by Julie | Jan 16, 2013 | Consulting, Efficiency
I don’t know about you, but, I tend to steer way from New Year’s Resolutions. I haven’t been all that great about keeping them and so, instead of motivating me, they tend to discourage me. But, from a business perspective, the new year brings opportunities to find ways to be more efficient. This can be a more efficient use of my time, employee’s time or the overall process. One way to achieve that objective is to trust your employees to take ownership in fixing issues that are impacting their efficiency.
I remember when I was working in a bottling plant, we had a spot on the conveyor that collected the fallen bottles. But, the collection system wasn’t working and as result, kept backing up and knocking more bottles over. I spent some time (OK, a lot of time) and came up with this over-engineered solution to the problem. I showed my mechanic the problem and gave him my drawing on how he needed to fix the problem. Fortunately, I was working with an empowered mechanic who quietly studied the problem and presented a solution that was far superior to mine.
That experience taught me that we don’t always have to tell someone how to fix a problem, we just need to talk about the problem and allow input on how best to fix it. Chances are, their solution is much better than we could have imagined.
Having confidence in your employees is critical. And, if that isn’t something you are ready to do, than perhaps that would be a good New Year’s Resolution.
by Julie | Jun 6, 2012 | Consulting, Efficiency
I love this time of the year when the warm weather finally appears! The plants are growing and life is good! However, it is also the time of the year when shell drying related issues start to creep up!
So, I thought I’d share a few items to check if you start to see an increase in shell cracking as the weather outside starts to warm up.
1) Check to make sure all your fans are operational. Regardless of the type of drying system you use, it is possible that a fan is not operating and as a result, some molds are seeing less air movement.
2) Look for hot spots in the room. The outside walls may start to radiate more heat and molds in that area may start to heat up.
3) Ensure that your RH sensors have been calibrated.
4) Evaluate your current intra-coat dry time against your standard. Changes in your throughput over time can impact dry time between coats.
5) Review your final dry procedures. Are the molds being exposed to enough air flow during final dry?
Obviously, there are a number of factors that can cause shell cracking. But, taking a little time to evaluate changes in your drying conditions will help in identifying the root cause of the cracking. If this review doesn’t resolve your issue, at least you can feel confident to move onto other potential causes of the cracking .
If you want to talk about where your process variability might be coming from, send me a quick email at Julie@keyprocessinnovations.com and I would be happy to help you troubleshoot your process.
by Julie | May 29, 2012 | Consulting
I am frequently asked how often should I test my slurry? I know you shouldn’t answer a question with a question, but what about a series of questions?
✓ How often do you have to make adjustments to your slurry?
✓ Are the adjustments with water, binder or a mixture of both?
✓ Do the components of the adjustment change every time?
✓ Do you have to add so many liquids that flour needs to be added to thicken up the slurry?
✓ Are these adjustments as a result of periodic viscosity checks or from the slurry testing?
The goal of your testing frequency should be as little as possible while ensuring the key parameters are in range. I have seen some customers test their slurries on a daily basis and some do no testing at all.
I firmly believe that if you control your inputs, slurry control will be much easier and a result, less testing is required. That means that you must monitor the material being fed into the slurry tanks and make adjustments prior to adding them into the dip tanks. If the make-up tanks are in range, it would stand to reason that the slurry dip tanks will also be in range. But, what if the make-up tanks aren’t maintained in range?
If you have questions about how to ensure the make-up tanks are in control, read Shark Teeth or an Iowa Cornfield?
If you start to understand why the adjustments are being made and take steps to correct those parts of the process which are causing the variability, then you will be on your way to having a more robust process which will allow the operators to spend less time testing the slurries and more time on production.
If you want to talk about where your process variability might be coming from, send me a quick email at Julie@keyprocessinnovations.com and we can discuss your situation in greater detail.
