MaxViz Camera

Check out the video of the MaxVis camera. You can see it under the wing of the airplane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1MymcwHEV0

Great Job - Team!

Congratulations to all involved with the sprue bushing improvement on the PMT VXI CHASSIS, TOP tool. Not only did we reduce the cycle-time and make the part removal less painful for the operator, we made a significant reduction in the scrap rate. The scrap rate (year to date) was 20%, and the actual scrap rate for the first 800 pieces after the change was 6%. The cost for the tool modification was paid in the first 600 pieces. Thank you and great job!

Holiday Meal - Update

We are changing the date for the holiday meal to Wednesday, December 17th.

Holiday Dinner Plan

Due to the short weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will not be shutting down for dinner on the last days before the holidays as in past years. We will be scheduling shift dinners between the two holidays around December 10th, more details to follow. Each shift is welcome to have an informal potluck on the lasts days before the holidays.

Act Quick!

First person that gets to my office and recites the mission statement correctly gets 10 bucks on the spot! No running!

Congratulations to Sarah, Keven and Mike - Great Job, Thank You

R&D PLASTICS ADDS ROBOTIC CAPABILITY (From Newsletter)

R&D Plastics uses robotics for part removal and other functions whenever possible, to keep our pricing competitive. Robots run fully automatic which reduces labor, reduces cycle time and often makes processes more consistent which improves part quality. Increasing utilization of our robotic tools is one of our lean projects. Two key elements of our lean project are developing and improving end of arm tooling and focusing on modular tools that will facilitate faster robot set-ups.

Costco anyone?

Costco Membership renewal is this month.

Current members, please let Kandi know if you’d like to continue your membership or cancel it. Anyone that’s not currently a member and would like to be, please let Kandi know as well.

Annual Membership Fee is $40.00, which includes a card for an additional household member (must reside at same address).

Please get back to Kandi no later than Tuesday, November 18th.

Holiday Schedule Change

The changes are in bold.

November 26th – Unpaid
November 27th – Paid Holiday
November 28th – Paid Holiday

December 24th – Unpaid
December 25th – Paid Holiday
December 26th – Unpaid

December 31st – Unpaid
January 1st – Paid Holiday
January 2nd - Unpaid

Please let Kandi know if you would like to use PTO to cover this day.

Daylight Saving Time ends Nov 2nd

Daylight Saving Time ends this coming Sunday at 2am.

Standard Time begins each year at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November. Move your clocks back one hour at the resumption of Standard Time.

Reminder

Our customers are the purpose of our work, rather than an interruption from our work.
Business Strategies, Inc., 9.08

Holiday Schedule

Thanksgiving and the day after are paid days off.

Christmas is a paid day off and we will be shut down the day after Christmas (unpaid). Please let Kandi know if you would like to use PTO to cover this day.

New Year’s Day is a paid day off and we will be shut down the day after New Year’s Day (unpaid). Please let Kandi know if you would like to use PTO to cover this day.

We are still reviewing our customer orders for December as they come in over the next few weeks. We will make a decision on shutting down for more days during the Christmas and New Year’s period after reviewing the December orders.

Welcome Sharon

Please join me in welcoming Sharon Rousseau to our group as Buyer/Planner. Sharon has been working in the injection molding industry for 12 years. Sharon has worked as a Production Lead, Training Facilitator, Customer Service Rep and an Account Manager while she was at Vision Plastics. Sharon will move into Eric’s space, so stop by and introduce yourself when you get a chance.

People on the Move – Part II

Eric Fisher is moving on to join Denton Plastics in a new role as a Trader (sales and purchasing) . Eric will be with us through the 24th of September.

Sarah Cornwell has joined us straight from the Western Washington University. Please join me in welcoming her to the R&D Plastics family and to the Portland area. Sarah will be working as a Project Engineer and spending time in training supporting the customer service group.

People on the Move

Shane Mayo named Shipping and Receiving Lead.
It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Shane Mayo as our new Shipping and Receiving Lead. Over the next few weeks Shane will be training for his new role. Please join me in congratulating Shane for taking on this new challenge.

Mike Sato added to the Technical Lead and Material Handling support.
Please welcome Mike to the R&D Plastics team. Mike brings 20 years of experience to our technical team and come to us highly recommended. It is nice to have one more local fisherman in the building.

Doug Schmidt moves from Sedona Staffing to R&D Plastics.
Please congratulate Doug on his move to R&D Plastics. Doug has been an operator for many months on graveyard. Doug has been a valuable part of the graveyard team and we look forward to his continuing support.

