Read More - Logan Aluminum
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Read More - Logan Aluminum
Coil Connections The Voice of Logan AluminumOctober 2011 Staying a STEP Ahead! By Randy Schumaker On July 29, about 150 Logan employees attended the 2011 review of Logan’s five-year plan, also known as the STEP plan which stands for Strategic Transition Excellence Plan. Attendees included staff, OT’s and GT’s from each unit. We reviewed Logan’s successes and accomplishments and looked ahead at the challenges facing us as we plan for the next five years and in fact, the next 25 years. Logan has had a Vision Statement since we were founded which is: “To be recognized as the best in the world at what we do.” During 2011, a firm which benchmarked all aluminum rolling mills in the world ranked Logan as the best! We have fulfilled our vision, but now we need to keep that position! Being the best is what has allowed us to continue to grow and expand and allows our owners the advantage they need to achieve domestic and export sales. We need to Stay a Step Ahead. Logan’s success has been built on some strong foundations. We asked everyone attending the meeting to reflect on the key factors which have contributed to Logan’s success over these past 25 years, the things we need to keep in mind and treasure as we plot our course into the future. Each person submitted five key factors. We sorted them by common theme and found 32 “keys to our success.” We placed them in a picture where the size of the words is proportional to the number of times that item was noted as a key. Safety, Team Concept, and Empowerment were the most noted keys. The final result forms a powerful image that reminds us of our foundations and the keys to our success. This, plus the views of the attendees about new skills needed to be successful in the future, will form an integral part of our next STEP plan. Each of us holds the key to the future success of Logan; 1,000 teammates: proactive, engaged, finding ways to improve, challenging the old ways of doing things and striving to be the leader in each aspect of our business. Together we can maintain our leadership position. CI Corner What is an RIE? by Rick Jasper One of the major reasons that Logan has remained successful since the early days is the culture of continuous improvement that drives innovative ideas. Since late last year, the CI team has facilitated Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs) to increase employee engagement and drive significant improvements through concentrated efforts on workplace organization, safety, production or administrative procedures. An RIE is normally a 3 – 5 day event with a small team of focused participants. The group is guided by “A3 Thinking,” a problem-solving roadmap that defines the reason for action and compares our current conditions to our targeted outcome. Many different tools can be used to determine our solution approach depending on the scope and nature of the improvements. RIEs are designed to execute sustainable changes to a process or problem in a quick, systematic method rather than extending project activities over the course of several weeks or months. Several of the recent events have concentrated on separation of mobile equipment and pedestrians, 5S and WPO events, Remelt Production Optimization, and the redesign of Logan’s Employee Survey. Through the end of August, more than 175 Logan team members, contractors, or Associates have participated in approximately 25 different RIEs this year. Thank you to ALL who donated to United Way during this year’s campaign! We passed our goal by raising $108,125 for the 2012 calendar year. Thanks for displaying Logan’s spirit in helping our community to LIVE UNITED! 2 Coil Connections, May 2011 Benefits, Medical and Wellness To date this has been an outstanding year. Logan continues to manage health care spending in a favorable manner. From January through August, spending is down approximately 5.8% compared to the same period in 2010. Logan has achieved this by employees being wise consumers of health care, acting on the medical consultations, managing their health numbers, actively engaging in health and wellness education, and being active health care business partners. As a result of the success in 2011, the 2012 Benefit Plan and Wellness Incentive will remain the same. Shown here is the Benefit Plan Design for 2012. We are pleased to offer to retirees, and employees on disability leave, the opportunity to participate in the wellness incentive program. The program components will be the same for everyone and the incentive money will be deposited directly into each individual’s health reimbursement account or health savings account as applicable. The amount of money than can be earned is up to $1,100 for employee only, up to $1,600 for employee plus two or more. In order to participate in the wellness incentive program, employees, retirees, and spouses must all complete the health assessment on-line through Anthem. The purpose of the health assessment is to identify health risks that can be modified by lifestyle changes. Bloodwork with specific results within range is also part of the incentive as you can see on the chart. Additionally, up to $40 can be earned for having a blood pressure reading below 135/85, having a BMI (Body Mass Index) less than 28, and completing six