Mahou is a Spanish brewery house founded in the year 1890, in the capital Madrid. The company created a reputation for it self that precedes it even now a days, for its quality of production and the traditionalism of the production. Today the company is among the largest and most powerful brewery in Spain with a dominant market share. The main brewery factory, being the one we visited, is located in the outskirts of Madrid, Alovera Guadalajara to be more specific. The Factory is the biggest in Spain and second biggest in Europe, it is unique in Europe for its complex automatized process and innovative technology. The factory produces up to 4 million liters of beer a DAY.
Trough out our visit we could observe the process of production of the beer, most being completely automatized, yet having key workers in key locations were mistakes cannot occur. Even the most efficient machines can make mistakes, the problem is that the problem wont be spotted it since its and automatized process therefore you need the scientist and key workers in place to reassure the smoothness of the process. This could be considered a poki oki in Japanese terms or a security measure for the avoidance of problems in the production process. From the beginning we could observe a complex system practically runed by computers, the only un automatized process is the lab and examination of samples. But in order to keep control of quality, it’s a process that need to be done with detail and personal, to keep better control of quality even if the cost for it might be high. This with the large control room constantly observing and controlling the brewing process day and night, 24/7, 365 days a year, make it a supper efficient machine for quality control and cost control. The control room has constant machines and computers controlling the brewing process from start to end including the bottling and packaging, This is then combines with a couple of professionals constantly