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Factory/Plant Tours - Where Would You Go?
kingelvis asks: "I have been thinking of putting together a road trip with a theme - Traveling to factories, manufacturing plants, etc all over the country and taking their (free) tours. I've already thought of a few places; Boeing, Auto factories in Detriot, Ben & Jerry's, Jack Daniel's distillery, and so forth. I'm interested in everything from 747s to bottled water, so please respond with any public tour you can think of. Where are some cool places you'd recommend visiting to see how stuff gets made? "
If you're passing by St. Louis, don't miss the free Anheuser-Busch brewery tour. St. Louis is the headquarters and has the oldest, largest brewery, but they have breweries that give tours around the country. For more info check out their website. Best part of going on the tour - free beer at the end.
All Corvettes are made at the GM plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The plant tour is free and very cool. And the Corvette Museum is right next door. Be aware that the tour schedule can change with holidays and special events so you might want to call ahead. I have never (yet) done it, but I have heard that one option on buying a new Corvette is to take delivery at the plant or maybe the museum, I forget the details.
All of the Ben & Jerry's factories are in Vermont. Personally, I've been on the tour at the factory in Springfield several times so I'll discuss that. You start out with a little multimedia presentation and then walk through some elevated paths above the work floor. After that you go and get free samples of whatever two flavors of ice cream that where produced the previous day.
Its a little more than my brief description, but it has always been fun. It'd probably be better to go during the summer so you can lounge around and enjoy a cone on the deck outside the factory.
Overall, its a nice cheap way to waste an afternoon if you're in the area. Although they're not factories, you'd probably want to visit some local agrarian type places like a farm, fruit orchard or (maple) sugar house.
More info can be found here.
I would highly recommend a book called "Watch It Made in the U.S.A.". I don't have the latest edition, but the previous edition has a lot of great detailed information (cost, freebies given, hours, nearby attractions, etc) for all kinds of tours.
Also, the Travel Channel's website has a list of the Best Factory Tours for Kids in the U.S. in case you want to act like a kid.
Another fun idea would be to visit a prototyping plant. Often these have more secrecy than production plants, but IMHO the prototyping plants are more interesting. There are large stereography machines that are basically gigantic 3D printers. You'll find large devices that drag tiny needles all over a surface, recording dimensions. The prototyping plant I worked at had the largest wood workshop that I've ever seen. They designed prototype airintake manifolds, and castings often start out as a wooden model. Other parts of the plant included huge CNC lathes that you could park a car under and a various injection molding tools/dies/machines. They also had a blow-form machine that would take tiny little plastic slugs and inflate them into water containers, 2Liter soda bottles, anything.
Tours of manufacturing plants are definietly cool.
Keeping
Any power plant. I'm not sure how much you'd see on a tour, but there's some neat tech in these. (My dad works at one so I've seen everything there is...) It's mostly 'low' tech, other than things like control systems. But the scale and the amount of power going through is neat.
NORAD in Colorado Springs, CO or Offutt AFB in Omaha, NE. Norad has some neato tech, and the 'building' is way cool. Offutt AFB has a bit more modern tech (I used to work there, maybe I'm biased), but is basicly the same thing. Both are very high security, so call in advance (at least a couple weeks, maybe a month) so they can do a background check. But it's worth it to see the coolest vax clusters on the planet. (You won't get to actually see them, just the output, but it's still cool. Again, maybe I'm biased, they were my babies for several years) The SAC museum is in Omaha too if you like bombers and stuff.
Any type of steel or metalurgical plant. Those places boggle my mind. (usually located near power plants for cheap electric, at least around my home town)
Chemical plants. Not sure what the security is like near these but it's neet to see how stuff is all heated and mixed together to produce whatever it is they're making. I've been to chevron, dow, and dupont plants (all near my home town also - they call the mid ohio valley, 'chemical valley' for a reason). I'm suprised I don't have an extra limb or something.
Maybe I'm a geek, but I'd like to see some microchips getting made and some surface mount boards getting assembled.
Anyplace that uses robotics is cool. My uncle gave me a tour of the biotech company he built the robots for. If you can get the tour guide or the geeky looking guy standing around at the factory to explain some of details of the tech, do it. I had no idea how far robots had come.
Think about something a little more old fashoned. A hand made wood working shop, a metal shop. Then work your way up to more modern things like windows, and lumber mills.
Get your Laverne and Shirley on at a brewery. Hit someplace that makes snack food or candy. From watching shows on food tv I've noticed they seem alot like chemical plants...
Hmm I'm hungry now. Have a good trip tho.