Knowing Your Product a Bit Too Well (Story of the Clay Eaters at Dal-Tile)

In 1995, Dal-Tile bought a majority stake in the American Olean Tile Company, who I was working for at the time. I was offered an Industrial Engineering position at their corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Always up for a challenge, I moved my family, for the fourth time in my career, from Olean, New York.

When I arrived at the corporate center, I learned I would be helping the company improve its environmental, health, and safety performance across its manufacturing facilities and mining operations.

I knew very little about mining, so I was intrigued by this opportunity. Ceramic tiles are formed using various natural ingredients, such as talc and clay. I took many courses on mining regulations. I realized I would be more helpful if I understood things from the perspective of those doing the work.

We leased some land in Mississippi on which we mined kaolin clay. I arranged a visit with the mining operator. My goal was to learn as much as possible by participating in a mining operation out in the field. I envisioned large pits and explosions. What I found was quite different.

On the first morning of my visit, I met the mining crew at their trailer on a piece of land that didn’t look much different than a field or someone’s backyard. Not sure what I was looking at, they directed me to ride in the back of their pickup truck. They were going to explore the land to find pockets of kaolin clay to mine.

We drove for half a mile to a field that had a number of metal rods sticking up in the ground. I asked what they were and was told that they represented the boundaries of a suspected pocket of clay that was anywhere from on the surface to around ten feet below it.

It all looked the same to me, of course. I asked how they were able to tell where the “good” clay was. One of the workers, Bob, said, “Here, let me show you.” He jumped off the back of the pickup truck and put his hand down in the dirt. “This here’s good clay.” I said, “How do you know?” “Because it tastes like good clay.” And he proceeded to take a bite of it.

I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or serious. Then he told me, “You can tell the sand and clay content by how it chews. This piece is not too sandy and the consistency is just about right for our tiles. Take a bite.”

What could I do? I took a bite! I could tell what he was talking about. There was a little graininess and the rest felt pretty thick and chewy. I didn’t swallow it.

He said this was the screening test. They would send samples back to the lab to verify his suspicions. The mining operator said Bob was rarely wrong and he could sniff out good veins of clay better than anyone. We would start mapping the veins that day and then excavate the clay once we had confirmation from the lab.

The rest of the week was spent finding more veins and securing samples from various areas on the land. I also noticed one of the workers was taking small amounts of the clay and placing them in plastic bags. I asked him if those were also going to the lab. He told me he was getting them for his wife, who was a “Clay Eater.” She had an aluminum deficiency and had cravings for clay of this type. I didn’t question any of this. I was glad I didn’t have a deficiency and wasn’t interested in eating dirt.

It turns out that you don’t need fancy equipment to get the job done, just the willingness to sink your teeth into your work.