September 2007 - Rexam Audit of Stolle Canton Plant

Worth Fixing

At the end of 2004, Stolle Machinery had just purchased Sequa Can Machinery, Inc.  The merger left Stolle with two facilities in Canton, Ohio; the location formerly known as the Redicon Corporation, and the Sequa facility that was Can Industry Products (CIP).  2004-05 saw Stolle EMD trying to merge the two businesses under one roof in the best ways possible.

“That was no fun, I’ll tell you,” says Jim McClung, Stolle Canton General Manager. “Here we were facing the challenge of putting these two businesses units together while simultaneously shipping a record volume of orders.  I guess we knew we needed to focus more on implementing processes, but it seemed like we never had the time or resources to do it.”  Even though the Stolle Sidney location is ISO 9001 certified (where Stolle manufactures conversion systems and Preferred Liners), the new Canton location lacked properly documented processes.

Earlier this year, Rexam Europe’s supply chain management team identified an opportunity to help Stolle Canton.  Martin John, Rexam Europe’s Purchasing Manager, deployed one of their key 6 Sigma auditors to the Canton location for an initial review.  “Our key suppliers are important to us and we want to work with them.  We help them focus on those activities that will improve their abilities to meet deliveries while providing higher quality products,” states Mr. John.

In February 2007, Stolle’s Sidney’s own internal audit team audited all Canton procedures which pertained to document control, corrective actions and internal audit.  “We needed to get the key elements covered first before we jumped into trying to document other critical processes such as purchasing and engineering,” says McClung.  “Our internal audit team identified a lack of procedures, wrote corrective actions for them, and assigned them to our Canton team.  Those teams documented and used revision control to build and implement the new procedures.”

The Rexam Europe audit team then visited the Canton location in April.  They identified a number of opportunities pertaining to 5 S’s.  According to Martin John, “Our walk through their manufacturing facility identified material handling issues in the receiving, shipping and manufacturing areas.  Their die building area was impeccable but their final assembly and electrical departments scored much lower.”

To assist Stolle, an outside consulting team from nearby Cleveland, Ohio bolstered the Stolle team.  Bob Bak, Consultant from Sims Consulting Group, helped the Stolle team map the flow for shipping, manufacturing and receiving.  “You have to document the material flow throughout the company first,” according to Bak.  “Once we mapped the material flow, it became obvious to the Stolle team how it could improve.”

“It’s really made a difference,” says McClung.  “As you walk through the facility things are easier to find.  We know when parts are here and we’ve seen improvement with both our quality and efficiencies.  Being audited is not easy on your ego, but once you make the improvements and see the results, you know it’s worth it.  This entire process has made us a more capable business.  We owe a big thanks to Rexam for helping us.”

The work is not done.  The Stolle Canton team has continued and is currently documenting purchasing and engineering processes.  “Our new procedures have been documented, processes implemented, corrective actions answered and the location is ready for the follow up audits,” says McClung.  He concludes, “And better yet, we now have the culture in place to remain aware of how we control processes.  This allows us to identify and implement continuous improvements.”