Narrator: A gadget that's been in everyone's pocket
Since the turn of the century is getting an upgrade.
The journey to deep space is under way.
The world's most successful chocolate bar
Is breaking with tradition.
And one of the fastest production lines in the world
Is cooking up an unlikely product.
These groundbreaking innovations are all taking place
Inside some of the most incredible factories
On the planet.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
Nestled in the slopes of the swiss alps,
A company is making one of the world's most iconic products.
Victorinox is the leading manufacturer of pocketknives,
Including the one and only swiss army knife.
In their sustainable super factory,
Victorinox makes these pocket-sized toolkits
By the million and sells them to 120 countries.
Think of a rolex watch that is extremely expensive
And has that miniaturization and key specialist engineering.
Another example
Is a top-of-the-range swiss army knife,
A hugely premium product that can set you back $500.
Narrator: Victorinox got their start in the late 19th century.
It all began in 1884 when karl elsener and his mother
Opened a cutlery workshop, where they made knives.
In 1891, the swiss army commissioned
A purpose-built knife.
It had specific requirements, such as allowing the soldier
To dismantle their rifle, to open cans,
And, of course, to fight in battle.
Elsener won the contract
And designed the officers' and the sports knife.
Narrator: Fourth-generation family member carl elsener
Now runs the company.
Today, 850 people work at the victorinox factory,
Manufacturing swiss army knives
Using methods that date back 100 years.
And an incredible 50% of the process is done by hand.
It all begins with a coil
Of 3-millimeter-thick stainless steel.
Wyss: We use 2,500 tons of steel in the production.
Narrator: Each roll contains enough steel
To make 16,000 blades.
It will become a little bit noisier inside here.
Narrator: This is the heart
Of the swiss army knife assembly.
Here, rolls of steel are fed into metal presses
To create the knife's individual components.
Here in this area, these are all different stamping machines
Where we produce all parts,
Which will be one day in a swiss army knife.
So blade, can openers, scissors, on and on.
Narrator: The raw steel
Is pulled through a stamping machine,
Which uses 154 tons of pressure
To punch out thousands of individual pieces.
♪♪
This is a little bit of special stamping machine.
It stamps out our famous emblem, the cross and shield,
Which comes to every swiss army knife.
One stamping machine can produce
Up to 60,000 blades a day.
Narrator: At every stage, sustainability is key
And minimizing waste
Is a high priority for victorinox.
Wyss: The waste we collect in these boxes,
We give back to the suppliers for recycling.
Narrator: More than half of the 2,756 tons of steel
Used each year is recycled.
Around 600 tons of grinding sludge is produced
As a by-product in the processing of this steel.
The water contained in the sludge is absorbed
And the steel particles are pressed into briquettes,
Allowing them to be properly recycled.
There are also nearly 14,000 square feet of solar panels
On the factory's roof that help reduce energy consumption.
It's not just green.
It's also steeped in history.
Traditional production methods haven't changed for generations.
Some of the machines are over 50 years old.
After the blades and accessories are cut,
The edges still remain rough, so they're processed
Through a mix of vibrating stones and water.
The friction produced cleans and polishes the steel.
After five hours in the mix, a powerful magnet
Pulls the parts out of the bowl.
♪♪
They may be polished,
But the parts are not yet strong enough to use.
So they're sent
To a 1,922-degree-fahrenheit furnace to harden.
This crucial step ensures the knives will last a lifetime.
At this temperature,
The molecular structure of steel changes,
Making it stronger.
Only steel that's high in carbon can be hardened and tempered.
If it doesn't contain the necessary quantity of carbon,
Then its crystalline structure can't be broken.
Therefore, its physical makeup can't be altered.
Narrator: Each blade has a different function.
So every one of them requires a different hardness.
There are 400 different knife models in production today.
Over the last few decades, extra gadgets have been added,
Including cigar cutters, nail files,
And a usb memory stick.
Nasa even equips its astronauts with swiss army knives.
The steel is now hardened, but it's still only roughly cut,
So it's placed on a turntable and rotated
Under a grinding stone until it's the right size.
Then it drops through to the collection bowl.
If the proportions of each part
Deviate more than 0.02 millimeters,
They will not fit together in the handle.
After the blades are sharpened, every part must pass inspection.
Only then is the company name stamped on the base.
The knife is ready to be assembled,
And despite today's age of robotics,
This process is mostly done by hand.
People are better than robots at complex tasks
That require manipulation
And also hand-making or handcrafting something
Carries a premium.