hours of health education classes through the LED system. Each participant can also earn $220 for being tobacco free for one year and having a BMI less than 40. To encourage individuals to maintain good health habits, there are additional dollars awarded at three, five, and 10 years for continuing to achieve the maximum wellness incentives each year. An extra $100 (one time only) can be earned by tobacco users who quit using tobacco for a minimum of one year. For more information on maximizing your incentive, please contact the BMW department. In February of this year, the BMW Department introduced a Nurse Practitioner to the department and brought Ms. Brianah Doeden to Logan to be a part of the medical team. Brianah brings experience from the industry setting and also in general practice. Initially only employees were treated, but during the summer, employees were permitted to bring in their children for school physicals and sports physicals. On October 3, we will expand service again to begin seeing spouses. Brianah will be treating minor illnesses such as those seen at Urgent Care or Quick Care settings. She will not be filling the role of a primary care provider. She will see patients by appointment only so please call the BMW Department at 755-6625 for scheduling. welcome Brianah to Logan! We The recent Spouse Fair was our largest to date! There were 386 spouses and retirees who participated in the fair this year. There were numerous vendors from the community who set up booths in the main hallway with great information and a good time was had by everyone. Coil Connections, October 2011 3 New Robot in Remelt By John Zeh 130,000 samples each year and during peak times 450 per day. The Remelt Lab is a state-of-the-art facility designed to analyze aluminum samples and report chemical analysis for use in the casting and rolling operations. The lab is staffed by 4 lab techs (David Camplin, Tony Fuller, Judy Parker, Jim Polacheck) and the lab coordinator (Tracy Herron). Various staff members support the lab operations. A spectrometer is an instrument that measures the amount of light produced when an electrical discharge is focused on an aluminum sample. Using a set of calibration standards and computer software, the spectrometer can convert the light measurement into chemistry information. Knowing the chemistry of our inputs and molten metal makes it possible for us to cast ingots to the target chemistry. In 1998, a capital project to install an automated spectrometer system was initiated. This consisted of an automated sample processing system, Herzog milling machine, a Mitsubishi desktop laboratory robot and an ARL4460 spectrometer fitted with an automated analysis stand. Benefits of the automated system were fast and accurate analysis, quick data transfer to melting and casting operations and analysis of all recycled scrap ingot samples sent to Logan. The ARL3460 spectrometer then became the backup instrument. The automated lab was a great success. In 2010, after determining that the 4 Coil Connections, October 2011 aging original spectrometer and robot were obsolete, a capital project was initiated to install a new generation ARL-4460 Pin Electrode Spectrometer, a Fanuc M-10iA Industrial Robot and an upgrade of the existing ARL-4460 Spectrometer with a pin electrode. Both instruments can analyze the same aluminum alloys at the same time or independently, either manually or automatically. The new system has already proven to be much more flexible and reliable than the first robotic system and has significantly shortened sample analysis time. Both spectrometers, with their state-of-theart pin electrode technology, have already proven to be more stable than the previous system. This system is the alpha site in North America for Thermo Fisher ARL automation using the Fanuc robot. The photo at the top of the page is a panoramic view of the lab with spectrometers on the left, robot in the middle and sample machining on the right. The lab analyzes approximately The Remelt lab offers other support services for ingot production such as LiMCA (Liquid Metal Cleanliness Analyzer), Prefil (takes metal samples that are sectioned so that impurities can be identified), sample mold maintenance, AlSCAN (measures the level of gas in molten aluminum) as well as other services. The support services of the Remelt lab are focused on the critical output variables of chemistry and metal cleanliness. The Remelt lab is a benchmark in our industry. Big and Blue and All About You By Pat Sikora Logan has something new going on and it is big and blue. