I find it odd that the Tribune announces a 1.1% decline in revenue for January 2006 and the stock price is up thirty-two cents to $30.31 (9:00 am). This upward trend is refreshing for everyone that has a stake in the Tribune.
On Tuesday’s each press operator, at the Olympic Facility, is given a data sheet showing how he/she performed the previous week, with newsprint waste, papers per hour, rolls per break, gross newspapers produced, and standard deviation from press run to press run.
My crew members and myself go over the reports together, and look for areas where we can trim waste, and everyone on the crew has hints and tips to reducing waste.
The 1st week after closing Chatsworth my crew averaged 3.86% waste, 2nd week 2.91%, 3rd week 4.07%, and last week 3.16% waste. With numbers like this, I would have been demoted by last year’s standards. When compared to the other crew’s at Oly, my crew is in the middle of the pack, where waste is concerned. This takes a bit of the stress off, because I may continue doing my job a bit longer than expected.
Last year I was called into a special meeting, because my waste was considered too high, and told the plant director was unhappy with my numbers, and the numbers of two other press operators’. One of our press operator’s was demoted last year, and I was told if I didn’t improve my numbers, I could be placed on probation and or demoted as well.
In the past, when we had equipment issues, we could log onto a special computer and file a work order, which would go to a department head for review. This system was taken away, and we currently have marker boards, on the printing press, and in the pressroom office, to report problems. The new operators from Chatsworth keep asking about the procedure to report faulty equipment, and how they used a paper form to make work orders at their old plant, and equipment was repaired using this type of communication.
Is it any wonder many of the transferred employees find Oly frustrating?
Thank God it’s Friday, for some of us.
Take care,
Eddie
You're right on the money, Eddie, there is a dire need for a better way of notifying the service shops of faulty, or unsafe, equipment. The only way to notify the shops at this point is verbally, which lacks documentation, and more importantly, lacks accountability. The computer based system of generating work orders(I believe it was called MMS) was great, it's one drawback was that not enough people had access to entering work orders on that system. I've heard that the Valley pressmen used a pre-printed paper form to notify the shops of necessary repairs; it had multiple copies with one copy going to the responsible shop, one to the pressroom office, and one would be taped to the equipment in need of repairs. I've heard even this rather basic method of reporting faulty/unsafe equipment worked great, it created documentation, which in turn created accountability, a thing that seems to be lacking at Olympic these days. Or even better, the shops are still using a PC based system of generating and tracking work ordersI believe this one is called MP2), why don't the pressmen have access to this system? I don't know if anything will change, but there is a need to be able to document and track requests for repairs and maintenance. Will it take another tragic incident or accident to get management to implement this change? I hope not, but going by the past track record leaves me with doubts.
ReplyDeleteOk here we go, to be successful in this business and want to achieve goals lets stick with the basics. Press-people print the paper, Shop-people fixs what breaks or what we break. Now lets stop there for a minute,press people need the shop people like the shop people need us to make the product that make the company money, so we need to start working as a team. Now upper management you know who you are--an X Operator I think, another that goes on a running press and feels the need to push buttons and knocks webs out. Where you can help us is give us the tools for success, give the shops the parts or what ever it takes to keep our machinery running good, we need work orders so when we encounter problems we can write them down that day, also give our shop people the ability to fixs things without having to go to a dead-units and use the parts out of that unit to fix a problem in a running unit this is a practice we should get away from. Lets get some PM's done to our slitters and do you think this company can afford more than one blanket torque wrench for the Man Roland unit, you know loose blankets tend to break leads, I shouldn't have to walk all over the press room looking for something I should have in my tool box--I think I walked 2-miles that day looking for one. Have I said enough? Anyway know your place in this company if your a press person print the paper, if your a shop person fix the machinery and if your upper management please don't touch stuff your not trained on, remember we are on the same team, let us do our jobs. P.S. Who is in charge of the pressroom anyway?
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