Excerpts from an interview with Abhishek Pathak, Foundry Process Engineer | CWC Textron:
What are your day-to-day responsibilities in your current job?
My day-to-day responsibilities can be categorized into three areas. The first is sand system control and analysis, in which I must analyze our current sand system, analyze the data, and suggest improvements for the sand system. My second responsibility is design and simulation. The third responsibility is scrap reduction. For example, I analyze parts that have a higher scrap rate and try to find the root cause and reduce the scrap rate and apply standard methodology to improve the process.
What were the gaps that you faced in solving your first assignment, and what resources did you go to? How did you find out about THORS?
In school, I was exposed to some components in the sand system such as the muller, and the hopper, among others. However, I did not have a total view of the entire sand system. So, I attempted to use books and papers from the internet to supplement my knowledge of this material. Unfortunately, these resources had information in bits and pieces but did not address the system as a whole. I went to my boss and explained that I was looking for help in finding a good learning resource for the sand system. He told me that our organization had recently signed up for THORS and gave me the access information.
After your boss recommended THORS as a resource, how much time did you spend using THORS?
I read the THORS course to learn about the sand system in a holistic way for forty hours in a month. I read and re-read the information to really understand it well.
How did THORS help you quickly learn the intricacies of the sand system and help you solve the challenges you faced?
THORS has a very comprehensive, interactive, and easy to understand explanation of the entire green sand system. The amount of information is simply not found anywhere else. I studied the interactive flowchart in THORS and walked the shop floor and identified all the types of equipment that were described on the flowchart. The combination of THORS virtual learning and hands-on interaction on the shop floor helped me quickly understand the what, why and the how for every aspect of the sand system. The THORS content on the sand testing was simple to comprehend and yet exhaustive in scope. The content helped me understand the data we were measuring and its significance. The case studies in THORS were very useful in understanding and interpreting the trends from my plant’s data and helped me quickly identify areas that could cause problems.
How did THORS affect your learning curve?
"Since I started using THORS as soon as I joined my first job in a foundry, I am not able to estimate how much time I saved. However, I can say with confidence that THORS tremendously accelerated my learning curve – I would estimate, conservatively, by a factor of 3 or more."
Can you measure the value you gained from THORS in terms of job efficiency and efficacy?
THORS has helped me learn quickly and gain confidence, which in turn has helped me create value for my organization. I truly believe that THORS has provided tremendous value to me and the company. It has provided a many-fold investment in terms of my productivity and accelerating the achievement of my goals. If we consider the value created for the rest of the team members in my organization, the value of THORS could be an even greater return.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you recommend this product to a colleague, friend or another foundry employee?
9
Would THORS help other college students? If yes, how?
THORS can help college students in several ways. First, THORS exposes students to different manufacturing industries and processes in a detailed, interactive, easy to understand manner, so they can understand their options and determine what interests them. In addition, THORS can help students learn actual manufacturing concepts and practices even before they join the industry. This will help the student hit the ground running, which is a huge win in productivity for the employer and a great opportunity for the student to grow their confidence and accelerate their career.