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with UK. Logan is putting in a new fume exhaust system on its Hot Mill Finishing Mills equipment. You have probably noticed that over the course of this year a number of sections of ductwork for the new system have been put in place. These components are part of the 5.1 million dollars being invested to increase the air quality of our working environment. Although this will not increase production, Logan sees the need to make the health and welfare of its employees a priority. This project will almost double the capacity of the existing fume exhaust system. An advantage of the new system is that it will have variable speed drives on the motors which will allow us to speed them up or slow them down depending on production needs in the future. It will also have two CSEs (Centrifugal Separator Equipment) like the current system, but the new and larger CSEs will be down streamed from the fans. This change in design will increase Logan’s ability to collect fugitive emissions prior to going into the stack. Another new feature is the second stage mist eliminator. This device will be located in the lower half of the stack and is designed to aid in capturing fugitive emissions. The fire system is also being updated to greatly reduce the need for cardox to be used as a fire protection system. The project team is a combination of former, current, and brand new Hot Mill employees. It is great to see Logan’s teams (Purchasing, Operational, Finance, ESM, Reliability, and Staff) come together to make this project a success. The new system is scheduled to be commissioned after the Fall outage later this year. The owners of Logan Aluminum are committed to improving the safety and environmental conditions for their employees. Go Big Blue! Coil Connections, October 2011 5 Shop Talk REMELT Remelt sends best wishes to Dave Davis as he begins his new role in Greensboro and welcomes Paul Banks as our new Remelt Unit Manager. Congratulations to Karen Ashby on birth of another granddaughter on August 11 and to Tony Phelps on the birth of his grandson. Charlie Stuckwisch is also a proud new grandfather to a girl born on August 9th. Congratulations to Miles Propp on the birth of his son on April 10th. Congratulations also to Jerry Jernigan on the birth of twin boys born on June 30! Welcome to the following new team members: Jason Fowler to MPC-B Team, Brandon Stratton to Melt-B team, Kevin Peay to Cast-B team. Remelt would like to recognize the following safety achievements. Remelt GTs have worked over 600 days without an incident. Recycle A and Recycle C teams have worked over 2 years without injury. Other safety accomplishments: MPC-A, Cast-C, over 4 years without in injury. Recycle-A and Recycle-C over 3 years injuryfree. MPC-D, MELT-A, Recycle-B over 2 years injury free. Cast-D and Recycle Receiving both 1 year injury free. GREAT JOB!!! COLD MILL Congratulations to lots of Cold Mill employees who have new additions to their families. Join us in wishing these new parents all the best! Jesse & Heather Williams on the birth of their son, Jacob Emerson on December 29th, 2010. Jacob weighted 7 lbs 5oz & was 21.5” long. Janzen & Stephanie Dunn on the birth of their son, Alexander Gabriel Roy Dunn on January 28th! Alexander weighted 7 lbs 7oz & was 19 3/4” long. Shane & Brandy Hargis on the birth of their son, Mace Ryder Hargis on April 12th! He weighed 7 lbs 2oz and was 20 1/2” long. Miss Kaedyn Dakotah Parlier, daughter of Dempsey “DeBow” & Kelly Parlier was born on May 30th weighing 7 lbs 2oz and is 20 inches long. 6 Coil Connections, October 2011 Congratulations!Congratulations to Randy & Lisa Stokes (CM) and Roger Mayes (Materials) on the birth of their granddaughter, Ava Kristin Dawn Mayes who was born on June 2, 2011. Elyse Brooks also welcomes a new granddaughter, Avery Nicole Owen born on April 12th. Miss Audrey “Blake” Nash, granddaughter of Bobby Nash, was born July 2nd, 2011. Congratulations to all our new grandparents too. Mr. Max Wilhite was dually blessed this year with two new grandbabies! Ellyson Rae Wilhite, also the daughter of Matt Wilhite (Finishing), was born April 1st and they also welcomed daughter Abby’s new son, John Patrick on July 20. Congratulations Max & family! During the first half of the year, the Cold Mill has seen many changes in personnel. We would like to recognize Debra McIntosh, who has been promoted to the role of Manufacturing Specialist in our unit. In this process role she will continue to focus on the application and added enhancements of the Surface Inspection System (SIS) at CM3 while offering her expertise to the other units within Logan. Matt Seibert, Paul Lancette, and Dean Cross were promoted to Engineer III. We also bid farewell to Kevin Johnson as CM3 Engineering Leader. Kevin is now Business Unit Manager of ESM. Congratulations and Best Wishes Kevin! Braden Engler, son of Troy & Ashley Engler, had the honor recently of throwing out the first pitch for the Bowling Green Hot Rods. Braden sold 65 tickets to the game, making him the top seller for his league. Awesome Job Braden! The Cold Mill took three of the top four spots in the “Roll Back the Pounds” contest, losing a total of over 72 lbs between the three of them! Shop Talk Congratulations to: Edward Taylor (Lou Ferrigno) CM2 11st place winner 24.2 lbs lost 10.5 Lisa Farley (Ray) 1st place winner Female 19.5 lbs lost 13.0% Greg Grise (Gerg) RSB - 2nd place winner 24.2 lbs lost 10.5% Christy Mann (Jenny Craig) CM1 - 2nd place winner Female 23.7 lbs lost 10.3% HOT MILL Congratulations to Justin and Megan Gates on the birth of their baby girl. Ella Raye was born on May 11th weighing 7 lbs and 7 oz and was 19 ½ “ long. Congratulations to Randy and Lisa Crawford on the birth of granddaughter. Mya Isabella Settle was born on May 29th weighing 5 lbs and 12 ozs. We welcome the following new employees to the Hot Mill Department: Somsy Manavong was hired on June 13th as an Electrical Engineer. Richard Jarvis was hired on June 13th as a HMGT, however, has been in the department for approximately 12 years. Thomas Avery was hired on June 13th and will be working with