PRE-ACT Reminder

Just a reminder of the PRE-ACT acronym that I like to use within the team. Please make sure we all follow these, including me!

Personal Accountability => Stop the blame game, largest waste of all
Risk => Be apart of the solution - Get involved
Execution => Support the team
Attention to Detail => Focus on the customer
Candor => Be professional
Trust => Trust the team

Outlook For July & August

As we head into the next two months our sales outlook looks to be the weakest we have seen this year. We saw a similar drop in revenue last year at this time, but this year it is magnified by the state of our economy. As the price for a barrel of oil has increased we have seen many of our expenses increase. Our raw material has increased 10% over the past few months and we have seen similar increases in shipping, fuel, and other outside services. We expect that these increases will continue through the end of the year.

I will be meeting with employees over the next week to get input on where we can conserve on many of these expenses. As a team, we can work together to reduce and conserve the materials, goods and services needed to support our customers in our day-to-day operations.

We will have changes to work schedules over this period. Tino and I are working on minimizing the impact as much as possible. As we define the changes for each shift and/or group we will notify you as soon as possible.

It is important that we all understand that we should not panic or over react as we need to continue to support our customers with the outstanding service that they have come to expect from our team. We need to buckle down as a team and really work toward reducing cost everywhere we can.

Payday Update

7/02/08 UPDATE:
Paychex did not process our payroll yesterday morning when I submitted it. They are processing it this morning, but that means that the paychecks will not be here until some time tomorrow (hopefully in the morning). Those people on Graveyard shift that have live checks will need to come back in to pick up their checks. Please call to make sure they have arrived before you come in.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Change Announcement

On July 7th, Jill will be moving to the graveyard shift to support in the production lead role. We have asked Jill to focus on operator training and the development of a long-term production lead. This new lead will support the shift when Jill moves back to day shift. We expect that Jill will be back on day shift in less than six months.

Shane will fill in for Jill in her absence. I will post a new job description for this opening in the next few days. We will start the interview process after the Fourth of July break.

Josh will be moving from graveyard to days to continue his training. Josh will make his move shortly after Jill is settled in on graveyard.

Please join us in offering any support that you can as they learn their new roles.

Lean and Green Project

In a continuing effort to support our company values our Lean Team has implemented the following program:

Description -- We have added new recycling containers for production scrap and process waste. We have found a recycler that will take the material, so it does not need to go into the trash/dumpster. You will find large gray plastic cans located at the NW corner of the building, near the large pallet scale. The cans are marked in yellow with "SPRUES, PARTS, & PURGE" painted on the side.

Please review e-mail for more detail and instruction.

I would like to thank Eric, Sherry, Regina, Kevin, Tino, Shane, and Jill for their help and support. They have estimated that we will reduce our impact at the landfill by one dumpster a week!!!!

Payday next week

The next payday will be on Thursday, July 3rd because of the July 4th holiday falling on Friday. Friday is one of our paid holidays for those employees that qualify.

Also, a request for any future PTO time used:
If you have any time missed during a pay period, please write at the top of your time card whether you would like to use PTO time or not for those missing hours/days. This helps a great deal when it's time to process the payroll.

We are working on getting the available PTO time to show up on the paycheck stubs. It will be one or two more payrolls before this happens. This should be helpful for all employees to keep track of their PTO totals in the future. Please let Kandi know if you have any questions.

Web Tools

I added a new section to the bar on the right called Web Tools. I will continue to add links to handy tools that help us in our different job duties. The first is IDES.com. It takes one minute to sign up (free) and it is a great resource for material information. For those not tweeking nobs at the machine - it has a great section called "Tools". You can find a glossary of terms and property descriptions under the tools tab.

Please forward other web tools that you think would be good additions.

Thank You - Mr. Mason!

I would like to thank Kevin for a coming up with a fix on machine 19 last week. Kevin's smart thinking and mechanical ability help us save $2500 in replacement parts. Thank You Kevin!

Friday Potluck

We will be buying the hamburgers, hotdogs and mixings for each shift. Tino is working on the BBQ grill. Please bring a dish to share for the big event. Severo - no chips this time!

Mission Statement

It would be a great idea to memorize the Mission Statement. You never know when someone might ask and hand you $10.00 if you recite it on the spot!

Mission (How we intend to win in this business)
"Continuously shorten all business cycles with accuracy and efficiency while producing outstanding financial results."

Congratulations

Congratulations to Shane's sister Casey Shillam. Casey graduated with a PhD in Nursing from the OHSU. Casey also received the Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society Award.