![[Spirit of Delta]](images/spiritlg.gif)
Plant Tours
Plant Tours
Technical Operations Center
![[Jet Base]](images/jetbase.gif)
Delta Air Lines' Technical Operations Center,
located at the Atlanta Airport, is among the
largest and most modern aircraft restoration facilities in the world. With over 63 acres
of hangar, shop and office space, this huge operation is dedicated to just one thing -
maintaining the fleet of Delta jets in top condition.
The Delta Pioneers (a volunteer group made up of retired Delta Air Lines employees) conduct tours of the Technical Operations Center. During the tour, you will have an opportunity to visit the maintenance hangars, and a state-of-the-art paint facility. (Click here to see the "Spirit of Delta" Boeing 767 before its repainting, and during application of the Olympic paint scheme, and its 29 July 1995 rededication.) You will get see aircraft in the bays for routine maintenance checks; you may even get to see the interiors of some aircraft getting a facelift.
An important part of maintenance work happens in the shops. More than 60 shops at the
![[TOC]](images/toc.gif)
Technical Operations Center, each specializing in a particular type of work, repair the
parts removed from the aircraft. Engines are repaired in the Power Plant Shop; radios
and radar are repaired in the Electronics Department; and landing gears, wheels,
brakes, seats and many other components are maintained by their particular shops. You
will have an opportunity to visit many shops and the parts department known as Stores.
This tour is limited to 50 guests.
Note: This tour is being sponsored by the INFORMS Section on Aviation Applications.
Data Center
WORLDSPAN's business is to provide travel information and transaction processing -- quickly and reliably. The Data Center houses the mainframe computer equipment that performs those tasks, including:
travel reservations services to WORLDSPAN travel agency subscribers worldwide;
travel reservations services to travel agency subscribers of the ABACUS CRS;
information processing for WORLDSPAN's internal business systems;
internal electronic mail for WORLDSPAN with links to Delta Air Lines, Northwest, TWA, IBM and ABABUS; and
information processing for Delta Air Lines, Northwest and TWA including reservations,
flight control, cargo, baggage tracking and scheduling.
Completed in August of 1992, the Data Center is a marriage of technology and structural efficiency. The building itself was constructed to withstand disasters and to be self-sufficient in the event of power interruptions.
This tour will be limited to 25 guests.
Note: This tour is being sponsored by the INFORMS Section on Aviation Applications.
![[Ford Motor Company]](images/fordlogo.gif)
Atlanta Assembly Plant
![[Ford Taurus]](images/taur-s.gif)
Ford Motor Company's
state-of-the-art assembly plant,
northeast of Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport,
will be toured.
The Ford Taurus, which has been rated as one of most popular American sedans,
is assembled at the facility.
This tour is limited to 30 guests.
![[Lucent Technologies]](images/lucent.gif)
The Lucent Technologies plant in Norcross was built in 1970, and went into full production of copper conductor wire and related components by 1972. In 1977, this facility set the record for total wire production and 107 billion conductor feet were manufactured that year. This level of production was never repeated by anyone in the industry. With the development of fiber optic cable technologies, the plant began converting from copper to fiber cable, and in 1995 copper conductor production was shut down. Today, the plant is tooled totally for fiber cable and related fiber apparatus.
Tour participants will learn about the process of taking a glass tube and shaping it into a fiber optic cable, which takes place at the Lucent Technologies plant in Norcross. The first part of the tour is in a clean-room environment and will be observed from a camera monitor system.
This tour is limited to 40 guests.
United Parcel Service
UPS, the world's largest package distribution company, transports more than 3.1 billion parcels and documents annually. With over 500 aircraft, 147,000 vehicles and 2,400 facilities providing service in over 200 countries, UPS has made a worldwide commitment to serving the needs of the global marketplace.
To transport packages most efficiently, UPS has developed an elaborate network of "hubs" or central sorting facilities located throughout the world. Each hub is "fed" by a number of local operating centers, which serve as home base for UPS pick-up and delivery vehicles. Each afternoon, packages from the local operating centers make their way to the hub, usually by tractor trailer. At the hub, packages are carefully unloaded, thousands of packages at a time from numerous trailers. In one huge but fast-paced operation, the packages are sorted by ZIP code and consolidated on conveyor belts. Packages bound for a specific geographical region are all consolidated on the same conveyor belt. At the other end of the hub, packages undergo a finer sort and are routed to either an out-bound trailer, or for a local delivery, to a package car serving the immediate area. Before being loaded, each package is checked one last time, just to make sure it has been sorted correctly.
Guests will have an opportunity to see the Atlanta (3930 Pleasantdale Road) central sorting facility during normal operations.
This tour is limited to 40 guests.
Guests will have an opportunity to see the operations of a Coca Cola bottling plant.
This tour is limited to 10 guests.
A tour of Millikan's Gainesville plant will be offered.
The number of registrants that can go on each tour is restricted. Tours will last about 1-1/2 hours from the start of the tour; travel time one way between the hotel and tour sites will be about thirty minutes each depending upon traffic conditions.
The following guidelines must be observed on all of the tours:
Tours are expected to fill up fast. Please sign up for a tour via the meeting registration form and pre-register early.
Return to INFORMS Atlanta Meeting Home Page
11 October 1996, by John Quillinan
