DEPARTMENT NEWS
TWISTING
By: Richard Harrison
Equipment relocation is continuing
to the new plant. Twisters have been
removed from the second east end,
fourth east end and first east end.
Please be careful while the movers
are in your areas. Refrain from
leaning out the windows as parts
could fall off of these twisters.
Thus far the transition has gone
very well. Productivity and quality
levels have been satisfactory in most
cases. Waste levels for twisting
have been at budget. The proper
seating of bobbins has played an
important part in twisting success.
Also be careful not to mix yam
during this transition. It is
necessary to move products to areas
that they have not been produced at
other times. There will be occasions
that more than one type of white yam
will be on your floor.
COMMENTS FROM MIKE ROLAND
I am now at the Kings Mountain plant
- full time. I have enjoyed working
with you guys in weaving and look
forward to seeing you soon at the new
plant.
TERRY SWANNER has taken my place in
weaving. I have worked with Terry
and enjoyed the working relationship
I had with him. Let's welcome him to
our team.
Thank you for your hard work and
dedication in making this ten hour
shift work out for us. The amount of
production has increased through your
efforts. Keep up the good work and I
will see you at the new plant - SOON!
WEAVING
By: Terry Swanner
The weave room has completed its
first month on the two ten hour
shifts and it has been relatively
successful. As we continue to move
more employees to the Learning Center
and the Kings Mountain facility this
type of amended work schedule will
allow us to work through this
difficult transition period.
The Splicing Department's efforts in
working on broken cords continues to
be a top priority.
WEAVING NEWS CONTINUED
Everyone'S efforts from twisting,
weaving, and treating are to be
commended.
The Industrial Weaving teams are
nearly in place and training has
begun. We are setting our sights
toward the move to Kings Moimtain.
I would like to personally thank
each person who has assisted in my
acclamation to the Firestone team.
Your understanding is deeply
appreciated.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
By: Dave Lewis
The trials of special fabric, that
was followed through the Gastonia
plant by Akron-Valencia-Gastonia
engineers, was evaluated in Valencia
last month. All the followed rolls
calendered very well. But the
regular production fabric we saw was
of poorer quality than we would like.
We saw baggy fabric and poor roll
builds. We agreed to improve the way
we wrap the rolls, so they would pick
up less moisture in their tropical
climate. So we are adding extra
layers of polyethylene film to the
outside of the roll, and we will wrap
the wooden shell in polyethylene. We
are making roll build improvement a
higher priority project.
The larger diameter shell rolls for
treating and weaving are coming in
now. This will reduce the amount of
chargebacks we get for distorted
fabric at both ends of our treated
fabric rolls.
Noblesville continues to be happy
with our present level of quality.
Again, this is due to your personal
attention to making the products
exactly as the specification
requires. Thanks.
This month I visited Bridgestone,
LaVergne for a technical meeting and
to watch our fabric at the calender.
Overall they are pleased with our
products. They would like us to
improve our ends per inch uniformity
all the way across the fabric. They
have not approved the new air jet
fabric because their tests show the
ends per inch to be less uniform.
Both weaving and treating have an
impact on this, so pay attention to
the uniformity across the sheet.