Monday, September 22, 2003

What in the world does that mean? - @ 22:20 CST
Contributed By: Mark Tyler

What in the world does that mean? Who moved my cheese is a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. It is an amazing and enlightening story of four characters that live in a "maze" and look for "cheese" to nourish them and make them happy.

Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are "little people" - beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw.

"Cheese" is a metaphor for what you want to have in life- whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind.

And "The Maze" is where you look for what you want- the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in.

In the story, characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls.

When you come to see "The Handwriting on the Wall," you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success (however you define it) in your work and in your life.

There always has been, and will be, change at OEM. How each of us views change may be very different. We felt that this story can help OEM and it's employees deal with these changes. Cheese sessions will be offered on a voluntary basis. There is some required reading, a movie, a video presentation, and some group discussion that make up a "Cheese" session. If you’re interested, let Lynn in Human Resources know, and she'll put you on the list.

Society of Manufacturing Engineers - @ 22:20 CST
Contributed By: S. Mark Tyler

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers chapters from St. Paul and the Chippewa Valley toured OEM on the 17th of April. These tours are organized so manufacturing companies can learn from one another about new processes, methods and capabilities.

This tour was a great opportunity for OEM to show the steady progress we've made in becoming the "go to" company for fabrication and welding. I think we surprised a lot of people with our abilities in machining, robotics & quality processes as well.

The tour groups were kept small so questions could be fully answered and our people could fully connect with our guests. Steve shared with each group the progress we've made in laser cutting and the use of the Sigmanest software. I think it is safe to say most people had no idea of the technology used by OEM to reduce material costs and improve efficiency.

Charlie demonstrated the welding robot and described the benefits of its' use along with the types of parts that are appropriate for robotic welding. Kim walked everyone through our systems, certifications, and capabilities related to quality.

The tours were very comprehensive, highlighting parts in the shop and then pointing out the same parts on customer brochures. This connection of how the parts are used gave a very good picture of how many industries OEM serves.

After the tour, attendees were served some of the finest cheesecake west of Philadelphia. Mary, Shelly, and Lynn organized the tour guides, baked and served the desserts, and organized some door prizes for the group. This post-tour get together allowed us to mingle with the participants and learn about their companies and how OEM may be able to work with them.

Those acting as tour guides were: Mark, Jim, Kevin, Tom A., Mike S., Tom T., and Scott.

Everyone involved did an excellent job in representing OEM.

I think we surprised a lot of people with our abilities in machining, robotics & quality processes as well.

WHO KNOWS THE MOST ABOUT OUR COMPANY AND CUSTOMERS? - @ 22:19 CST

Remember our contest last quarter? Shelly Timmerman won that one with the most right answers. We had two close seconds in Maureen Drinkman and Chad Neibauer. Congratulations again to Shelly! Good luck to everyone this year. We’ll have another giveaway in the fourth quarter of 2002. Keep checking your neighbors mail to see if you make all ten cuts or better yet watch for subtly placed OEM FABtoids in each newsletter. Commit each of them to memory or keep a copy of each newsletter for reference.

WHO KNOWS THE MOST ABOUT OUR COMPANY AND CUSTOMERS? - @ 22:19 CST
WHO KNOWS THE MOST ABOUT OUR COMPANY AND CUSTOMERS?

Remember our contest last quarter? Shelly Timmerman won that one with the most right answers. We had two close seconds in Maureen Drinkman and Chad Neibauer. Congratulations again to Shelly! Good luck to everyone this year. We’ll have another giveaway in the fourth quarter of 2002. Keep checking your neighbors mail to see if you make all ten cuts or better yet watch for subtly placed OEM FABtoids in each newsletter. Commit each of them to memory or keep a copy of each newsletter for reference.