the HM Red Team. SUPPLY MANAGEMENT The Supply Management team would like to welcome two new team members to the Purchasing Department, Carl Knight-Analyst Expeditor and Ryan Dickinson as our Supply Chain Sourcing Specialist. Congratulations to the Mudd River Union Band on winning the Battle of the Bands during the Big O music festival held recently in Owensboro. After winning the contest, they got to open for Dierks Bentley and hang out back stage. We have another celebrity in our midst, Andy Woodall. Andy has been married to Laura for 24 years; they have two children Zack and Drew, along with an adorable grandson Asher who is 19 months old. Andy has worked at Logan since 1996 on the Tension Level Line and Coating Line. He moved into a rotating Quality process position from 2006 to 2009, went back to the Coating Line through early 2011 and now is in a temporary technical position. Andy has always been involved in sports. During his high school days, he went to two football state championships with the Russellville Panthers. He then got involved with the Logan County Cougars when his son Zack started playing football in high school. Due to Andy’s passion for football and his background, Jim Turner gave his name to Gibb Son to consider for a spot on his radio show. Andy was then asked to do football caller commentary on 610 WRUS radio and worked with Gibb for two years. When Lon Sosh became ill and unable to call games, Andy was asked to fill in playby-play for Russellville Panthers Basketball. Now Andy does play-by-play for Logan County Cougars Football, Russellville Panthers Basketball and his son Zack does caller commentary. Zack also does play-by-play for the Cougars basketball. We can hear Andy, along with co-host John Brett Reynolds, at Roy’s Bar-B-Que every Thursday from 6:007:00 p.m. for the Coach’s show. Friday night’s pre-game show begins at 6:30 and Kick-off at 7:00. Join Andy on 610 WRUS and on the internet at www.wrusam.com for “All the Cougar Action A to Z”. FINISHING We would like to welcome all of our new hires: Matt Burchett was hired on Pack 1 June 13th 2011, Matt Willhite on A South on June 13th 2011 and Kevin Saunders on Alpha 2 on August 8th 2011. Welcome to our new Unit Manager, Stan Stokowski who moved to Finishing on August 1st.Also a very warm welcome to Riley Ann Moore born August 9th 2011 at 7lbs 4oz and 20.5 inches long to Jamie and Barry Moore. Coil Connections, October 2011 7 Lunker Tournament Continues Fun Tradition 8 Coil Connections, October 2011 Senator McConnell Visits Logan On Monday, August 15, 2011, Logan Aluminum had the distinct privilege to welcome Senator Mitch McConnell to our plant. Mr. McConnell had requested this visit through his staff in order to meet our teams and understand the issues facing our industry. Senator McConnell had the opportunity to meet with the leadership teams of Logan Aluminum as well as representatives of the owners, Novelis Inc. and TriArrows Aluminum. The Senator expressed a keen interest in the issues impacting Logan Aluminum with a view toward creating policy and decisions in support of American manufacturing. After a brief tour, the Senator addressed a large group of Logan Aluminum employees who had gathered in the Roll Shop area of the Cold Mill. Upon completion of his remarks, the Senator remained on the floor to shake hands and greet each individual who had attended. Following his tour of Logan Aluminum, the Senator addressed a luncheon hosted by the Logan County Chamber of Commerce at the UK Agricultural Extension Office. Coil Connections, October 2011 9 Power Talk By Stephanie Coffman The POWER Process – Protecting Our Workforce by Eliminating Risk – is one of the many ways we work to improve safety at Logan Aluminum and is managed by a Steering Committee made up of members from every unit, including operators, GT’s, Team Leaders, and Staff. This process is intended to complement other safety programs such as Lockout/Tagout, Confined Space Entry, and Machine Guarding and utilizes the principles of Behavior Based Safety to identify barriers which get in the way of employees working safely. The foundation of this process is the Critical Behavior Inventory (CBI) which is a list of behaviors that have been proven to reduce exposure. Some examples of these behaviors include using the handrail when on stairs, utilizing horns and warning sirens on equipment, and being focused on the direction of travel when walking, driving, or operating equipment. Employees are trained to use this list of behaviors to perform observations on each other and then to provide feedback based upon what they see. Feedback is given for each safe behavior to reinforce those behaviors and, if any at-risk behaviors are noted, the employees discuss how to change the behavior and reduce exposure. Some behaviors can be easy to change and are taken care of during the observation while others are more difficult and require additional help or resources. This information is captured during the observation and is then used by employees during barrier removal activities. All employees at Logan make up the engine that drives this process by performing observations, by being observed, and by participating in barrier removal activities. Without their efforts, none of this would be possible. The Steering Committee’s role in the process is to provide assistance, offer