Industry
Part of Realistic factory tours planning starts with one thing: the days a plant's line runs
No factory tours directory exists, so a checklist of alternatives has to do
There is no directory of American factory tours worth using. The way in is through the organizations that already work with local manufacturers.
What to take away
- Skip the tour aggregators. Go to the bodies that already deal with local manufacturers.
- Manufacturing extension centers and small business advisers know who makes what in a region.
- The best guide inside a plant is usually a retired employee, not a marketing host.
- Ask for a plant tour, not a factory tour. The wording gets you a different answer.
Search for factory tours and you get the same twenty large consumer brands. They are pleasant and they are not the subject.
Everything else is found through people who already work with manufacturers, and those people are easy to reach.
Manufacturing extension centers
Every state has one or more centers in the network the National Institute of Standards and Technology runs, and their job is working with small and mid-size manufacturers on production, workforce and technology.
From MEP Directory to Company Names
- Open the NIST MEP directory
- Find your state's center
- Read their public pages
- Note sectors and companies listed
- Take those names to next step
Their public pages list the sectors and companies they support. Start with the program's own directory to find the center for your state, then look at who they work with rather than asking them to arrange a tour, since arranging tours is not their function.
That gives you names. The names are what you take to the next step.
Small business advisers
The other route into the same world is through the network of local advisers that supports small firms generally.
SBA Directory to Local Openings
- Search the SBA local assistance directory
- Find development centers, chambers, district offices
- Ask which firms welcome visitors
- Ask about open days and contacts
- Ask about seasonal open-house events
The Small Business Administration's local assistance directory locates development centers, chambers and district offices by area. Those offices know which local firms welcome visitors, which ones have open days, and who to speak to.
They also know about the seasonal open-house events that never appear in tourism listings.
The others worth asking
- Manufacturers' associations,state and sector. The single most useful contact once you have one.
- Community colleges with trade programs.Their instructors tour plants constantly and know who says yes.
- Industrial museums.Staff frequently arrange behind-the-scenes visits to working firms nearby.
- Local historical societies,for plants with a long history and a sense of their own story.
- Retired workers' groups.The best guides in the country, and the least likely to advertise.
Ask in the industry's own language
Small differences in wording produce different answers.
"Factory tour" reads as tourism and lands with a marketing department that may not exist. "Plant tour" or "a visit to see the process" reads as normal business and lands with an operations manager who can simply say yes.
Say who you are, that you are interested in how the product is made, and that you will follow their safety rules. Offer to come at a quiet time.
What a good guide looks like
Somebody who has worked the process. A retired machinist or line supervisor explains what a machine is doing, why it is arranged that way, and what used to be there instead.
A marketing host gives you the founding story and the product range. Pleasant, and not the same thing.
Where a plant offers both, ask whether anybody from production can join part of the walk.
Timing your request
Write two to four weeks ahead for a small firm. Avoid the end of a quarter and any obvious seasonal peak for their sector.
Offer a small group, two or three people. Large groups are refused for straightforward reasons of supervision.
How those bookings then shape the trip is covered in the realistic plan for factory tours, and what to notice once you are inside is worth reading the night before.
