Archive for September, 2009

Did you know that Cal/OSHA and the state of California have specific requirements that employers need to take in order to prevent heat illness? Too busy focusing on the day to day operation to also focus on “other issues?”

The state of California has made heat illness prevention a high priority since the weather has recently turned unseasonably warm and temperatures are expected to be close to 100 degrees over the next several days.

That’s part of the problem. Most employers are too busy focusing on their businesses and what’s important to their business success to also focus on regulatory responsibilities that they ALSO have to take care of from a legal and risk management perspective.

For instance, Cal/OSHA and the state of California require that California employers with any outdoor places of employment comply with the Heat Illness Prevention Standard T8 CCR 3395. Employers are also required to have in place an overall Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) under T8 CCR 3203.

In a nutshell, California employers must take the following 4 steps to prevent heat related illness:

1)    Training – Train all employees and supervisors about heat illness prevention.

2)    Water – Provide enough fresh water so that each employee can drink at least 1 quart per hour, and encourage them to do so.

3)    Shade – Provide access to shade for at least 5 minutes of rest when an employee believes he or she needs a preventive recovery period. They should not wait until they feel sick to do so.

4)    Planning – Develop and implement written procedures for complying with the Cal/OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Standard.

If you’re an employer, do you have all of these in place? Cal/OSHA and the California Department of Industrial Relations require you to, and this is another example of what employers need to do while trying to survive the current business and economic climate.

Need help navigating through the current OSHA and state regulations? If you’re not sure whether or not you’re in compliance, or need help getting your program in place, give us a call or send us an email. We’re here to help you succeed.

This is a great question that requires that critical process parameters are actually controlled, or at least measured and monitored. There are many tools that can be used to tell if a process is in control, but it starts with measuring those parameters that are important to the process. It may seem obvious that anything that really is critical would be measured and monitored, but I continue to be amazed by stories of companies not keeping track of the variables that are critical to their products and their own success, which often can translate into significant financial losses.

I recently read an article which referenced a fermentation problem in the wine industry, with potential losses of several hundred thousand dollars. Utilizing the Six Sigma tool of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), the root cause of the problem was determined to be fermentation tank temperatures out of specification.

In this particular example it turns out that tank temperatures were not being monitored, with costly consequences. In a case like this, there are solutions that can be deployed, increasing in sophistication, and cost.

1)    Measure the temperature, at the source. Typically, this would be done with a thermocouple or temperature sensor.

2)    Monitor the temperature. This typically would entail having someone check the temperature on a periodic basis, and hopefully recording the results. Alternatively, depending on the type of controller used, an alarm can be triggered if a high or low limit is reached. In today’s world, this can also result in an email or phone call automatically being made by the controller in order to generate a response.

3)    An open loop control system. Most typically, this type of system will allow a setpoint to be set, but there’s no feedback as to what the temperature actually is.

4)    A closed loop system. This is typically a system using a PID controller, which not only has a setpoint, but can drive the temperature to that setpoint. This is the most sophisticated type of control, and will typically be the most costly solution.

Which approach to take will depend on the degree of risk that you’re willing to assume and the potential adverse consequences if those critical parameters drift out of spec. The most expensive solution is not always the most cost effective, but can be depending on what those adverse consequences are. However, the entire process starts with some basic questions and analysis.

Is your process in control? If not, or you’re not even measuring critical parameters or know where to start, give us a call or send us an email. We’re here to help you succeed.

When people talk about reducing operator errors, the scope of what they’re talking or thinking about can run the gamut from training, to fool-proofing (a.k.a. poka-yoke) a set-up or changeover, to fully automating a process or an assembly line, or even building a new plant.

However, I find it shocking that companies would consider the most capital intensive solutions when they should be starting with the basics. I recently saw an example of this at a company where training was talked of in terms of taking months and only a couple of people were “qualified” in certain operations. It didn’t really seem like a very complicated process, though many steps were involved. When I asked to take a look at their written procedures, they said, “what procedures?” It turns out that they had no written documentation for a fairly lengthy process, in which several steps were critical to preventing waste and potentially ruining product.

In a process which involved 75-100 steps or more, there was no written documentation, and training consisted of memorizing the entire process, start to finish, and in exactly the right sequence to boot. No wonder training took months and so few operators were qualified!

What was needed in this case was starting with the basics. Let’s develop some basic procedures, writing down the process steps and making sure they’re in the right sequence. Once this was done, a training process which took months can now be done in a matter of days, and serves as a great tool for cross-training and ensuring that there’s consistency in the process.

Need help developing your own procedures or wondering where to start? Give us a call or send us an email to kick start development of your own process or quality documentation efforts today.

It’s interesting that President Obama named Ron Bloom the senior counselor for manufacturing policy yesterday. You can read about it here. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Bloom was a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and was part of the auto industry task force since February.

In naming Bloom to this position, President Obama is following through on one of his campaign promises to re-vitalize U.S. manufacturing and putting some resources to focus on this critical issue could be another step in reversing the slide that we’ve experienced for such a long time. Time and results will tell how effective this announcement will be.