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### JULY 2006
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PackExpo will be taking place in Chicago from Sunday, October 29 to Thursday, November 2. If you are not planning on going, you should. It is the premier show at which you can see all the new as well as classic packaging and automation technologies.
And,
As long as you are there, you should learn about changeover. On Friday I will be presenting my workshop “How to develop and implement a Lean Changeover program”. This full day program will give you all the tools you need to reduce changeover times in your plant. Topics covered will include:
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Every attendee will receive a certificate of achievement.
Attendees should include packaging managers and supervisors, production managers and supervisors, engineers, mechanics and anyone else with an interest in reducing downtime.
This workshop will also be of interest to machine designers and builders.
The workshop will be held in downtown Chicago.
The registration fee is $495. Multiple attendees from the same company may take a 15% discount.
For further details, please e-mail johnhenry@...
SOME THOUGHTS ON...
PARKING BACKWARDS
Most manufacturing plants in my neck of the woods require cars to park backwards (nose out) in their parking lots. I heard a story about a new plant manager who came from in from another region and at his first staff meeting asked why this was being done. “In case there is a hurricane”, was one answer. “In case there is a plant explosion”, was another. “Fire safety” was another. In other words, nobody knew, they had just always done it and most other companies have always done it that way.
In this case, although I was not at the meeting, I happen to know the answer. I know it because in about 1980 I was Engineering Manager in a nearby company. At a weekly staff meeting, the HR Director announced that we would be parking backwards from now on. When asked why, he replied that it was because this company did it. Investigation showed that the reason was safety. At shift change there will be people walking in the parking lot and others backing their cars out. Parking backwards reducing the chances of a person getting run over.
I was reminded of this today when I was having lunch with an engineer from another plant and a technician from Indiana. The tech asked why this was and the engineer did not know. I had to explain it. He suggested that it would make a nice article so here you go Irving, this newsletter is for you.
I have spoken in the past about the need to go back to first principals. That is. look at the reasons for doing everything and then make sure they are still valid. There may have been a very good reason for making that special report every week. That is, there may have been good reason 5 years ago. Is there still? Or is it just being done from inertia? If you look, you will probably find other things being done that are no longer necessary. If so, they should be eliminated, they are only wasting time and resources that could be put to better use elsewhere.
This lunch conversation got me thinking that there may be another side to this coin. With parking, we have a practice that made excellent sense when it was implemented. It still makes excellent sense but the reasons for it have been lost in the mists of time. What will happen if someone takes my previous advice, says “This may have made sense in the past but no longer does.” and cancels the policy.
I had been thinking of writing this month about communication. I had a different arc in mind but this is really about communication. Many times, when implementing a new policy, practice or method the “what” will be well documented. (Many times it will not be well documented, of course. But that is another issue.) How many times is the “why” of the policy documented? Not as often as it should be, in my experience. This can contribute lead to two types of errors:
1) Not discontinuing a non-useful policy. If the reasons why it was implemented are not known, who will know if it is necessary any more? It is often easier to just continue doing it rather than taking a decision to change
2) Discontinuing a useful policy. If the reason for originally implementing a policy is not known, it might be discontinued as not being useful.
One way to avoid this type of problem is to make sure that in documenting a policy or practice, the reason is documented as well. One way to do this would be to include a history or background section in an SOP documenting the rationale. The “Purpose” section, where it exists, may get into this a bit but usually not enough.
Another, somewhat more hit or miss method is to ask the “greybeards” or the old time employees. Perhaps someone can be found who was around when the policy was implemented. Perhaps they will remember the reason. A problem with this is that they may never have had the reason explained to them. The policy may have been simply announced and they have been parking backwards for 25 years never knowing why.
Put the reason in the SOP. Make sure it does not get removed when the SOP is updated.
One reason communication fails is that only the what gets commentated. Be sure to include the why as well.
TIP OF THE MONTH...
INTERNAL LIGHTING
In the pharmaceutical industry particularly, line clearance is of critical importance. Line clearance is the process of inspecting the production area as well as the equipment to be sure it has been adequately cleaned and that there is no old product hiding anywhere.
I was working with a client last month on a changeover assessment. After cleaning was completed, the inspector came to do the clearance. Part of the procedure called for him to open the bases of each machine and inspect inside. To do this, he used droplight with a cord he plugged in the wall. Dealing with the cord was a real nuisance. The reason they used this rather than a flashlight was to get a much higher level of illumination.
One of my recommendations was to add a lamp or two permanently mounted in the machine. There could be actuated by either timer switch or a pushbutton that would activate when the cabinet was opened. Like a refrigerator.
While I still think this would be a good idea in some circumstances, I had cause to wonder the other day. Good safety practices dictate that when a machine is being opened, the main disconnect should be locked and tagged out. OSHA safety regulations state that when the main disconnect is open, it should kill all power to the machine.
So, would it be legal and safe to put a lighting circuit, independent of the main disconnect, inside a machine? I could go look it up, I suppose. Given the level and diversity of expertise among my readers, I figured I would take the easy way out and just ask you.
If anyone has any thoughts on this please e-mail me at john@...
John R Henry CPP
Best,
John R Henry CPP
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