Safety is Our Number One Priority ■
By Kris Chipman
Over the past year, Cianbro Fabrication & Coating Corporation (CFCC) has been implementing several new ideas to improve on safety at our facilities. Team member participation has been a focus and one new way we are accomplishing this is by asking team members with extensive knowledge of a particular process—such as a hand tool or a piece of equipment—discuss one of those topics at each of our safety meetings. Team members discuss how to properly use the equipment or process as well as the safety concerns of each topic. It’s a win-win situation. The team members who are talking about their area of knowledge are taking a fresh look at the subjects. What better way to learn, than to teach? The rest of the team responds very well to these presenters as it means a lot when an experienced co-worker is the one doing the teaching. This is only one of the ways we are encouraging all team members to get involved in safety. We still do weekly Cianbro Accident Prevention Process observations, hold Safety Health Awareness Raises Excellence committee meetings, have hazard analysis sheets completed each morning by the team, and more. Way to go team!
Productivity and Lean Manufacturing ■
By Jurgen Bell
2008 has been very busy at Cianbro Fabrication & Coating Corporation in Pittsfield, Maine. Starting out this year we had a renewed focus to develop ways to improve on safety, quality, and productivity. To date, we have been very successful in all these areas; safety and quality are excellent with greater involvement from all team members. Productivity has also taken a big step up in 2008. One reason for our improved production is the entire team is thinking about the lean manufacturing principles and looking for value-added ideas. As you may remember, the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership taught us how to implement practices that correct the eight wastes inherent in manufacturing: Overproduction, Inventory Wait Time, Motion, Transportation, Defects, Inefficient Process, and Production Bottlenecks. Lean manufacturing defines the key elements for success as Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. Planning out the work before it begins, looking ahead to the steps involved, then streamlining the production flow is paying off! Recently, we had an order for 1,000 push brackets that were to be fabricated and painted. This job had a total budget of 550 hours to fabricate and 240 hours to coat. By looking at the steps needed to complete these brackets ahead of time and streamlining the process we were able to complete the task well under our estimated time in both shops. 1 0
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Splice plates hung from monorails increase production, minimize material handling, and eliminate the need for touch up
As the brackets were completed they were loaded directly onto a screen wagon and once there was a large quantity completed, the wagon was pulled out and went directly to blast; eliminating handling. Material handling is a huge expense and many times is non-value added. We constantly work to identify ways to move people instead of work, eliminate steps through loading/handling processes, and utilize engineering and design concepts for jigs and monorails. This, along with improved communication between all team members involved in the work process, is making a difference. It just goes to show that as long as we work as a team we can accomplish anything!