Lauren Bracken Summer Update
7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Synchronized Skating
July 1, 2011
I knew this summer was going to be a little different than normal for me. This past fall I attended the Career Fair at Miami not really knowing what to expect. As a chemical engineering major with a paper science concentration, I talked to various companies about their available opportunities. After all the interviews and paperwork, I decided to accept an offer from Sonoco Products Company. Not only did the company seem like a great fit, but I was also offered a job in City of Industry, California, which is about two hours from my hometown of San Diego.
As soon as I got home from school, I started preparing to start work the next week, which included buying steel toe boots! I arrived on the first day excited to start this new adventure. I met the management team and many other workers whom I would be working closely with throughout the summer and was even shown to my very own office! Learning the safety procedures and watching safety videos filled up most of the first few days, indicating just how important the safety concerns are in the manufacturing industry setting.
 Materials for recycling.  | |
At the mill, recycled paperboard is the final product produced. The paper machine runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To create the product, Sonoco buys recycled cardboard boxes, newspaper, mixed paper and tubes from both vendors and local customers. These resources are essentially ground up, run through multiple cleaners and refiners and used to make brand new sheets of paper.
The difficulty in this process lies within the variability of the materials that are coming into the mill every day. Each truckload, though it may appear to look similar, is always different. In hopes of reducing some variability, my first project is to create a computer database that will catalog all the many types of materials coming to the plant every day, or hour for that matter. I am able to track the resources coming in from different vendors and companies, which allows for easier material identification for the employees.
The second project that I am completing focuses on a chemical optimization process. For this, I am looking to determine if the correct amounts of certain chemicals are being utilized in the production process. To accomplish this, data must be collected frequently from a variety of different variables that directly affect the paper production. Close quality and production analysis will lead to determining the optimal chemical amount that is the most cost effective for the plant.
Every day at the mill is a completely new day. I work on both projects each day, but there is always something new going on in regards to maintaining the machine or product production. Sometimes unforeseen leaks or paper breaks can occur and then the main focus is how to correctly solve the issue in the most time efficient manner. I love being able to see the physical application of the material and theories that we learn in class.
 Paper reels are the final product of the recycling | |
I wish I could say that maintaining a full-time job and training go hand in hand, but I'm sure few have found that to be the case. Luckily, early morning skating sessions are available and I usually head to the rink to skate before getting to the office at 7 a.m. I head back for weights in the afternoon. It can be a challenging and hectic schedule, but it also proves one of the countless beauties of being a varsity student-athlete. At school and home, on and off the ice, not only are we training to be the best at our sport, but also for all our future life careers and endeavors.
I have learned an unbelievable amount after only six weeks here at Sonoco. I have met so many incredible people and industry contacts already, from people at my office, to other plants within Sonoco. (I found out I'm known as "the ice skater from Miami".) I've even given a presentation for the VP! I am very excited to continue working this summer and to make further progress on my projects. It is such a great opportunity and experience and I cannot wait to see what comes next!
(Throughout the summer a few of the Miami University synchronized skaters will be updating MURedHawks.com with what they are doing and where they are traveling.)
