"So the SC Johnson factory is really closing its doors?"
"Yup. Turns out there's no money in brick-and-mortar operations these days. We're porting the whole operation over to the Internet."
"Go figure. Well, as long as you're shutting down, there is something I've always wanted to ask... What exactly is it that SC Johnson manufactures that keeps you so successful?
"A lot less than you'd think, actually. You see, we're mostly a service company. See the list of service divisions next to the elevator? We don't really make stuff as much as do stuff."
"I don't get it. How does providing services require a huge factory full of industrial machinery?"
"Well, we need that to make our single product, which we're rather proud of. The machine schematics make it much more clear how we do things... I'd show you, but the other night in the middle of a mad acid binge I snipped my last copy up into little pieces and scattered it around the factory. If you go visit the various service divisions and collect the pieces, you can probably figure out what SC Johnson manufactures. Of course, to get the pieces, you'll probably need to solve a puzzle in each division. Or just show them employee credentials."
"Ah. Can I borrow yours?"
"Unfortunately, I'm no longer an employee."
"Mad acid binge?"
"How'd you guess?"
"Puzzles it is, then."
On the main page, you'll find a set of eight puzzles, one for each SC Johnson service division. Each puzzle has a one-word answer which does not contain any punctuation. When you think you have a puzzle answer, type it into the submission form on the front page, using lowercase letters only, and click the submission link. If your answer is incorrect, you'll receive a message saying so, while if it's correct, some pieces of the machine schematics will be revealed. [NOTE: The submission form has been replaced by a manual filename submission; see the front page for details.]
The final answer (the one product manufactured by SC Johnson) should not be submitted on the front page... instead, e-mail it to spelivn-at-gmail-dot-com, and I'll be happy to confirm. You can also send feedback, suspected errors, and hint requests to that address.
I'm not really a tech guy, so I haven't done much in the way of security; I would be surprised if it it's not possible to bypass all the puzzles and extract the answers by "hacking" into the website or writing a program to brute-force the submission form. I will ask you kindly not to do these things, and point out that the object of this hunt is to solve puzzles... If you maneuver your way around them, you aren't proving anything except that you're kind of a tool.
Finally, you'll notice a "tip jar" button below. This is the fifth mini-hunt I've produced, and I've discovered this semester that puzzle-writing time is at a premium when you have an actual job. In fact, some of the time I spent writing these puzzles was in lieu of time spent on paying projects. So if you enjoy this set of puzzles (and/or you've enjoyed my puzzles in the past) and you'd like to motivate me to write more in the future, I'd be appreciative if you could throw a few dollars my way. No pressure, though.
Special thanks to: