University of Michigan AIChE October 20, 2011 This Week’s Speaker: General Mills Community Action is the name we give to all that General Mills, its employees and retirees do to nourish communities. As a global leader in the food industry, General Mills’ mission is to nourish lives by making lives healthier, easier and richer. At Gene ral Mills Community Action, we work to nourish We started with two flour mills in the 1860s and communities with breakthrough ideas, championship people revolutionized the milling industry, producing flour and financial resources. That means working with with superior baking properties. communities to have an impact that enriches the lives of By the 1960s, we were marketing beloved children's children and families, and enhances the health and vitality of products that included Play-Doh, Easy Bake Ovens, neighborhoods and cities around the world where we have Spirograph, Monopoly and Nerf balls. General Mills employees and operations. In between, we became involved with such Community Action includes the General Mills Foundation, memorable characters as Betty Crocker, Bullwinkle, Brand Partnerships, Disaster Relief, Gift -Matching, the Lone Ranger and the Pillsbury Doughboy. International Giving, Hunger Relief, United Way and And no one could have written a movie script about Volunteerism. what happened when our Wheaties brand began sponsoring baseball radio broadcasts in 1933, when Our focus is to support innovative nonprofit organizations the cereal became known as The Breakfast of and programs that improve our headquarters and Champions. manufacturing communities, with a focus on youth nutrition One of our announcers, Ronald "Dutch" Reagan was and fitness, social services, education and arts and cultu re. voted the country's most popular Wheaties baseball announcer in 1937, which earned him a free trip to There are so many things to consider when California. He traveled from Des Moines, Iowa, for a choosing your first job as a new college screen test, became a Hollywood star and, as you graduate. Where will I live? What industry suits know, eventually was elected president of the me best? You'll want to select an employer as United States. committed to you as you are to them. You might not know that when oceanographer Robert Ballard explored the sunken Titanic in 1985, We look for outstanding students, who are he had some help from ALVIN, a three-person dedicated and passionate about their field. We submarine designed and built at General Mills in the actively recruit students who are pursing early 1960s. ALVIN made 11 dives to that Titanic bachelor's degrees for nearly all of our site. functions. At General Mills we've created an These days, our focus is on food — making lives environment that is challenging yet fun. around the world healthier, easier and richer. Through individual development pl anning, we are highly committed to helping you reach your full potential. Take a closer look, we think you'll like what you see. Announcements We’re on the web! http://www.engin.umich.edu/societies/aiche/AIChE/Home.html AIChE Dues s To join AIChE this semester: Semester without luncheons - $10 Over Fall Break, AICHE members attended the ($15 if not a national member) National AICHE conference in Minneapolis One semester with luncheon - $25 ($30 if not a national member) Full year with luncheon - $35 ($40 if not a national member) Join the National AIChE Why register to be a National AIChE member? It’s easy, free, and they send you a pen in the mail. Here are the quick and easy steps: 1) Go to www.aiche.org/scaleup 2) Click Apply Online 3) Enter your info 4) Click Join! --Our Chapter was awarded the Outstanding Student If you joined last year, don’t forget to renew your membership this year! Chapter Award --Crissie is now the Vice-Chair of the Executive Student Committee Hayride on Friday OCtober 21st at 7:30! Talk to Brieanne Bartneck directly after Congratulations! the LunCheon if you want to go! If you have any suggestions for food, email Christine at [email protected]! 