Bright ideas deliver plant improvements
ScotAsh prides itself on nurturing a culture of innovation, so it comes as no surprise that the company's Improvement Scheme attracted some outstanding suggestions during 2005 - the best of which were submitted by Mark Stephen, Stevie Clegg and Jack Anderson. Mark investigated an apparent fault with door closing sensors in the packing plant.
He found that the chrome wheels and fuel tank on a particular vehicle were reflecting a light beam that normally detects the presence of a truck.
This caused the door to close in error - which could have had potentially serious consequences. The sensors have now been disabled to prevent this happening.
Stevie Clegg's simple but effective idea was to develop a colour ready reckoner to help operators produce Part 1 ash within a colour range that would meet customer specifications.
Meanwhile, colleague Jack Anderson's determination pinpointed the cause of a persistent fault with the stretch hood machine in the packing plant.
Production Manager Allan Harding said: "Mark's analytical skills helped to solve what could have been a serious safety issue.
"Stevie developed a simple system to give the operators the confidence to produce on specification material.
"And Jack's persistence and monitoring of the performance of the stretch hood machine resulted in the identification and subsequent resolution of a programming fault that was costing money and loss of production. My thanks go to each of them."
Mark, Stevie and Jack each received £ 100 vouchers. Well done guys!
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