A 42"Plasma panel was purchased and is scheduled for delivery the week of 4/3/06. This panel will serve as our "Electronic Bulletin Board" and will be installed in the South break room this week.
The Electronic bulletin board will help inform employees of our progress against key objectives, new improvement programs, company successes, and provide additional educational opportunities.
Our Q2 lunch meetings took a different twist (or should I say flip) this time. The Q2 team treated employees to a delicious pancake breakfast featuring plain and blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, orange juice, milk and some great locally produced maple syrup (thanks Paul Aikin). Many good ideas were brought up and discussed at these meetings. A common opportunity for improvement regarding technical training of the operations group was mentioned at all three meetings. The fact that much of the manufacturing equipment PLC controlled new operators do not have the need to make manual adjustments – and thus may not know the intricacies behind the equipment. The technical training (a.k.a. “DMV U”, like PSU or dare I say OSU) would provide greater knowledge to our employees, helping them to have a better in depth understanding of each unit of operation.
On September 13, 2006 employee meetings were held in the South conference room. The topic of discussion was one of our core Q2 messages; Striving to achieve operational excellence. These were some of the best meetings I have been to – a lot of good discussions took place. Individuals shared their ideas on what operational excellence means to them. We talked about many examples of operational excellence. Suggestions for continual improvement were made – and will be followed up. When everyone works together – great things happen!
• Breakfast meeting dates have been set. • The Team reviewed the topics for the weekly training sessions. • Discussed problems associated with “mixed messages.” An example was mentioned and clarification was given to the production employees on the team. • Team discussed the first item for training on Wednesday, 9/13/2006. (Striving to achieve operational excellence) • Follow up: Phones were installed in the two red zone areas to enhance communication and unnecessary exiting from the zones.
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