guidance, and identify opportunities for improvement. Current activities are centered around improving observation, effectiveness, and efficiency through the use of observer rotation plans and increasing the effectiveness of observer coaching. Finance Rolls Out New Systems By Connie Pearson Budgeting/Forecasting One of our department’s key activities for 2011 has been to install a new budget/forecast software program developed by Prophix. The project team, led by Mark Dilliha, has been working diligently for almost a year to identify and implement a replacement for our existing Oracle Financial Analyzer product, which has become obsolete. The Prophix solution provides significantly improved cost reporting and analysis functionality and is more user friendly than our previous tool. We were able to “go live” with Prophix in July and will be expanding its use to others outside the Finance department in the coming months. Other project team members include Roseann Thomas, Brandy Robinson, Toby Hawkins, Connie Pearson, Linda Foster, Steve Harris, Lisa Gilliam and Chad Hardison. In addition, Donna Johnson continues to provide support for Mark to enable him to focus on the project. On-Line Expense Reporting Another key activity for 2011 has been to install a new on-line expense reporting system, Expense Anywhere. The effort, led by Jeanne Coursey, has been on the Finance wish list for a long time but began, in earnest, in 2010 with an extensive search for the software. The main driver was Logan’s need for improved technology that would include ease of use, the ability to complete expense reports on-line at any time, and enhanced travel expense reporting. Team Leader, Shari Adams, believes the new system will provide better visibility of travel data to assist with possible cost reductions. Installation efforts were completed in August, 2011 and training began immediately afterward. Training for a core group of 170 employees will continue through September, 2011 and all expense reports should be created in the Expense Anywhere system after October 1. Ongoing classes will be available in the LED system. Congratulations New GTT’s for 2012! Casey Holloway - Remelt 10 Coil Connections, October 2011 Alan Klein - Remelt John Rosser, Jr. - Finishing Logan Support Appreciated by Scouts Cub Scout Louis Scott presents Norman Rockwell’s Scout Print “We Too Have a Job to Do” to Randy Schumaker in appreciation of Logan Aluminum’s support of the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts of America have four cub packs and one boy scout troop in Logan County. The Boy Scout Camp, Wildcat Hollow, is also located in Logan County. Louis is the son of Dave (Hot Mill) and Ann Scott. Fallen Heroes Ride Again Coil Connections, October 2011 11 Logan Aluminum Inc. “An Equal Opportunity Employer” We will not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, disability, or veteran status in any employee relations activities or action. Coil P.O. Box 3000 Russellville, KY 42276 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED connections PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Bowling Green, KY Permit No. 137 Staff Dorinda White, Editor...................................................... Management Nichole Ross.......................................................................... Cold Mill Jernaine Morrow..................................................................... Cold Mill Liz Rogers....................................................................... Maintenance Connie Pearson....................................................................... Finance Sherry Nash...........................................................................Finishing Connie Shifflett......................................................................... Hot Mill Jill Brown............................................................. Information Services Jerald Harper......................................................................... Materials Fred Carter, Natasha Fatkin......................................................Remelt Kelley Steenbergen............................................................... Technical Deedee Proctor................................................... Supply Management Randi Embry..................................................................................EHS Jennifer Freeman................................................... Human Resources Shane Paul............................................................. Human Resources Coil Connections Published for Logan Aluminum employees and their families. Comments are welcome. Write Dorinda White, Logan Aluminum Inc., P.O. Box 3000, Russellville, KY 42276, or telephone (270) 755-6596. LAST Team October Luncheon on Lake Malone The LAST Team for retirees, spouses and employees with 25 or more years of service will be hosting an October luncheon on Friday, October 14th, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Shady Cliff Restaurant and Marina. Logan Aluminum’s CEO Randy Schumaker will be our guest speaker for the event. In order to reserve the necessary tables, we ask that members and potential members either call or e-mail with name and number of attendees. We hope that you’ll enjoy the fall scenery on the drive to and from and will be able to attend! Phone Number: (270)726-2633 E-Mail: [email protected]