GMS401 Plant Tour Report
Madison Martin 500674085
Ariana Mazzariol 500624719
Nick Natale 500653626
Evan Raelson 500653626
Mariam Ahmed 500630579
Ankit Kumar 500632601

Steam Whistle Brewery is located in the historic John Street Roundhouse, just south of the CN Tower in Toronto. The brewery consist of manufacturing, sales, and marketing departments which includes approximately 170 employees. The facility is about 50,000 square feet consisting of production, retail, event, and office space. They supply their beer to men and women of the legal drinking age in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Steam Whistle uses a hybrid manufacturing process, producing approximately 88,000 bottles per day. They are working at integrating many green initiatives such as using all natural ingredients, reusing bottles and elements from the packaging line, and reducing paper usage in the office. Steam Whistle specializes in the “art” of beer creation by utilizing an integrated facility of both human labour and machine processing. In various aspects of the brewing process Steam Whistle is evidently applying a large dependence on the human labour which may not always be profitable in the long run. As discussed throughout the course, human capital in operations is essential for running a business smoothly but under differentiated circumstances, human labour can be considered a liability for a business. Humans act and work independently from one another and each person has different capabilities. Labour costs contribute to a large portion of any business’ expenses, so a proper incorporation of human and machine processes cannot be overlooked. In the short run, businesses use human labour as a variable expense, one that will consistently change with the amount of units produced. Ultimately, in the short run aspect, human labour working to package boxes is much cheaper and more cost efficient than buying or building a machine to do the same job. The issue of cost efficiency arises after a business has been up and running for several months or even years. As mentioned previously, humans complete objectives at different rates depending on the fatigue, the focus and the motivation of a person to work, tasks can never have a standardized time.
During the tour of the brewing facility, an observation was made that if boxes were to be packaged by a machine rather than by manual labour a cost of production could be spared therefore increasing potential profits for the company. Automation in the short run is a large cost of doing business, but in the long run, would be cost effective and efficient. In the long run, each extra dollar that would have been paid to human labour in wages evidently becomes cash on hand in Steam Whistle’s balance sheet. Illustrating the idea that technological innovations in specific areas of a business can contribute to lower costs and higher profits. In many cases, automation can produce a standardized product at a standardized rate consistently meaning that both money and time will be saved. The probability of fewer defects and a higher volume of products is also a large benefit in the utilization of technology. Consequently, Steam Whistle has been a clear industry leader in environmental and manufacturing practices, with only one notable financially impacting issue in its operations management, and that issue is considered to be the correct installation of technological advancements around the facilities standardized processes.

Like many manufacturing companies, Steam Whistle Brewery operates using a production line in order to manufacture their product. The definition of a production line according to the textbook Operations Management: GMS 401 written by Mcgraw-Hill Education (2015), is “a sequence of machines/workstations that perform operations on a part/product” (Pg. 104). Many parts of the production line used by Steam Whistle are run by machines in order to ensure all products coming out of the factory are doing so as efficiently as possible. However, there were occasions where they were using human labour as oppose to machine labour. One example of this was when workers were building the cases that the beer would eventually end up in. According to Mcgraw-Hill (2015) there are a few major disadvantages to using human labour repetitively including a lack of worker motivation which can lead to many other problems (pg. 154). Our main recommendation to Steam Whistle would be to transform as many steps in the production process as possible with machines in order to ensure that operations are running as smoothly as possible. Machines would be able to assemble the boxes much faster and more efficiently than human workers could. There are many benefits to using automation stated by Mcgraw-Hill (2015) throughout the textbook. For example, the textbook states that automation companies are using “automation as a way to reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve quality and consistency” (pg. 109). Steam Whistle uses automation well in many aspects of their production line, but they should continue to look for ways to improve their process which will improve their product overall. Another advantage of using automation as oppose to human labour is lower variable costs. When you use workers you need to pay them, but when using machines, you only need to pay for the electricity and maintenance to run them. However, according to Mcgraw-Hill, machines cost a lot of money in the beginning (pg. 109). However, over time the cost of workers will add up and it may be more cost efficient to use machines.
As the CEO of Steam Whistle Brewery there are some areas I would definitely focus on for improvement. The factor that makes our beer amazing is the quality that goes into every stage of production. This process of ensuring quality is something we call Total Quality Management (TQM). There have been major financial investments in making our beer taste better than ever by purchasing special equipment and top of the line ingredients. This is something the company is not able to show our customers physically when our products are being sold on a shelf. Since the company makes a great investment into the value of the beer, the price of beer increases to reflect the quality put into every stage of the process. The goal of our company would be to advertise the TQM process to our consumers and bring in more customers who appreciate how we make our products. Another area I would focus on has to do with the competition that our beer faces against other domestic brands such as Molson Coors Brewery. It also competes as a premium pilsner as a singular brew against Heineken and Guinness. The competition is great because it allows our company to benchmark against them and apply it to our products, however; the actions these companies have taken are in regards to expansion of their distributors. Guinness, Heineken and Molson Coors are sold across North America and internationally. Specifically in Ontario, these companies sell their products to Boston Pizza, Moxies, Jack Astor’s, Milestones and Montanas. Steam Whistle needs to take upon the opportunity and sell its products to these restaurants for resale. This will advertise the product and bring in new market as well. Lastly, Steam Whistle puts forward great excellence in producing its products, yet does not have an extensive product line. To improve its business, it can focus on what the demographic population wants. One thing that our generation is working towards is a healthy lifestyle. Beer, as we know, is not a healthy drink choice and has several calories in it. Our company can introduce a Steam Whistle Light. This beer, like Coors Light, a competitor, will have fewer calories that will be intended for the niche market of young to middle age people who are health conscious. Health conscious individuals can enjoy this brew that will have the same consistent taste with every sip. These are a few areas of the company that I want to improve on as the CEO: extension of our product line, advertisement and benchmarking our competition.