a barrage of safety procedures, including donning protection gears and taking an extra effort (to walk through the door beside the gate, just to open/close it) in order to make the process a foolproof process. Nothing is left to chance. There is also a waste water treatment room which ensures that 3M's processes do not affect the environment significantly. It takes extra caution is make sure that their waste is disposed at the safest level. They also review past problems that seem to be alright and double/triple check that their sewage are fit for disposal.
Innovation. 3M obviously practise that they preach. By setting up suggestion boxes as well as rewards, it motivates the workers to come up with new ideas to overcome problems and make improments. The most memorable innovation technique that I saw was the slanting top portion of the lockers, making sure that workers would not forget their things if they left it on top of the lockers since it would slide down. It prevents mishaps from happening as well as saving many trouble should there be items such as food attracting pest and insects. Also, the Kaiser Room also provide employees to exercise their creativity as well as making full use of their ingenuity to come up with ground-breaking new ideas to better the themselves and the company. With such plans put in place, there is no doubt that 3M would be able to excel.
Practical knowledge I learn in school
The sampling process. It requires maths to calculate the the minimum requirement to check if a batch of products are working. Without these statistics, over-checking or under-checking may undermine the effectiveness and efficiciency of the workers, which would be detrimental to a huge company such as 3M.
Business methods were also highlighted, such as the concept of earning through aquisition. I believe that it is a more fancy way of saying taking out the competition as well as enriching oneself! But in a profit-making organisation, it is crucial for continued market growth.
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