People aspire to having a handmade item
Which carries some kind of cachet.
Narrator: The different tools are added one by one,
Along with springs that allow them to come forward.
Can opener...
Screwdriver...
Multi-purpose hook...
Scissors...
Wood saw...
And corkscrew.
All these essential tools
Are micro-engineered into the knife.
And it wouldn't be an authentic swiss army knife
Without the famous red handle.
The tool bundle is placed on a machine
That sandwiches it between the two iconic red handles.
Incredibly, for this knife, all nine tools
Are packed into the 2.5-centimeter-thick handle.
Victorinox sells each knife with a lifetime guarantee.
So all tools are checked by hand before being shipped.
This sustainable super factory is leading the way
In greener metal manufacturing.
Their meticulous attention to detail
And traditional craftsmanship
Mean victorinox will keep this small town
In central switzerland bustling for years to come.
Coming up, scientists in one futuristic factory
Are shooting for the moon and beyond
As they build the world's most advanced rocket.
And later, a famous chocolate bar is breaking with tradition.
Narrator: In new orleans lies a super factory
On a truly gigantic scale.
The innovative product created here takes years to assemble,
Costs billions of dollars,
And then self-destructs in just eight minutes.
Since 2011, nasa has been hard at work
On the space launch system, or sls.
This advanced space launch vehicle
Will be able to send astronauts
And cargo to the moon on a single mission.
But it will also have the power to go beyond the moon,
To explore destinations far into the solar system
And even land a crew on mars.
Rockets are the most complex machines
Ever devised by human beings.
Narrator: The key part to getting the sls into space
Is under construction here
At nasa's michoud assembly facility.
Michoud has been building rockets
Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s.
And their futuristic super factory
Now covers almost 183,000 square feet,
More than 31 football fields combined.
Over 1,000 manufacturers from all over the u.S.
Are getting the various sls parts ready
Before it is eventually assembled
At kennedy space center in florida.
Here at michoud, they're making the largest section
Of the rocket -- the core.
It will hold the liquid hydrogen and oxygen
That feed the four engines powering the rocket.
The core stage is comprised of five major segments.
That's the engine section.
The liquid hydrogen tank, the intertank,
The liquid oxygen tank, and the forward skirt.
Now, that's not the completed rocket in itself,
But it is if you want to imagine the muscle
Behind what gets us to the moon and beyond.
Narrator: This complex of over 200-foot-high tanks
That fuel four liquid propellant engines
Will be capable of blasting the rocket into orbit
With over 1,984,000 pounds of thrust,
Allowing it to reach speeds of over 24,000 miles per hour.
♪♪
The effects of this massive surge of power
Are being observed on the michoud engine test bay.
And the test confirms just how challenging this project
Will be for the michoud rocket scientists.
The fuel tanks need to be as light as possible,
But still be able to resist incredible heat
Generated during liftoff.
What they need to get right are the domes.
These are the sections which seal the fuel tanks
At the top and the bottom.
Narrator: Some extra-strength machinery is on site to help
With the heavy lifting.
As we're nearing the completion of the forward dome
For the liquid hydrogen tank, some of our mechanics here
Are using this overhead lifting tool.
And once we've completed with the weld series,
We will remove this dome from the tool,
Take it to the far end of our factory.
And yet another larger welding tool
Where we will fully assemble a completed fuel tank.
Narrator: This is the biggest welding machine in the world.
All of the domes, rings and barrels
That make up the 171-foot-tall and 79-foot-wide rocket core
Are welded together section by section
On this colossal vertical assembly rig.
Once it's blasted off from earth,
The core has a life span of about eight minutes.
After that, it's jettisoned from the rest of the rocket
And falls back down to earth, where it lands in the ocean.
Narrator: The rocket scientists at michoud
Are no strangers to spaceflight.
12, 11, 10, 9...
This super factory has been central
To america's space program for more than 50 years.
We have a liftoff. Liftoff on apollo 11.
Whipps: We made both gemini spacecraft,
Particularly the first-stage rockets and the early apollo.
And finally, all the apollo first-stage rockets
Called the massive saturn 1-c
That took our astronauts to the moon.
Armstrong: That's one small step for man.
One giant leap for mankind.
Narrator: After the final apollo mission,
The factory refocused its efforts
Towards the space shuttle.
Whipps: From the middle '70s through 2011,
A total of 138 external tanks
For the space shuttle were all fabricated here
At the michoud assembly facility.
