Senior Managers

Mark Sauve, Plant Manager of MetoKote's Cambridge facility along with Rudy Bowers, Sales Account Manager from MetoKote provided a background presentation on what MetoKote is, what they do and some of the more innovative projects they are involved in.  We were also privileged to have Mike Tanner, General Manager for the Northern Region of MetoKote up from their Ohio facility and he shared with us some of the work they are doing coating solar panel systems which will be placed in the Arizona desert.  One of the other interesting projects they are involved in is refurbishing shopping carts which is not only greener (less old shopping carts in landfills) but also providing a better product to the market than those made in China.  The company overview was followed by a plant tour.  One of the other interesting things that the team at MetoKote shared with us was their milestone program which is an incentive program for the unionized employees where they earn points based on attendance, safety, quality, customer complaints and production.  These points then allow them to purchase items such as gift certificates or saving up their points to earn a day off with pay.

Continuous Improvement

This is the SIG forum where the host provides a Continuous Improvement problem for the group to solve. Following a tour and a review of the problem, the group reviews Lean Principles and the 7 deadly wastes and breaks out into brainstorming groups. Each group reports back recommended suggestions to the host.  There were 27 manufacturing professionals there to help MetoKote solve their 2 operational concerns - the e-coat load and the coil unload area.

Some of the suggestions made were:

Load section

-    Conduct a motion study; employees seemed to travel around a lot

-       Provide employees with visual information on where production levels were versus target for the day

Unload coil area

-       Count the load earlier; scan it at the same time as it was being loaded to avoid repetitive tasks

-       Change the layout from a straight line to a horseshoe shaped work area

-       Clear lines on the floor for shipment boxes so fork truck driver has a clear place to put empties and pick up full shipments

All the suggestions were compiled and provided for further investigation to the host company.  Some of the suggestions while very good would not be able to be implemented because part of the process was controlled by the customer.

Engineering

In this group we discussed Preventative Maintenance scheduling and looked at the simple yet very effective system Joe, Maintenance Manager at MetoKote put in.  His was truly a visual system with green and red dots indicating the progress on their preventative maintenance schedule on a large annual calendar.  Joe mentioned that before there were parts everywhere and shared the pictures that illustrated this.

Joe has been at MetoKote for 2 years and it has been a process to get to this point.  He involved his maintenance team in the layout of the maintenance area and the preventative maintenance schedule and feels that involving them was the key to the success.  The maintenance team loves the new layout because it's set up the way that works for them and they can easily find the parts they need and clearly see which preventative maintenance tasks need to be performed.

Human Resources

HR SIG topic addressed Cultural Morale Strategies. Successful companies today keep aware of the level of morale within the organizational culture and develop strategies to nurture its development.  The HR function is often central to facilitating this effort.  The HR group was asked:

•  What is your company currently doing to develop your culture and maintain positive morale? What is unique about your company's efforts in this area?
• What challenges have you experienced with morale in your company in the past?  What strategies have you put in place?  Are they working?
• What is your company doing to measure morale?  How do you stay close to what is happening with your people in this regard?
• If you could change or improve how you are supporting supervisors, what would you change?

 Lengthy benchmarking discussions ensued including such suggestions and comments as:

-       People need an effective forum to get and receive information about the company (this can be one on one, town hall meetings or written communication)

-       Part of the role of HR/Supervisor and Manager is to make harmonious relationships and to build bridges at times

-       Only one company does a morale survey and the results of it showed the employees felt they needed better communication

Thanks to all who participated in this great networking and benchmarking event and a big kudos to the team at MetoKote for hosting a great day.  For more information on this or any SIG event in the K-W/Cambridge area, please contact Mike Baker at mbaker@emccanada.org

Many thanks to EMC Feild Service Advisor Laura Gibson for facilitating these events in Mike Baker's absence!