Not boxing as in Joe Frasier and Ali...but as in taking precut cardboard and folding in into boxes ready to be used to pack veggies in.
Got to work, clocked in at 4, and the 2nd shift supervisor sent me to line 4 to cut corn. I was on the line for maybe 10 minutes when the 1st shift production leader came and called me off the line. He motioned me to follow him...so I did...into the back part of the plant. We get to where we were going and there stood Gerardo, a guy on my shift. Adolpho, the 1st shift production leader, tells me that he needed two trustworthy and reliable workers to fold boxes....he picked Gerardo since Gerardo is one heck of a worker.....and Gerardo told Adolpho to get me as I was the best worker on 2nd shift (Gerardo is on loan from first shift for a while). Adolpho told us that the department needed 1200 boxes for the next three days worth of broccoli production and asked us to get as many boxes done as we could...he said that if we could get 5 to 6 hundred boxes folded and ready he would be happy with our day's work.
Well....Gerardo and I tore into the task of preparing boxes. The two of us...in 7 1/2 hours....produced between 1500 and 1600 boxes. That consisted of folding the precut box forms into completed boxes, stacking the boxes on pallets (4 per layer, 17 layers high), taping the pallets so the boxes don't fall off when the tow motors moved them out onto the production floor, and sliding the finished pallets of boxes into nice tidy lines.
At 8 the second shift supervisor came back to see how we were doing....and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw how many we had done at that point. When he came back at 10 and saw what we had done, he was nearly speechless. At midnight when we were cleaning up to end our shift, the supervisor and one of the repair techs came back to see our final production.....the supervisor was totally blown away. Gerardo and I had produced enough boxes for the next three day's worth of broccoli production and a very good start on (if not all of ) the 4th day's production. The supervisor told us that it normally took a crew of 4 or 5 workers to produce that many boxes in a single shift.
My finger tips are numb...have been for hours. My shoulders a burning line a MO FO. I am tired like I have not been for quite some time....but I know that when I lay my head on my pillow here in a few minutes, I will be doing so with a sense of accomplishment and pride that are both well earned.
And I can't wait to see Adolpho tomorrow and see what he has to say.
OBIO
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