DEPARTMENT NEWS
TWISTING
By: Richard Harrison
Effori:s are con'binuing to prepare
for the transition to the new plant.
The first machines will be removed
from the 1st floor beginning April 7.
Seven machines will be taken from the
1st floor, twenty from the 2nd floor
and eleven from the 5th floor. All
of the overhaulers are to be
commended for their efforts. Very
stringent timetables have been given
to the overhauling teams and their
response has been outstanding.
We are now installing separator
blades on all machines going to the
new plant. This has been a time
consviming job but through efforts
from the shop, overhaulers, fixers
and temporary help, this will be
accomplished.
We continue to struggle with quality
problems to our Noblesville customer.
These products are 210/3 on the 5th
floor, 840/2 on the 5th and 2nd
floors, and 1260/3 on the 2nd floor.
The concerns are low tensile, slack
twist, and chafed yam.
Thanks to all Twisting employees for
their cooperation during the
transition period. Your support has
made this difficult task much easier.
WEAVING
By: Mike Roland
We are now less than one month away
from starting production in our new
plant. This is scheduled to start on
May 17, 1993.
We are still producing here, safety
and quality should always be the
first things we think about each day
before we start to work. Quality
defects and waste have gotten worse
in the past three months. I feel
confident that with the right focus,
we can turn this around and get back
into the Gainshare Program. Splicing
and the SCRAM Team prepared a
presentation on cord defects and
broken cords and countermeasures to
reduce this problem.
Equipment moves are scheduled to
start in April. Twisting will be
removing approximately forty
twisters. Things are beginning to
happen and our future is being
established. Keep up the good work!
QUALITY ASSURANCE
By: Dave Lewis
One of our customers, Venezuela, has
a hard time processing our fabric.
In fact they have more trouble than
all our other customers. We have
worked together for years trying to
resolve this problem. We have not
been able to do that, so the end of
February we ran some new trials.
These trials were different because
we had people from both Venezuela and
Akron here to observe the processing.
We will follow this fabric to
Venezuela next month and see if we see
the reason for the problem.
We continue to get pressure from our
tire plants about the quality of the
ends of the rolls of fabric we
produce. The problem starts in
weaving during the start up of the
fabric on the empty shell. We
distort the fabric starting it up.
We are looking at buying larger
shells so we can get a smoother,
tighter start. The problem is added
to in treating, at both ends of the
machine because of the design of the
equipment. Here too we are looking
at increasing the shell size in order
to get a better start up. We are
also looking at modifying the sewing
machine area to reduce the handling
of the fabric.
We have continued to have quality
problems with Noblesville products.
They expect every bit of their fabric
to be perfect, a reasonable
expectation, and we can't seem to
quite get there. If you work on
these products, we need you to pay
close attention to what you are
doing, follow the specifications and
procedures, and do the best job you
know how to do.
We received another perfect score
from our customer in Costa Rical In
February he had no chargebacks.
That's better than six consecutive
months without a complaint. Good
job!!
IRENE ROWLAND retired 4-1-93 from
the Lab following MARGARET RAXTER who
left in January. We will miss them
both.