I only had 3 cigis the whole day at work today! What was to be a normal day in the office, walking around, speaking to Machine Team Leaders and Lead Process Technicians turned out to be something very different from what I had expected.
The first meeting started at 9am, possibly someone told me or sent me an email about it, but I think I forgot... who on earth works at 9am anyway???!!! I'm usually catching breakfast or having my coffee in the canteen at that time.
Anyways, it was about packaging issues. Firstly, I am not a trained Packaging Engineer. There are people in the Mill who went to university to simply study on that subject alone. I am not one of those few. Secondly, I was still grumpy for having missed my time in the canteen.
Halfway through, the Ops Team Leader tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was needed in another meeting, this time for Production Planning. What?! Me? What do I know about production planning??? As much as I was glad to take off, I was dreading the other meeting. Anyways, the moment I saw Lito & Buss in there as well, I know it was going to be more than just a simple "Can you produce this amount for our quota next month?" kinda meeting. Ross, our Mill manager decided to drop in for a bit. And nicely asked me to fill him in when he decided to leave... sigh...
In the meeting, there was a big argument between Muthu & Ross. I guessed Muthu should've just kept quiet when he was asked something that there was no way he could prove. At 31, the native of Madras is the youngest Machine Team Leader ever in the Mill. Even his Lead Ptocess Technicians are older than him, and they're a group of tough guys. I never want to be in his position with that machine.
Gajanan also met me on the floor and apologised for speaking loudly just now in the meeting. It took me by surprise. It's nothing personal and I'm not a baby! I can hold my own ground. Throw another 30 more Machine Team Leaders in my face with the same complaint and I'll still manage them, Insya Allah.
Then the flurry of mails came about. And it feels good, Alhamdullilah, when my contributions are appreciated. Working in an international team, the culture is truly different from what you'd get from any local companies. KC is a company that respects work experiences, not only paper qualifications. And from the looks of it, most of us in the team have the work experiences. Most of us are trying to get the papers now.
Anyway, Lito now wants me involved in RMS (Raw Material Specifications) for vendors, head the weekly tel-cons with the supplier, as well as be on the top of things. We've a planned inspection visit to the supplier in Australia. He was hoping to make it before my wedding. And we would go together. But I'm not too keen on it. I said we should audit them, I did not say I would audit them. But in reality, it seems that I am the only qualified person to conduct the audit. I'm really wondering what Lito, Ver & Bernard are thinking of now when they first interviewed me some 3 months ago. What if Ver did not fight for the chance for me to be part of the team. Alhamdullilah, it is really endearing to look back on those days of not too long ago. Think I'll drop Ver a "Thank You" note tomorrow. All I ever wanted was for Su to be proud of me. Insya Allah, she will see the things I do and the things I've to go through. As long as there's a kiss and hug for me at the end of the day, it's all so worth it.
I've been praying to be recognised for my contributions in the Mill. Alhamdullilah, I believe this is one of the events. Insya Allah, I would continue to make valued contributions. Thank You O Allah! You have truly blessed me!!!
jahwsl
2104
07 March 07'
From: Leaphart, Edward
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:39 PM
To: Wong, Jeremy Ah
Subject: RE: Surge - the killing instinct of productivity
Nicely said Jeremy
Ed Leaphart
Kimberly Clark South Asia
Product and Technology Manager Singapore
email- leaphart@kcc.com
Mobile- +65 8121 9512
Office- +65 6539 9610
From: Estrella, Creselito
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 3:20 PM
To: Wong, Jeremy Ah; Leaphart, Edward ; Ramasamy, Marimuthu ; Ferng, Bernard
Cc: Tan, DoKheng ; Nadgouda, Gajanan ; Duggan, Ross ; Kee, TeckHua
Subject: RE: Surge - the killing instinct of productivity
Hey Team,
As informed by Ross during this morning Planning meeting, we can not get out of Textor outright for the supply of surge material for the following reasons:
1) Textor is right now the sole surge supplier to both KCA and KCAP.
2) KCAP is enjoying a very good price from Textor leveraging on the combined purchased volume of KCA and KCAP.
3) As Ed indicated in his e-mail, SAMBO decided to cut the supply of surge material to KCAP when our rejection rate was causing them to lose money.
4) SAMBO 40 gsm was giving same operation problems for T2 as current Textor 50 gsm when the machine speed is just at 600 to 650 dpm.
5) Although perceived performance of 50 gsm SAMBO surge is better than current Textor 50 gsm, the machine speed by then is only 600 to 650 dpm and we are not sure if same material will run at same performance at 700 to 750 dpm.
6) KNH surge can not run in our BCM machine.
Chris Quinn of Roswell NonWoven and Scott Kirby of KC-Australia are working closely with fiber supplier Huvis and Textor for the improvement of fiber quality and process respectively.
Short term action plan is to closely communicate with Textor by setting again a weekly teleconference. Although Jeremy is already doing a good job of communicating to textor the problems, weekly teleconference will give first hand information on the current issues and Textor action plans. Jeremy will lead the weekly teleconference and share all the necessary data to Textor.
Ed is on the loop with Chris Quinn, Scott Kirby and Philip Butler on this surge problem.
Lito Estrella
From: Wong, Jeremy Ah
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:36 PM
To: Leaphart, Edward ; Ramasamy, Marimuthu ; Estrella, Creselito; Ferng, Bernard
Cc: Tan, DoKheng ; Nadgouda, Gajanan ; Duggan, Ross ; Kee, TeckHua
Subject: RE: Surge - the killing instinct of productivity
From past data collected, the real underlying issue is inconsistencies with the material itself. And it is that inconsistency that is affecting not only production figures, but morale as well. Although we cannot truthfully say that the surge material is to sole culprit for all these stoppages, we have sent enough material back to them (as well as recovered some for ourselves) to prove it is one of the causes.
