Q & A with BBE Alumna and Former MnTAP Intern: Madison Best
MnTAP staff have been fortunate to reconnect with several former MnTAP interns to talk about their current work, their past MnTAP internship’s influence on their career path, and how other companies could benefit from hiring MnTAP interns. This month, we are excited to feature Madison Best, who is currently working as a Manufacturing Engineer for Andersen Windows. In 2020, Madison completed an internship on water conservation at Old Dutch Foods, and you can view her executive summary.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Could you briefly describe your current role?
I’m currently working at Andersen Windows as a Manufacturing Engineer, and I’ve been with the company for about two months. Before that, I was working as a Manufacturing Engineer for Post Consumer Brands, the cereal manufacturer. I was with them for about three and a half years and started right after I graduated from the University of Minnesota. Both roles have been very hands-on and consist mostly of helping with production line troubleshooting and working on long-term equipment reliability projects.
Thinking back on your MnTAP projects, could you briefly describe what you worked on?
My 2020 internship was at Old Dutch Foods, which manufactures potato chips and other snacks like corn chips, in Roseville, Minnesota. While there I was tasked with water conservation. They had some specific goals to lower their well water consumption each month. During the internship, I identified several projects at different scales to reduce their yearly water consumption. Some of the small-scale projects included switching to lower-flow spray nozzles for rinsing potatoes when they first come into the factory and adding a locking valve on the freshwater supply to use less water when rinsing potatoes before they go into the fryer. Some larger scale projects researched opportunities for water recycling throughout the facility. This water was difficult to recycle because it gets so starchy from washing potatoes. Therefore, I looked into different methods for removing the starch from the water so that the company could increase the amount of water they could recycle.
What skills did you learn or hone while working on your MnTAP project?
There were many skills I learned from the internship that very much helped me in my next career steps. It was a great opportunity to learn about the importance of taking initiative and being more independent as an engineer in the workplace. I had some previous work experiences, but I saw this one as a great opportunity to take on a more independent role. This included asking more questions and asking for less direction. For instance, I learned more about Old Dutch’s company structure to better determine who to connect with and make progress on my projects. It was like the role of a contractor or a MnTAP staff consultant.
The first steps in a project like this can be as simple as learning their manufacturing process, and there are a few simple recommendations to help get me started in finding potential savings.
Once I fleshed those ideas out, it became my responsibility to ask, “OK, what are the next steps? How can I dig further into this?” Because the folks there weren’t necessarily experts in water conservation and that was my main responsibility. Learning how to get to those next steps on my own or with minimal assistance really helped build my confidence.
I had to take the initiative, look for new opportunities, and not expect to be handed a project that spelled out steps one through ten. They would think of step one through three, and I had to figure out the rest, including going to people to ask more questions and get answers. Taking initiative and being independent were what I gained most from this MnTAP internship.
What, if any, values or commitments do you still practice from your MnTAP internship?
I’d say the two main ones are probably water conservation and energy efficiency improvements, such as working with steam and compressed air systems.
One of the projects I took on at my previous job was replacing a failing pump that was used for pumping sugar slurry. I identified a new model to replace it, and this new pump was the same type (i.e., rotary positive displacement) as one that was already being used throughout the plant. We had a lot of them already.
This pump type needs a water source to keep the seals from generating excess heat. It took almost a million gallons of water a year per pump to flush water through and keep it cool. When I installed this new pump, I identified a closed loop water recycle system. A small tank next to the pump could act as a heat sink, and it only needed to be filled and then drained maybe once a year versus continuously running every day. For any new water-intensive equipment, it is important to find solutions to reduce water use before that new piece is installed.
How did participating in a MnTAP internship shape your understanding of what kind of career you eventually pursued?
The MnTAP internship really opened my eyes to the possibility of working in manufacturing. That’s something that I did not really have a ton of exposure to before or during college. I had one other internship, but it was more of a research and development (R&D) lab setting. This was the first time I had worked in a factory and specifically food manufacturing. This MnTAP internship really drove me to seek out similar roles after graduation, and it helped me determine what type of work environment I could really thrive in and be excited to go to work each day. Even today, I continue to work in manufacturing.
