Goal of the Exchange Process 1. Help each Member professional to expand their business networks in order for you to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how you tackle you job functions. 2. Provide Members with a dynamic and reliable resource to help you solve problems and find new implementable ideas

Rules of Engagement 1. Do not use your HOLD button on your telephone – hearing elevator music in the next 60 minutes is not good! 2. No body language signs – please be aggressive and speak your mind and thoughts. 3. Please identify yourself with name and company before speaking. 4. Take Notes about who is saying what… 5. Warning: My goal is to facilitate aggressively so we can cover as many topics as possible. 6. Last but not least, I need your feedback on how to make this process better for you and the participants. 7. Keep in mind of Anti-trust laws.

Question: How do others present Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to new employees? Written, Pictures, Videos? (Michael Antras)  Eric: Items part of quality system are Word documents. We load these into an LMS, Cornerstone. Each job title has mandatory training that is required. Critical step for compliance is that everyone must click a compliance block that says I’ve done this. Also, we use new employee videos that hits the high spots SDS Fire drills Other really important items  Kelly (Viking Plastics): Formalized orientation programs to cover what / who / where’s. This gets the new employees comfortable with surroundings and go to people.  Mark: In process of changing things. Most SOPs are in binder documents that training coordinators review. We have a mock work station in our training room that illustrates information and layout. Work instructions are being moved to tablets to access internal and external. Operators are required to sign off and record they have read and understand work instructions.  Kamila: Moving to using cells for each work station and using tablets for internal work instructions. Also going to TWI visuals to help people grasp the work instructions.

Question: What methods have you implemented to help sustain 5S? (Mark Murphy)  Gene: Each shift is scored and each shift has individual champions. We are creating general comradery between the shifts. “Leave your shift the way you want it to be presented.” We are on our 5 th iteration of the score sheet. Each cell is identified on 5 steps including the general 5S areas. Weekly change of champions. In two months, everyone had a run through and knew how they were being scored. Helped to standardize scoring.  Jeremy: System seem to fail when top management stopped driving  Jonathan (Wabash Plastics): All machines have common operator layout. Gauges, work instructions, all environments are the same. We don’t do well at cleaning up the packaging nor do we have the room Mark (PRD): No designated spaces  Laura: We use 2-Second Lean from Paul Akers. Must be driven from the top down. Every Monday morning everyone assembles and team members present ideas that have been implemented. Allow individuals to have control over their time and this helps to create raving fans. We talk about successes and opportunities. We also have a lean blog that all employees subscribe to like “why do we have so much paper?” This helps engage everyone in the organization.  Robert Seals: We push on this regularly. We invest in the facility. Any time we can we are making improvements. We do a shift meeting every week with a everyone. Keeping the work environment clean is ideal for attracting new customers.  Kelly: Mfg areas are called Pride Areas. Cross functional teams of all areas comprise the teams. A) Gets people engaged on a daily basis B) Helps send daily reminders C) Builds camaraderie in the workplace.

Question: The term “article,” how many understand the definition as it is used in 29 CFR and GHS? (William Rodriguez)

Question: How are you addressing Scientific Molding concepts? (Robert Seals)  Kelly: 95% of machines have molding parameters. We are developing a certified person.  Mark: 2-3 years ago we had RJG train all set-up professionals. Now we have the scales, workbooks, etc. to establish the process upfront. We have a 2-person sampling team that establishes the master process up front. Baring tooling or material issues, we can move any job anywhere. We’ve also added new process training employees. We don’t use a great deal of cavity pressure monitoring.  Johnathan: Using scientific molding for over 15 years. A couple of guys set up the process. We use a propriety system to transfer jobs which sets up jobs on other machines. Not many instruments in the mold. We use Paulson Training system and plan on upgrading. We may use Beaumont in the future for our training.  Kelly: 2 people are in the new AIM training program.  Dan (Automation): We use RJG on all presses. We are modeling process curves and in the process of implementation. Have several people attending the master molder training.  Eric: We have 3 master molders. Process techs have module one. Have 2 Edarts used for trouble shooting. Calibration of the system components is something we feel needs done.  Gene: We are not recalibrating the sensors. However, we are checking the signals at PM to make sure the sensors are functioning correctly. We don’t really rely on any single setting, but rather it is the combination of all components that control the process.

Question: Have other members had quality improvement results from RJG? (Kelly Goodsel)  Gene: Don’t have a formal analysis that says we saved X, however, we have had RJG address some lingering issues like blistering and bubbling that would come and go without answers, that have been eliminated. 70% of molds and 100% of machines are equipped. External defects did decrease.  Mark: Do not directly measure the ROI  Alan: Have designed tools to aid the technology but, in most instances, our knowledge base has aided in not making common mistakes.

Question: Successful Strategies for upgrading production supervisory staff on the “off-shifts” (salaries, training, new hires, etc)? (Elizabeth Johnson)

Question: What is the best way to network with other resin buyers around best practices? (Connie Robinson)

Question: What type/style of operator work instructions are in use or considered best in class? (Joe Camp)

Question: How do you handle talent recruitment? (Larry Holmes)

Question: How are companies tracking employee attendance and how strict are they in adherence? Is anyone using a point system? (Myles Marquette)

Question: What “Root Cause” Analysis techniques have yielded your organization the best results and why (Tim Zeigler)

Question: What talents and skills do we desire for the next generation of managers (Gene Mussel)

Question: Do other members have difficulties recruiting at the entry (operator) level? (Jonathan Edwards)

Question: How are other organizations finding new talent in today’s staffing market? (Laura Goik)

Ideas to Grow Networking  Consider an example of the types of things discussed as opposed to just saying generic stuff.  Marketing the topics of existing questions may draw people.  We might put a list of the topics and score the topics in priority of order.

Save the Date for the Benchmarking Conference – Oct , 2015 THANK YOU!