Power Hour by Jared Stumpenhorst By now hopefully everyone is familiar with the term Power Hour! If not, it is simply that first hour of the work day, or any day for that matter! It is that time of the day when everyone is busy trying to get things going and get the day started off on the right foot. Back in December when everyone heard about Power Hour during the plant- wide meetings we threw a lot of information out to everyone (even though it seemed like a lot of people just want- ed to talk about Legos). Now we want to provide everyone with an update and some things to think about looking forward. As was revealed in the plant-wide meetings we have a set goal of improving our OEE during the Power Hour by 10% in both the Main Plant on A-shift and the West Facility on A-shift. That is not to say that the first hour of every single shift is not important. It is! In fact, it is crucial. However, as you probably remember, hands down the biggest opportunity to improve upon lost production time at Crest Foods was on these two shifts. So, how are we doing? In the Main Plant we are averaging 67% OEE since January 1st with a goal of 77% by the end of the fiscal year. At the West Facility we are at nearly 80% OEE since January 1st with a goal of 86% by the end of the fiscal year. Obviously there is still some ground to make up in both areas but we can absolutely make it happen. We can do it by remembering that each and every one of us has an impact not only on how we start our own days, but also how those people that come after us start their days. Think about how you would want to start your shift and then think about what you can do to make sure that the person coming after you can start their day in the same way. Our end of year goal may still seem like it is out of reach, but if we can pull together and pick each other up we can absolutely achieve it. Keep generating those Actions, but also remember that you can make a difference to- day. Do not forget that every Monday a new report comes out on every iPad that gives an update of the prior week’s performance as well as how we are doing year to day against our goal. Beyond just the numbers, that report also provides details on what the biggest downtime issue have been during the Power Hour. That is where it is at! These are the areas that we should be focused on to get the biggest bang for the buck with where we put our ef- forts. If you do not have visibility to those reports and want to know how you can help, talk to a line operator or supervisor. They have access to the information and can hopefully offer some perspective. Watch out for those “Legos” out in the plant and make sure that you are not leaving them for somebody else! This project started in the early months of 2017. This was originally planned as a one year start to finish project, and we’re approaching the two year mark. The process of preparing an application for a state grant and all of the associated red tape and paperwork was more than we expected. Couple that with weather issues, material availabil- ity issues and continually trying to push the paperwork along, we found ourselves having gone a year past our origi- nal deadline. If you remember from our early Crest Ink articles about this, the reason this had to be done was to deal with the fact that our growth and water/waste output at the west complex, particularly the Mix Facility, was too large and no longer sustainable according to the EPA, who maintains and issues our industrial operating permit for that location. So, we had to do something and this seemed to be the best option. Not only did we solve our immediate problem at the Mix facility, we designed this system to accommodate recent and future growth at the entire west complex. This includes the Ingredient Warehouse and any future facilities. As needed we’ll be able to route all of our waste from the West Facility and send it to town. Don’t be surprised if you see some of that work being done this year to connect the West Production building as well. Thanks to all for put- ting up the mess and inconvenience.
April, May & June 2019 Crest Ink 5
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