Man: Confirm good, solid rocket-booster separation.
Narrator: But compared to the space shuttle
Or even the mighty apollo saturn v,
Building the sls is a massive task
Because this multi-billion dollar craft
Is going into deep space.
The space shuttle was just designed to get to earth orbit
And no further.
So if we're looking at the next generation of space travel,
Of going to the moon and even beyond to mars
Or the outer solar system,
We need much more powerful rockets than we have today.
Narrator: Making the sls is the biggest challenge
This team here at michoud has ever faced.
This mission has to go faster and farther
Than any previous mission rockets.
And they're making it with far fewer people.
We are doing something that's never been done before
On a rocket that has this kind of power.
Narrator: Construction
Of the space launch system's rocket core
Is under way at nasa's michoud assembly facility
In new orleans.
Once complete, the sls
Will be the most powerful rocket ever built,
Capable of carrying humans beyond the grasp
Of earth's gravity and into deep space.
It's a major undertaking,
But this super factory is fully equipped
With the very latest in rocket technology.
Whipps: State-of-the-art tooling,
State-of-the-art manufacturing techniques
And significant multidisciplinary people.
We can make a rocket akin
And more powerful than the apollo-era rockets
With a workforce of somewhere around 1,500 people,
Compared to nearly twice that for even the last generation.
Narrator: Technology has made massive strides
Since the early days of nasa,
But building this new super rocket
Has tested even the most experienced engineers.
We are doing something that's never been done before
On a rocket that has this kind of power,
That is able to do the payload
And the astronauts into deep space.
We are going to go further than we've ever gone before.
So it is extremely complex.
Narrator: Work has already started on sls 2
And crucial lessons have been learned.
We've already started building for stage 2,
And we are seeing dramatic improvements in productivity
Just from learning from the very first one.
Narrator: The first sls is almost complete.
But the team at michoud faces one more massive challenge --
Moving the rocket core to the final assembly
And launch site in florida.
But this super factory's location gives it an advantage.
Dutriex: As you would understand, you can't ship those
Over the roadways because they're too large.
What's so unique to michoud is, is we have a deep-water port
So we can ship the components out,
The full-sized components on barges.
Narrator: Nasa's giant barge, pegasus,
Will make the nearly 932-mile-long journey
To the kennedy space center.
The sls core stage is more than 49 feet longer
And over 500,000 pounds heavier than its last cargo --
The space shuttle external tank.
So pegasus had to be lengthened and refurbished
For this new mission.
By the time the sls blasts off,
Space will be a much more crowded place.
A growing number of private companies
Such as spacex, virgin galactic and boeing,
Are now speeding toward space exploration.
There are a lot of private companies
With their own rockets,
Their own missions, their own goals.
But still, nasa is a major player.
And the administration has recently announced plans
To return to the moon.
And if that plan goes through,
Those astronauts to land on the moon
Will do so on rockets built at the michoud facility.
Its history in the making, and this factory is energized
To support the mission and support the challenge.
To the efforts of the core-stage production team here at michoud,
We will support yet again a man and a woman stepping foot
On the surface of the moon.
Narrator: The moon is just the first stop
For the sls.
Future models will have 25% more thrust
And be able to reach mars
And other deep-space destinations.
And that's what makes michoud a super factory.
How many factories on earth are making super-giant rockets
To launch us to the edge of the solar system?
Michoud is.
Narrator: Nasa michoud was established
At the dawn of the space age
And still has plenty of busy years ahead.
This rocket super factory remains at the cutting edge
Of mankind's quest to explore the universe.
Coming up, a british chocolate bar
Is bringing good luck to japan.
And later, one of the world's fastest production lines
Is cooking up an unlikely new product.
Narrator: This sprawling giant factory
May look like hundreds of other industrial plants near tokyo.
But it's actually the epicenter of japan's chocolate industry.
And inside the ultra-clean facility,
Workers are gearing up to put their own spin
On what "time" magazine has designated
The most influential candy bar of all time --
The kit kat.
Russell: Kit kats are a big deal in japan.
They were originally imported
As a traditional, english chocolate-wafer snack.
But when nestlé decided to open a factory in japan,
They decided to put their very own local spin on it.
To appeal to the japanese,
They started producing kit kats with flavors like soy sauce,
Wasabi and purple potato.
And this policy really paid off
Because the japanese eat an amazing 4 million
Kit kat every day,
Making kit kat the number-one japanese chocolate brand.