1930s: Innovations beyond flour Despite the Great Depression, General Mills made great strides during the 1930s. General Mills launched two revolutionary products. The first, Bisquick baking mix, was introduced in 1931 to immediate success. Within a year, 95 imitators came to market, but none could displace the original Bisquick. Homemakers quickly realized that the mix could be used for much more than just biscuits, and Biquick eventually developed the slogan “A World of Baking in a Box.” The second product, Kix cereal, was the result of the invention of an innovative new machine – the puffing gun. General Mills had entered the ready-to-eat cereal category a decade before with the introduction of Wheaties. But Kix was very different. The puffing gun, developed by General Mills engineer and chemist Thomas R. James, expanded cereal dough pellets into different shapes – bubbles in the case of Kix. Launched in 1937, Kix was the first puffed corn cereal on the market. Later the puffing gun would be used to produce Cheerios and Trix, among other cereals. While the food divisions were busy ntroducing innovative new products, the Chemical division was expanding rapidly, with substantial research on vitamins. The company began “hitting the vitamin trail,” in the words of then-CEO James Ford Bell, when the newly formed General Mills research laboratory discovered that the uncrushed embryo of a wheat kernel was a rich source of vitamins B1 and B2, protein, carbohydrates, iron and phosphorus – a virtual “storehouse of nutrients.” By studying the effects of vitamins on rats, General Mills was able to produce several different products, including wheat -germ oil, and vitamin A and vitamin D concentrates. The division also developed a process for creating vitamin D cheaply and efficiently, which allowed General Mills to become one of the largest producers of vitamin D in the world. Toward the end of the decade, in a move to increase efficiency, the board of directors adopted a plan “for the complete liquidation and dissolution of all subsidiary companies.” Effectively, General Mills became a centralized company in all aspects, operating all of its mills and associated companies across the nation from one location. Bell created two distinct divisions within the company. One was responsible for flour and feed, while the other took charge of grocery products. The large feed division sold farm animal products, including turkey feeds, cattle fattener and pig and hog meal. The grocery products division sold flour, Wheaties, Bisquick and Kix. While the new organization had central headquarters in Minneapolis, executives in the regional locations still had great responsibility for day -to-day operations. Centralization simply gave Minneapolis more overall responsibility for activities such as quality control, mill construction and order processing. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Minnesota, the Minnesota Valley Canning Company (later the Green Giant Company) was developing vegetable technology that would make it one of the premier vegetable producers in the world. In 1933, Minnesota Valley Canning began using gravity separators to separate tender young peas from the more mature; tender peas were less dense and therefore floated. The company then combined this process with a tenderometer, which tested the tenderness of a pea, allowing the company to separate peas into 10 distinct grades. One year later, a company researcher created the “heat unit theory,” which improved planting and harvesting techniques. Effectively, it allowed the company to harvest day or night and to program the vegetables to arrive at canneries in an orderly manner. As a result, the slogan “picked at the fleeting moment of perfect flavor” was created. Source: General Mills History Overview: http://www.generalmills.Com/~/media/Files/history/history_book.ashx ChemE of the Week: Matt Mackey What value of * makes the above equation correct? What comes next in this sequence? GWB, WJC, GHWB, RWR, JEC, GRF, RMN, LBJ, ==?== Sudoku Tell me about the Sister Chapter Initiative. The Sister Chapter Initiative is a program that was started here at the University of Michigan by myself and Nikhil Patel. It began by Nikhil and I helping the first international chapter in Bogota, Colombia get started. From there, we made a guide on how to start international chapters which was sent out to the other AIChE Chapters, and the program has been growing ever since. Currently, there are 6 Sister Chapters with 5 more coming soon. Tell me about U of M's Sister Chapter. U of M has 2 sister chapters, yes we are that good. One is in Bogota, Colombia at La universidad de Los Andes and the other is in Brazil at La Universidad Estadual de Maringa. What are you hobbies/ favorite sport? I enjoy playing soccer and bird watching while knitting. What is your favorite engineering Class? Separations What is your favorite non -engineer Class? Answer to Last Week’s Puzzle: Human Anatomy What do you want to do before you graduate? Participate in the Naked Mile What is your favorite thing about north Campus? Ideal spot for bird watching What is your least favorite thing about north Campus? The fact that I have to go there everyday What is your favorite quote? An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience. -Mitch Hedberg Do you think that you should be ChemE of the week or know someone who should? Contact Peter at [email protected] .