Bldg 1, Bolshoy boulevard, 42 Skolkovo technopark, Moscow, 143026
15 Karl Marx str. 242500 Karachev Bryansk region

News

METACLAY employees have been trained in lean manufacturing

METACLAY completed the 5-day training program of Lean Production from INTERCERTIFICA with Sergey Popov as a trainer. The program is based on the Japanese "Kaizen" system, which helps to improve technologies, product quality, production processes, labor productivity and corporate culture in a complex. Kaizen is closely intertwined with our Quality Management System (QMS) for STO Gazprom and enriches it with the personal interest of employees to save time, keep their workplace clean and order, eliminate the unnecessary costs of raw materials and other resources. People are the main focus of the Kaizen system. This system involves each employee in the process of improving from the top manager to the worker through incentives and stimulations.

Training under the "Lean Production" program  was attended by shiftsmen, accountant masters of raw materials and finished products, technologists, HR director, QMS manager and Coordination of Purchases and Sales Director . The curator of the program was the production director Roman Popov. Team participants solved coache's tasks, as well as their daily production tasks. Thus, the obtained theory was immediately fixed.

During the training, a draft order was prepared for the implementation of the lean manufacturing system at METACLAY JSC.

The lean manufacturing regulations require systematic suggestions from employees to streamline work processes and technologies. A special form and criteria have been developed for such suggestions. During the training, some of our participants managed to formalize and submit their suggestions. At the same time, they explained that before the training they had similar thoughts, but they did not know how to arrange them and doubted whether they would accept them or not. "Kaizen" welcomes any attempts by people to improve the joint venture. So, the accountant master of raw materials and finished products, Snezhana Chupakhina, in co-authorship with 4 other employees, proposed the purchase of a self-propelled cart to the compounding department for the loading of raw materials into the equipment. There is a manual fork cart (a shovel) is used on this site at the monent. Using it, two operators transport raw materials from the elevator to the production equipment. It takes 40 minutes to remove a batch of pallets with raw materials from the elevator and arrange them on the floor markings. Buying a self-propelled cart will make it easier for operators. Then one operator can take raw materials, and another at this time will be able to clean up the shop. Another proposal for a fork cart came from Roman Ivchenko, the shiftmaster. The author suggested to strengthen the trolley in the silicate workshop with two beams and stops. This will allow to carry a roll of a 150 kg canvas on it, and not carry it by hand.

In the USSR, there was also a system of rationalization suggestions in manufactures. The population also had to look for solutions for household needs in deficiency conditions. So for us, rational suggestions are part of our culture, which will help us implement a system of lean production.

In the course of training, a pilot lean production chart of monolayer anticorrosion coating was developed. There are the requirements of the consumer at the beginning of this chart. Many enterprises miss a deligent request of  consuner's requirements  and this entails reclamation and time spent. Irina Petrina, Coordination of Purchasing and Sales Director, has developed a form that now requires technical parameters of future products from customers, such as density, melt flow, melting point - more than 15 indicators in total. In addition, it is necessary to request packaging and transportation requirements. The chart also contains verification of the technical specifications requirements, the development of laboratory and industrial lots, the introduction of finished products at the consumer's site and his recall.

Order in the workplace is of great importance in the lean manufacturing system by Kaizen. To create it, there is a special system of "5S". According to it, first you need to sort out all the unnecessary things, then put everything that's left in order. The most necessary tools should always be in sight. Production Director Roman Popov has developed regulations for the introduction of "5S" in the workplace in the shops. This regulation will make an incumbent habit of keeping workplaces in a clean and orderly manner at our manufacture.