Narrator: Many unique flavors of the candy bar are made here
At japan's kit kat super factory in kasumigaura.
Here, the basic kit kat ingredients
Are the same as in the rest of the world --
Wafers smothered in chocolate.
In this highly automated factory,
The two are brought together without a human in sight.
First chocolate is heated and melted,
Then pumped through to the production line.
The wafers, made mostly of wheat flour, cocoa and sugar,
Are baked and then slowly moved along the line to cool.
The first wafer layer is covered with chocolate.
A second chocolate-coated layer is placed under the first
And then another
To create the classic three-wafer kit kat.
With two layers of chocolate sandwiched in the middle,
The covering will be added later.
The oversized wafers continue to cool
As they travel to the wafer-stacking area.
After the supersized wafers are stacked,
They're cut down to size.
Then a robotic arm stacks them.
Now they're ready for the next step --
A thick covering of chocolate.
Chocolate is an extraordinary material.
It is one of the few stuffs designed for our pleasure.
It is a material that is engineered
To make you go, "yum!" and have another bit.
When we eat chocolate,
All sorts of chemicals are whizzing 'round our brain.
But basically it produces neurotransmitters,
Mainly dopamine, which make us want another bit
And give us huge sensations of pleasure.
♪♪
Narrator: In japan, kit kats are a luxury brand.
The options found in its downtown boutique
Are staggering.
The company has grabbed the top spot
In the japanese chocolate market by offering over 350 varieties.
This commercial savvy has its roots in a business model
Which demands stores put new products on the shelves
Every two to three weeks.
This means that new flavors can appear really quickly.
Narrator: Coming up with new flavors is highly lucrative,
So here in the kit kat tasting lab,
A team of chefs concocts all sorts of different recipes.
The experimental flavors are ground into a powder.
Today, the head of flavor developments, mr. Nato,
Is trying out sweet potato,
Yuzu, a citrus fruit similar to lemon,
And a variation of one of japan's
Favorite kit kat flavors -- matcha.
This mix has % more tea leaves for an extra kick.
The wafers are cut to size
And then the new flavors are blended with chocolate
And poured into molds.
The mini wafers are added to create a perfect
Bite-sized kit kat.
After cooling,
The factory's professional tasters are called in.
First up, it's the matcha with extra tea leaves.
[ woman speaking japanese ]
Next up, sweet potato.
And finally, yuzu.
It won't be long before the results
Of this tasting session arrive on japan's retail shelves.
But the standard kit kat bar is also big in flavor-crazy japan.
That's what's on the production line today.
In the highly automated factory,
A robotic arm swings into action,
Ready to insert the wafer sandwiches into the molds.
The wafers are pressed into the molds
And covered with more chocolate.
Excess chocolate is removed
By pressing them under a flat surface.
Now the bars are cooled to harden the chocolate
Until they're ready to be removed from the molds.
Nobody wants a kit kat that's already broken.
So they're x-rayed and photographed
To ensure the consistency of every single bar
Coming off the production line.
This factory turns out 4 million of these bars every day.
At the end of the line, they're measured out for packaging
Into japan's hugely popular family-sized multipacks.
But there's an unlikely reason
The japanese love their kid kats.
And it has nothing to do with the flavor.
When the japanese visit ancient shrines,
It's customary to make wishes and pray for good luck.
Once the wish is made,
Many people make a small donation.
Kit kats play an unusual role in this tradition.
About 15 years ago, the boffins at kit kat
Noticed huge sales spikes in January.
Well, they wondered why.
What they realized was university entrance exams
Take place in January.
And people were giving students kit kats as good-luck charms.
Narrator: The fact that the japanese phrase
"kitto katsu" literally means "sure to win"
Is the stuff of a marketing team's dreams.
Today's production of kit kats are now packed and boxed...
...Ready to satisfy the voracious japanese demand
For these chocolate good-luck charms.
All made here at kasumigaura,
Japan's very own kit kat super factory.
♪♪
Coming up, a lightning-fast production line
Is cooking up a product with an important history.
Russell: For much of the 19th century,
It was used as rations for the american navy.
Narrator: On the north coast of England is a factory
That makes an old but reliable product.
This is heinz, wigan,
Covering a massive 236,806 square feet,
Around 40 football fields.
It's the largest food-processing plant in europe
And the biggest baked-bean factory in the world.
850 people work here day and night,
Producing 4 million cans of food a day,
Over 1 billion a year.
