Technical Assistance Program

Last night I traveled to the Carlos Avery DNR building for a meeting of the chapter of Master Naturalists. Our talk tonight was led by a guy who works at MN TAP - the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program. This is an organization of the state but run through the University of Minnesota. Their goal is to help businesses become more efficient by reducing the use of water, energy and waste which will also save money. MN TAP has a summer intern program. Each intern works with a company for three months. The intern delves into the business looking for ways to improve efficiency. Our speaker gave us examples from the food industry. A business that canned peas kept finding peas on the floor at the end of the day. A couple of strategically placed steel plates kept the good peas from reaching the floor. A business that made cheese kept finding cheese curds on the floor. Redesigning the conveyor belt helped that problem. A business that produced beef jerky had a pile of spices on the floor next to the conveyor. Turns out the spice dispensing arm was six inches too long. Cutting off the extra six inches and welding the end shut ended that waste. In many places, including the one where I work, we do things because we have always done it that way. It takes a fresh look by a college student to really analyze the situation and come up with a better plan. One intern looked at the Science Museum of Minnesota. They found the sprinkler system in the grounds were over watering the grass. Re-calibrating the computer that ran the sprinkler system was a fairly cheap way to save a lot of money and the waste of good water. They are still looking at ways to save the water from the roof run-off and using that gray water to flush the toilets at the museum. Once in a while an intern will come to a company and not find very much at all that needs improvement but that is a small percentage. Most of the interns are in the engineering field but some are environmental science students or business students. MN TAP has many applicants who want to be interns. They also have many businesses who want an intern. I learned a lot last night. I had one of those situation where I learned some but also learned there is more to learn than I knew before.