The question now should be whether we want to be in the position to develop this supplier to where we want them to be. From the raw material point of view, regular audits should be conducted. The issue with Textor’s surge is due to its instable fibre source. However, we need to be assured that their processes are well covered. Knowing this would then leave us with their raw material control, which includes traceability of raw materials, duration of raw material holding stock, approved supplier source, regular maintenance of equipment with logging sheets, process controls, bringing back samples from physical inspection to cross check results, etc.
It must also be made known, that with these inspections, we are not trying to police them. They need to police themselves.
We need to try our best to co-relate our stoppage data with their’s. Simply testing the first 10m roll of material would not guarantee that the product would be free from defects as well. With each roll coming in at 1,596 m2 or 19,000 m, it’s anyone’s guess where the breaks will take place (web-breaks because of poor formation being the most common rejection reason).
We need to push the supplier hard, but by encouraging them. We have had better successes with claims, and rectification of problems with other vendors using this method.
World Class Manufacturers need World Class Suppliers. We need to make a decision on whether we would want to develop them. And we must accept that in reality, if we decide to do so, changes would not happen overnight, but it’ll be a start.
From: Leaphart, Edward
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 11:35 AM
To: Ramasamy, Marimuthu ; Estrella, Creselito; Ferng, Bernard ; Wong, Jeremy Ah
Cc: Tan, DoKheng ; Nadgouda, Gajanan ; Duggan, Ross ; Kee, TeckHua
Subject: RE: Surge - the killing instinct of productivity
This is the same situation we had before with SAMBO.
The real question is who owns this and the answer is no different than an MSR. We all own the resolution of this problem, we just need to figure out who is coordinating all the activity. My guess is that although we have had this problem for a couple of months, we still do not know the details about the issue. All we know is that we do not like it.
My recommendation is:
Led and coordinated by the Material facilitator
- Set up meetings
- Liase with vendor, understand all the details of the problem
- Bring a plan together
- Supported by Operations support to get data regarding production delay, waste, past data on surge. Impact of the new surge module. The last thing we want to do is change suppliers for a big on cost when half the solution is a process change that is already planned.
- Supported by P&TD to identify alternate options and cost impacts. Coordinate MSR’s of new suppliers if a business decision is made to change.
Communicate and resolve, the asset leaders obviously view this as one of their top priorities (or do they have bigger issues). Instead of just raising the issue, we need to all sit down and work on a path forward with key accountabilities and a coordinated plan.
Bernard, Ross, and DoKheng,
It is up to us to resolve who owns this. Any thoughts?
……………………………….
Some background,,,,,,,,
So far with SURGE,
We did not like SAMBO, so we drove them to the point that they would not supply us any more.
We have tried KNH and couldn’t run the material. We are running Textor and want to switch back to SAMBO.
We know the supplier is having issues and we have identified those issues and currently have Global Nonwovens, The vendor, and Scott Kirby from Australia working to resolve these issues, what are wee doing to help drive this effort also? The solution is not just switching suppliers although it is one option. Surge issues will not magically go away, just by switching vendors, we have got to learn how to work WITH these vendors to work through the issues.
This decision will also impact us greatly financially. So, if you want to change suppliers this justification will be no different than any other material analysis. We need data to make a financial decision. Not just data to show that we do not like it, data that can be used to make a clear decision.
What is the level of waste and delay that is acceptable?
What is the level of waste and delay that we are at?
Cost of current material and Cost of new material?
Please call me or set up a teleconference so we can get a clear path forward.
Ed Leaphart
Kimberly Clark South Asia
Product and Technology Manager Singapore
email- leaphart@kcc.com
Mobile- +65 8121 9512
Office- +65 6539 9610
From: Ramasamy, Marimuthu
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 10:14 AM
To: Estrella, Creselito; Leaphart, Edward ; Ferng, Bernard ; Wong, Jeremy Ah
Cc: Tan, DoKheng ; Nadgouda, Gajanan ; Duggan, Ross ; Kee, TeckHua
Subject: Surge - the killing instinct of productivity
Hi Lito & Bernard,
Surge has been one of major threat to out productivity.
In recent days it’s been getting worse & worse. The recent new lot material too doesn’t show much improvement.
We have following issues with Surge inconsistency.
Surge Misplacement (Waste)
- The intermittent poor quality in one single roll is giving sudden impact to process and let’s machine down.
- The issue with this intermittent poor quality is it does not let us any response time, just creating massive web break as suddenly lot of misplaced surge starts to accumulate at the Blue Glue applicator (no choice must use the brand name still) and letting the Liner/Flap composite to Break
When ever this kind of web break happens it is taking at least 45 minutes of down to resume back the machine.
- Also this intermittent sudden increased frequency of misplacement causing the diaper to get
- contaminated with glue glob (as surge struck on to the glue applicator) and resulting in Stacker Jam.
- If we are not lucky enough, some times Stacker Jam too creating a big delay as resultant of FCO Jam. FCO jam is not a easy thing to do as we might need to dismantle the FCO Belts. This might takes about 30 minutes down normally.
We have been keep on talking to Supplier but the outcome is obvious.
As this has been an killing issue, why don’t we look for change in supplier. (is there any difficulty to get back to SAMBO?)
Even if it is higher GSM, I believe if we consider the Delay & the waste that we have been loosing currently would be an economic decision.
Switching to Pluto is just preventing the stoppages to certain extent only.May be Gaja & TeckWah can provide more feed back on this…
Kindly consider… We need to come out with some alternatives as soon as possible.
The Attached detail will give rough figure on how many stoppages are happening due to Surge.
Pleas advice.
Thanks
Muthu
