The Cellar - Just for fun

Question: What do you get when you place 80 head of cattle in a 125-acre, Boeing-owned field near the Apache helicopter flight line?
Answer: A lot of chewing the cud; a potential for $12,000 in savings on facility maintenance; and a creative new productivity-improvement process.

It all started when a Boeing-owned former orange grove adjacent to the Rotorcraft Systems facility in Mesa, Ariz., began growing waist-high weeds. The land serves as a natural buffer to preserve the Apache flight corridor.
The Mesa facility hired a company to turn the soil and remove the weeds twice a year. Adding in the cost of a dust-control permit and a water truck to control said dust, the bill totaled $12,000 annually.

An opportunity to save the site this cost arose a few weeks ago, when a local farmer looking for a pasture offered the services of his 80 hungry bovines. Cows and bulls, the Mesa site learned, will work for food. "We approved the arrangement with the city," said Barry Bullock....yes, that’s his name.....a Site Services maintenance engineer at the Mesa facility. "Our goal is to substantially reduce the $12,000 annual expense. This is also a great environmentally-friendly alternative.

"So far, the cows´ performance metrics are excellent," Bullock joked. "They really seem to love the Russian thistle, the wild sunflowers and broadleaf weeds. We’re hoping they’ll do an efficient job of munching down the weeds along the fence line as well."

"This is a creative project that can generate visible savings," said Jim Luby, manager of Quality and Lean Enterprise for the Mesa facility. "This type of innovation by the Site Services team demonstrates an understanding of the many ways the company can save money beyond the production areas."

In Mesa, Luby couldn’t resist noting that "The cows have a closed-loop process to continuously remove waste and to provide value-added nutrients."
The new "employees" don’t seem to be bothered by being under the direct flight path of the Apache Longbows taking off for test flights. And they appear to have a bright future with Boeing and in the community.

"They aren’t being raised for beef," Bullock said. "Their owner plans to put them in the rodeo circuit and hire them out as extras in Western movies."
In the meantime, the Mesa facility will continue its quest to apply productivity-improving initiatives – even after the cows come home.