For the majority of our group, this was the first time any of us had seen the inner-workings of a factory, and many were surprised at how labor intensive the work in such a place is. Though we live in the twenty-first century, our world is far from fully automated of operations. Ganso Azul currently employees roughly 450 workers and just celebrated its tenth year. Experiences such as these do a lot to increase awareness of cultural differences, in everything from management styles to lifestyles of employees. In recent days, we've visited several business in Merida and spoken with experienced business people from the area, and the discussion that has developed from those meetings has opened our eyes to a lot. The following was taken from the class blog of a student:
Today we visited the factory Ganso Azul. I've never been in a factory before, so it was a pretty enlightening experience. The owner of the factory, Gus, was super nice and answered a lot of our questions. Sarah even gave us a tour of the factory since she used to intern there. It was awesome to see how these uniforms were made, because I've never really given much thought to how things like pants or jackets are made. Basically there's a station for every little piece of the pant or jacket. Fabric is cut in one place, pressed in another, buttons sown on here, cuffs added here. What's even more amazing is that these workers work 8-6 doing the exact same thing over and over. I'm pretty sure I would go crazy.
Another interesting thing about the factory is how much planning goes into everything. I would never have imagined engineers working at a clothing factory, but at Ganso Azul they are always trying to come up with ways to make things more efficient. By being more efficient, this allows the factory to deliver on time to their customer. That combined with high quality is what gives Ganso Azul a competitive advantage over other factories, not price. Over the past decade, thanks to CAFTA and China free trade agreements, Mexico has lost a lot of the factories owned by U.S. companies. There are still some companies in the U.S. that like the proximity of Mexico to the U.S., and factories like Ganso Azul are thankful for that and do everything they can for their customer.
One other thing that stuck with me is the way in which many Mexicans think only on a day-to-day basis and not of the future. For instance, the severance pay policy here in Mexico causes many workers to do poor work on purpose. If a worker gets fired for any reason, they get 3 months pay. Because of this many Mexicans intentionally do bad at work in order to get fired and collect that sum. What kind of work ethic is that? There are also even workers who will get injured on the job, such as lose a thumb in the buttonhole machine, just to collect the Social Security payment. I could never imagine doing something like that, but the day-to-day outlook is part of the culture here. Don't they understand that in the long run it's better to keep your job, your livelihood? Because eventually that one-time payment, although large, is going to run out, and you may not be able to find another job. What then? To me, that seems like such a tragic way to live.
www.blauer.com
Today we visited the factory Ganso Azul. I've never been in a factory before, so it was a pretty enlightening experience. The owner of the factory, Gus, was super nice and answered a lot of our questions. Sarah even gave us a tour of the factory since she used to intern there. It was awesome to see how these uniforms were made, because I've never really given much thought to how things like pants or jackets are made. Basically there's a station for every little piece of the pant or jacket. Fabric is cut in one place, pressed in another, buttons sown on here, cuffs added here. What's even more amazing is that these workers work 8-6 doing the exact same thing over and over. I'm pretty sure I would go crazy.
Another interesting thing about the factory is how much planning goes into everything. I would never have imagined engineers working at a clothing factory, but at Ganso Azul they are always trying to come up with ways to make things more efficient. By being more efficient, this allows the factory to deliver on time to their customer. That combined with high quality is what gives Ganso Azul a competitive advantage over other factories, not price. Over the past decade, thanks to CAFTA and China free trade agreements, Mexico has lost a lot of the factories owned by U.S. companies. There are still some companies in the U.S. that like the proximity of Mexico to the U.S., and factories like Ganso Azul are thankful for that and do everything they can for their customer.
One other thing that stuck with me is the way in which many Mexicans think only on a day-to-day basis and not of the future. For instance, the severance pay policy here in Mexico causes many workers to do poor work on purpose. If a worker gets fired for any reason, they get 3 months pay. Because of this many Mexicans intentionally do bad at work in order to get fired and collect that sum. What kind of work ethic is that? There are also even workers who will get injured on the job, such as lose a thumb in the buttonhole machine, just to collect the Social Security payment. I could never imagine doing something like that, but the day-to-day outlook is part of the culture here. Don't they understand that in the long run it's better to keep your job, your livelihood? Because eventually that one-time payment, although large, is going to run out, and you may not be able to find another job. What then? To me, that seems like such a tragic way to live.
www.blauer.com
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