Another thing was the large scale of problem solving I was exposed to. Being able to see a whole new scale of problems I could go after and their technical complexity. Some of these pieces of machinery took up the size of an entire room or a whole building. Getting to work on such a large scale meant acquiring the knowledge to break that down into components and learning how each part worked together. I found that interesting and definitely something I wanted to continue working on in the future.
The next thing I learned was the personal connection side of engineering. This comes through with manufacturing a lot, in my opinion, more so than other types of roles. During my internship, my on-site supervisor encouraged me to talk to people on the floor when I was testing things out and see how they would respond to it. And I definitely got some positive and some negative reactions too. I learned how to deal with some reactions like, “Well, I’m not sure about turning the water down. Why would I do that?”
Having to deal with that as a very new engineer was intimidating in the beginning, but it became a valuable experience that taught me how to respond. Those are situations that I’m now encountering almost every day in my career. Gaining early exposure meant that even in difficult situations, I could at the same time still find it very rewarding. It didn’t scare me away. It drew me to roles where I can connect with people to make their jobs easier and their lives better through my work every day. I find that really rewarding and that’s something that started during my MnTAP internship.
Even before college, I knew I was passionate about sustainability and improving the environment, and those values drew me to MnTAP. Through MnTAP, I was able to see that there are a lot of ways that I could practice those values through engineering. I was drawn to engineering, but didn’t really necessarily know how that would look in real life or how that would turn out as a career. Seeing how in real life I could lower the environmental impact of manufacturing and be able to apply my skills and passions was very impactful, especially learning how plausible that career path was and how much I enjoyed it. The MnTAP internship was a valuable experience in helping me see that career opportunity in real life.
The last one is related to what I brought up in the beginning about being exposed to manufacturing. The technical or mechanical aspects of manufacturing weren’t something I learned in school. For example, I had never heard what a steam trap was in college until I went through the MnTAP orientation. And this came around full circle last year. I did a project at Post where we installed electronic monitors on steam traps throughout the entire facility to decrease the turnaround time for repair and launched a whole reliability program. Learning what a steam trap was at MnTAP and then years later being able to go all the way there in installing them shows how much the MnTAP internship has been a driver in encouraging me to pursue my personal interests and career passions. Realizing that these could go together.
How, if at all, did your MnTAP advisor support you in adapting to your workplace?
The coaching was super helpful and important to keep me both focused and motivated week to week. I’d talk to my mentor about how I’ve been walking around the facility and am stuck. That I can’t find any more areas for improvement. And then, he would walk with me and right off the bat, he’ll point to like 10 new opportunities that I would have never thought of. He encouraged me to keep searching for opportunities that didn’t always come right away.
Given your experiences, how would hiring a MnTAP intern benefit your current team or other professionals working in your area?
That’s a good question. One is bringing a fresh perspective. Because there are a lot of things I do that repeat over weeks or months, and these are often short-term activities. While I may have some ideas of potential improvements, I spend a lot of time on the more routine or mundane tasks that are my normal job responsibilities. Having an intern brings a fresh perspective. Someone’s mind who can be completely focused on this one initiative. Like I mentioned before, an intern that can be dedicated to having that curiosity and technical focus to really make an impact. That fresh perspective is helpful.
A lot of times, it just comes down to the fact that we always have so many ideas. There are so many opportunities but not enough people to work on all of them. We always have a super long project list. Just having someone to chase those things down and work on them can be super, super impactful.
At my company, and looking back to the roles I’ve had, my coworkers eventually get to know me as the one who cares about how much energy and compressed air we’re using. The person who insists we can’t throw anything away. All jokes aside, even an intern coming in with that sustainability mindset and asking those questions can really change a culture and employees’ mindset. Obviously, that doesn’t happen in three months all the time. But I think having that perspective focused on something that maybe people aren’t really used to can have an impact outside of the intern’s three months at the company.
Check out the original publication of Madison's interview on MnTAP's website.