60% of them are baked beans.
Every week, 661 tons of steel plate
Arrives at heinz, wigan.
It's sent to one of the most modern and automated parts
Of the site.
The canning plant here is one of the most advanced
And fastest in the world.
It can belt out a staggering 4,500 cans every minute.
♪♪
The humble tin can is truly
One of the building blocks of the modern world.
They were invented just over 200 years ago.
And the first commercial canning factory
Was in east london in 1813.
We've gone from the original, rather crude template canisters
Made by hand to today's lightweight,
Completely recyclable containers.
But the design principles are effectively still the same.
And the can still preserves and endures like no other packaging.
That's why in the u.S. Alone, every year,
130 billion of them are made.
That's over 400 per person.
Narrator: The metal is mostly steel with a thin coating of tin
On the outside to stop oxidation.
0.3-millimeter-thick sheets are cut,
Rolled into tubes,
Then electrically welded and sealed.
Heinz veteran john brockley oversees this process.
At this stage, the base of the can remains open
And for one very important reason.
It's time to fill it with something.
♪♪
Every week, over 1,200 tons of haricot beans
Arrive at wigan, shipped in from north america.
Russell: The haricot bean is native to south america
And the variety used in canned baked beans
Is often referred to as the navy bean,
Because for much of the 19th century,
It was used as rations for the american navy.
Narrator: Just two hours after their arrival,
The beans are in their tins and stored in a warehouse.
But not all of the dry beans will complete that trip.
They face a stringent series of tests
As they travel across this huge factory.
The beans are covered in dirt,
So they head to the washer to be cleaned.
The blanching process rehydrates the beans with steaming water,
Partially cooking them.
After 20 minutes, the beans are inspected
By a high-spec laser beam.
The ones that don't shape up, size or color-wise,
Are discarded.
Russell: Laser sorting has revolutionized
Counting technology in the last 20 or 30 years.
Lasers can sort in various ways.
For instance, when the light from a laser bounces
Off the surface of a bean,
It tells us about its texture and its structure.
Narrator: They've been sorted, sifted, washed and blanched
And are on their way to the canning plant.
But opening up a can of beans would be a major disappointment
Without one key element
And a few top-secret ingredients.
Narrator: After they've been sorted, cleaned and blanched,
It's time to add the key ingredients
That give heinz beans their distinct flavor.
Almost half of what goes into every tin
Is this thick, bright-red liquid.
It's tomato sauce,
An ingredient heinz takes seriously,
Very seriously.
The paste arrives from Italy, Spain, and california,
Prepacked in heavy-duty bulk bags.
These bags are the end result of pulping 10,000
Juicy, ripe tomatoes.
Every day they process enough
To fill an olympic-sized swimming pool.
Narrator: So how do you squeeze out 4 tons of tomato paste
Without making the plant resemble a crime scene?
You need one of these --
A tomato pulp extractor.
Once extracted,
The freshly squeezed paste is diluted with water
And ends up in one of these massive vats.
Now it's time to add a very special ingredient.
The secret recipe for heinz baked beans dates back to 1896
And is closely guarded in the world of food processing.
The exact amount of the mix has to be perfect.
Just 27 minutes into the process,
It's time to combine the beans and sauce
And add them to the cans.
When you're turning out around 4 million cans
Of beans a day, you have to be fast-moving.
And the factory's very latest production line
Is turbo-charged.
The beans are now sealed in their cans,
But they're far from baked.
In fact, they're still uncooked.
The next step is the most surprising part
Of the whole heinz baked bean process.
The sealed cans of beans
Continually turn in these giant rotating ovens...
...While getting blasted with steam.
So baked beans are not actually baked.
And although they're cooked by steam,
It is on the outside of the can.
They effectively cook in their own sauce.
Once cooked,
One of the 57 famous labels are attached
At an astonishing rate of 1,000 per minute.
♪♪
But precooked, preserved food may never have happened
Without a french discovery.
What made modern canned food possible
Was a discovery at the very end of the 18th century
That if you heated food inside of a sealed jar,
It would last longer.
That observation was made
By a french chef named nicolas appert,
Who was responding to napoleon's challenge
To more effectively feed his troops during a campaign.
Narrator: It takes just two hours to turn bags
Of dusty navy beans into a product ready for shipping.
Loaded trucks are ready to distribute baked beans
To over 60 countries worldwide.
And this process continues day in and day out
Here at the world's biggest baked bean super factory.