Visit to GSK

20 Nov

  Just like the visits to other manufacturing plants, I am stunned at the types of products GSK produces. Actually, in our daily lives, we are always in contact with GSK products. Some examples are Horlicks and Ribena, quite surprising… As GSK belongs to a biomedical industry, I like their vision where GSK tries to improve lives and made us feel better.

  Firstly, they brought us on a plant tour to the labs and production buildings. The equipment they have in the labs been magnificent such as the chromatography equipments, isolators and dryers. The equipment serves its own purpose in the production of products. I was indeed shocked when the engineer told us that a bag of respiratory drugs could save a whole lot of patients, in fact the number rose to around 500000 patients. Therefore, the products made by GSK is very important in our daily lives as the drugs they produce could save many lives in the future and nobody knows, maybe a disease would have its cure in the future.

  The production building well, was extremely amazing, with all the large scale equipment, such as the kiloscale. We took a little small peek at the ingredients that they are mixing in the plant. There is only one word that I can use to describe, “Impressive”. I also learnt that we are not allowed to bring our electronic devices into the plant as it may just ignite the place and we will not survive. As a result, all the electronic devices in the plant have to be explosion proof so that the plant will not catch fire due to the electronic devices.

   Overall, I enjoyed myself during the visit to the manufacturing plants where I get to see their operations and processes in making the active ingredient. I am certainly inspired by this and hope that I will get more opportunities to come into contact with the manufacturing plants again in the future.

Visit to LifeTech

19 Nov

I have never really heard of LifeTech before the visit but I was curious to know more about LifeTech. So we began the day with an introduction to the company and the operations they have in Singapore. After a brief overview on their motto and their operations, we were given opportunities to explore the verification and validation lab where all the cool machines come into place like the core time PCR and the real time PCR.

  Well, all the biology can be applied in here. The DNA can be replicated easily by using a PCR machine. At 95 degrees Celsius, the separation of the DNA is carried out, where the double helix bonds were broken. At 60 degrees Celsius, annealing and amplification is being carried out. As a result, the DNA is being replicated and can be put into good use in forensic labs where they work with DNA related cases. Thus, through the visit to LifeTech, I can see what is useful of the PCR in daily lives as it has a part to play in finding out the criminals. Besides that, I also enjoyed the talk given by the station masters where we had fun with using the multi pipette in designing our wells and plates.

  In another session, we learnt more about product development where we used the ideas that we brainstormed on the workshop by Qioptiq. I learnt from the product development talk that both the component engineers and the system engineers have to work together to come up with a perfect product. Firstly, the customer requirements have to be verified first before the component engineers can piece the component together so that the engineers that are in charge of the systems of the products can ensure that the product is perfect.

  After that, we went through a sharing by the senior engineers and officers where they shared with us their career paths and experiences. I enjoyed this part the most as the engineers are extremely humorous and I also learnt a lot from them such as the different departments they work in. Also, they answered our questions in a very detailed way, and hence I enjoyed this part the most and I learnt a lot of career experiences as an engineer the most during the sharing. Also, I find this very educational and I learnt how to interact with the workers in the industry in the future.

  As a whole, I feel that the time spent in LifeTech was worthwhile. Even though the visit was whole day long, but I did not feel tired at all after the sessions.

Visit to 3M

16 Nov

This is probably one of the popular companies that we come into contact with in our daily lives. However, I was actually stunned when a question of the company’s full name was being asked. Therefore, there is still a lot of information on the company that we do not actually know. After some research, I found that 3M was known as Minnesota mining and manufacturing company in the past.

  Besides that, I used to think that 3M only produces post it notes and a few other products such as hooks and car wash items. However, to my surprise, when I was on the visit to the factory, I was indeed shocked at the number of products they produce. 55000 is the number. Through the visit, we also learnt about the company’s operations and the process whereby how they produce their products. Perhaps, some chemistry was being used along the way when they developed the products.

  One of the facilities that I was amazed by during my visit to 3M is the clean room. According to the operations manager, the number of dust particles in the clean room is 1000 per metre cube. That is amazingly clean. Also, to ensure that the products are not damaged by the UV light rays, the company has a special lighting which is of orange colour to ensure that no UV light rays are present in the room.

  The operations of 3M worldwide were very organized where there were several areas specialized in research and development while others are responsible for the manufacturing work. The place where I enjoyed the most is the plant tour where we were able to see the products that 3M made over the past few decades, and especially some products that we did not think of before such as library systems, plasters, polarizing light. The three hours spent on the manufacturing plant visit were worthwhile as I am able to learn several new skills, get exposed to new areas in the industry.

Qioptiq workshop

15 Nov

  The first question that I had in mind when I come into contact with this company was what does Qioptiq stands for and what does it do or manufacture. After some thorough research, I find out that this company design and manufacture photonics products and solutions for different purposes, for instance such as industrial uses, defense purposes and also communications.

  Well, all this requires physics and physics is one of my weakest sciences. I thought that I would not have much interest in this after all but it turns out to be the other way round. I really enjoyed the workshop by Qioptiq and especially the humorous speaker, Mr Ronian Siew, he really made the whole workshop lively and enjoyable. The session lasted for about 3 hours and the time spent there was worthwhile.

  I enjoyed the part where we work together as a team to come up with a dental imaging product. In this process, all our minds are working together as a team to produce a product that is able to be applied in real life. Some of the sciences that are involved are lenses in physics.

  Therefore, from this workshop and lecture, I have many takeaways that are not really possible in our daily school lives. I learnt the correct way to brainstorm for more creative ideas, work as a team and come up with a product. However, I have to admit that the process of coming up with a product is extremely challenging. We have to put ourselves in the engineers’ shoes and come up with a product that will solve the customers’ requirements and yet at the same time, cheap and portable such as the dental imaging system. Through this workshop, I learnt a lot and enjoyed as much. This experience is really valuable and will be clearly etched in my mind.