June 2008 - Canton Plant Audit Follow-Up

Exceeding Expectations

March 2008 saw the conclusion to a year-long story of innovation, improvement and partnership between Rexam Europe and Stolle Machinery.  Only a year earlier, members of the Rexam Beverage Can Europe’s (BCE) Supply Chain team audited Stolle’s Canton manufacturing facility to help identify problems areas that were affecting delivery (click here to read more about this audit).  A follow-up audit in November 2007 was scheduled to see how Stolle would respond and what changes might be implemented.

“We started by hiring an outside consultant who specializes in 5’s to help our people reorganize our shop,” according to Jim McClung, President of Stolle Canton.  “Before the first audit, we had just consolidated the Stolle and Sequa operations into one facility and were definitely not as well organized as we should have been.  Rexam also pointed out several processes that were not documented,” McClung continued.  “The audit gave our team focus and helped us recalibrate; after that, we clearly understood what customers expected.”

Since the audit, the shop has been completely reorganized.  “We purchased new storage racks which allowed us to neatly stage inventory,” said Bill Studt, Stolle Canton Warehouse manager.  “Before, customer run-off material would come in and we’d just put it wherever we could find room.  Now everything is stored in designated areas and items are clearly marked.”  Bar coding for parts will further improve the receiving and inventory control as well as facilitate allocation.   In addition to the 5’s initiative, a group of Stolle Sidney ISO-9001 auditors also audited the Canton location three times from April until November.  Their focus was to make sure documented procedures were in place.

Erica Paul, Stolle Sidney’s Purchasing Manager and a lead ISO internal auditor, explained Sidney’s internal audit approach.  “We actually do two audits in one.  We first look at the procedures to determine if they follow ISO guidelines.  If they do, we then audit to find out if the employees actually follow the procedure that is written.  We look for proof.  The Canton group did a fine job getting the proper procedures in place and also training their personnel.  The first three ISO elements implemented were a corrective action system, a document control procedure and an internal audit process.  Once these disciplines were instilled, their team was able to focus on documenting the other functions within the business such as purchasing, receiving, sales, engineering.”

The test came in November of 2007, when the Rexam BCE team returned to Stolle Canton for a follow up audit.  Claire Peterson, Rexam BCE’s Senior Buyer for Capital Equipment, was one of the lead auditors on the team.  “We were impressed with Stolle’s efforts.  They obviously showed commitment and had done a lot of work implementing procedures.  We felt much more confident in their ability to provide quality products on time.”

The Rexam auditors submitted their findings to Richard Downes, Rexam BCE’s Supply Chain Vice-President.  According to Mr. Downes, “the findings of the second audit of Stolle Canton demonstrated the extent to which Stolle has responded to the ‘voice of the customer’ by dealing with some difficult challenges in a very positive way.”

But a final chapter of the story was written March 31st of this year when David Groetsch, CEO of Stolle Machinery and Greg Butcher, President of Stolle EMD, were asked to visit England and Mr. Butcher was presented the Rexam Exceptional Supplier Award in Innovation on behalf of Stolle Canton.  Mr. Butcher accepted the award from Tomas Sjölin, Rexam Senior Manager of Beverage Cans for Europe and Asia.  The award was presented at the Sopwell House in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.  Bill Barker, Group Director Rexam Beverage Can and Richard Downes, Vice President Supply Chain, Europe and Asia were also present for the ceremony.  Rexam started their Exceptional Supplier Awards program in late 2004 and give out four awards annually.  There is only one awarded in each category.

Of course, the process is never complete now that the performance bar has been established at a higher level.  According to Jim McClung, “We know what the customer expects and we’ll be working hard to continue to improve.  We’ve actually just started.  Our next goal is to continue documenting procedures and then become ISO 9001 certified.  We’re proud of what our team has accomplished, but it’s always good to be striving to improve our business.  We believe that our efforts will both improve the quality of our products, and our ability to meet our delivery commitments.”

For further comments or questions on Canton’s response to the Rexam audit, you can contact them at (330) 244-0555 or email:

Jim McClung
jim.mcclung@stollemachinery.com