Welding Contest - @ 22:18 CST
Welding Contest
OEM held its 2nd annual welding contest on February 15. Participants in the Mig, Tig, and/or flux were:
Greg Lane Clarence Selke Chad Lundquist Travis Pax
Jim McIntyre Wayne Ouellette Rick Hanestad Mo Britton
Bill Wiethaup Mark Jiskra Mo Britton Wally Klennert
Charles Kindschy
Winners were: Flux: 1st – Rick Hanestad 2nd – Wayne Ouellette 3rd – Greg Lane
Mig 1st – Mo Britton 2nd – Greg Lane 3rd – Wayne Ouellette
Tig 1st – Bill Wiethaup 2nd – Rick Hanestad
First prize was $30, second prize was $20, and third prize was $10. Thank you all for participating and congratulations to the winners. Oxygen Service and OEM donated items for door prizes. OEM and Oxygen staff helping out at the event were Scott Exner as the director, Mark Tyler and Duane Salberg as judges, Mike Finch, Brian Christopherson, and Lynn Nemitz as station organizers. Thank you all for donating your time for this contest, we had a lot of fun!

Quality Speaking - @ 21:39 CST
Quality Speaking
By
Kim Shields

Our goal is not only to keep our external quality level at 99%, but also to provide an image of ourselves to our customers. Quality Assurance by definition is “the act of giving confidence”. We know we can do it, we take pride in our work and the ability to get it done. That is the image we need to project to our customers. They count on us and trust our ability to provide them with a quality product on time.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the processes we put in place, we need to look at where we have been and if those processes are still contributing to the goals we hoped to obtain. The processes we need to reflect on are Routing Change Requests, Corrective Action Reports, and Customer Profiles. The true test of these systems is based on participation and effectiveness. We have allowed these systems lead us to where we are. Now we need to use these systems to push us forward to continuous improvement. Communication is a major key to our success and no single department can set the pace and level of achievement we need to succeed. Increased communication between departments is essential to increasing efficiency.

Commitment to quality from the beginning. Getting the travelers correct and documenting the changes increase our ability to manufacture a consistent part. We see by the number of Routing Change Requests we process as a communication tool that has a significant impact on updating our processes. This is the type of commitment and contribution we need from each and everyone of us to resolve issues and nail down the processes that increase our quality and response time. The pace that our customers expect us to perform at to meet their demands does not allow us to inspect quality into our product. When jobs arrive at final inspection they are expected to ship sometimes within hours. We do not have time built into our schedule for rework at this point in the process.

Can we ever expect our processes to be perfectly documented? Absolutely not! We have a growing experienced workforce that we depend on to develop knowledge of the undocumented requirements that make us exceptional performers. The human factor necessary to understand the variety of customer requirements is as valuable as our documentation. We have acquired an understanding of the unwritten requirements that can only happen with a mature, dedicated workforce. As our customer base continues to grow we need to cultivate experts on these unwritten requirements. We believe we are doing this by routing specific customer through customer focus groups. It is difficult to be an expert on all customers, we can help by reducing the number of customer individuals are responsible for.

Corrective Action Reports communicate to our customers that we are as concerned about their issues and they are. We never want to send a product to our customers that doesn’t meet their expectations, but occasionally it does happen. We are not always aware of what the final use and the requirements of the product are, and need to be proactive in getting that information from our customers to help resolve issues as they occur. If we respond in a timely manner to these issues with rework and concise methods to correct the problem, we build our relationship and confidence with our customer.

Customer Profiles are a major contribution to understanding and communicating customer requirements. We have a good understanding of the questions we need to ask our customers to help round out the profiles we have developed on them. Our experience in dealing with a wide variety of customers has given us the ability to be proactive in getting the information from our customers so we can more completely understand their expectation. We will continue to update and use this tool to increase our ability to provide a quality product.

What have we done lately? We recognized that rejects at final inspection had a significant impact on our ability to meet our requirements of on-time deliveries. One solution: Implement inprocess inspectors in each department. The focus is directed toward setups, first time runs, and first piece inspection. Our goals are clear. This program was initiated in April of 2002 and will be evaluated in six months to determine effectiveness. We are expecting to see a 20% decrease in the number of rejects at final inspection and an 8% increase in on-time deliveries. There are other factors that will impact these numbers and we all need to focus on making this a priority.

Our competitive strength is in our flexibility, responsiveness and attention to detail. We have the ability to take a part from paper or conception into reality and make it happen fast! It is easy to get caught up in seeing this happen and watching the volume of product flow through the shop and out the door. Sometimes is seems overwhelming. We need to keep this all in perspective and remember the customer. These are the exciting challenges we face everyday. We cannot let our current customers get disenchanted with our performance and we need to make certain new customers feel as comfortable with our abilities as our longstanding customers.