Electrochemicals Blog – EPI – Electrochemical Products Inc.

August 29th, 2008

By Eric Olander

The last day we went through two training sessions on manufacturing  by Masterlock team members. The first session a group of suppliers had a goal of shooting a  ball with a catapult 12 feet plus or minus 6 inches. We had three variables, the ball ( a sponge ball and a golf wiffle ball), the launching angle ( a protractor device was built on the catapult for measuring the angle),  and the point where the catapult arm stopped after the arm released. A runner band was used as the springing device. You can see me on the right side of the picture helping to hold the catapult for back fire. Fortunately we had three engineers in our group so we taking the military approach in firing a mortar. Our goal was to find what variable had the largest effect on the distance. We first used the sponge ball and tried changing arm stop position. After two tries withbthe arm position we had it close , but it was too far. Next, we  worked on the launch angle finding that a 5-10 degree for the launch arm gave us our range and 8 -9 degrees was the best angle.  The last variable was the type of ball. We all thought  the whiffle ball would fly less. We kept the same settings on the catapult and the golf whiffle ball was in range! Therefore, the launch angle had the largest affect on the distance.

The next event  was to assemble a wooden car with four wheels, four wooden axles, and four disk brakes. We had six work stations and one person who transported everything. During the first ten minutes we only assembled three cars because of the rules of manufacturing that were given to us. I worked station three, assembling the wheels,axles, and disk brakes to the wooden car. I had to unassembled the three components and re-assemble them together.  We lost a lot of time not being efficient. Together we worked on developing a new process and our rules. We tried it again and we assembled 52 cars in 10 minutes!

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings | No Comments »

August 28th, 2008

By Eric Olander

This morning Bob Rice ,Vice President of Master Lock kicked off Masterlock's 2008 North American Supplier Conference. This is my first Masterlock NASC. The three previous conferences where held in Milwaukee ( Masterlock's corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility), Louisville, Ky ( Masterlock's distribution center) and Tuscon, AZ/NogalesMexico ( Masterlock's assembly center). I learned that China is becoming an expensive place to source product  because of the VAT rebate has been eleimnated, higher wages, labor law ( 80 hour weeks are 40 hour weeks/40hours of overtime), the appreciation of the yuan, and another factor is a  Chinese person worker can make a higher wage in the food service industry than in manufacturing industry.  China is having a labor shortage!I also listened to Adam Meister from Fortune Brands which besides  Masterlock also includes companies like Moen faucet , Jim Bean bourbon and Titlist golf. Adam discussed Fortune Brands expectations of its suppliers committing to Fortune Brand's Global Citizenship  policy. Adam also discussed how their audit program for suppliers works. To see this policy go to www.fortunebrands.com .

 We also listened to other Masterlock team members discuss their success  with Masterlock suppliers.  Greg Radaj  Sr Purchasing Manager discussed his consignment program and how it has made Milwaukee work better and save  money. After the morning talks we had two options go for a raft ride down the Snake River or take a bus tour of the  Grand Tetons. I selected the Snake River trip. Please note that the water flow was low so we really never had much white water, but we had awesome views of the Grand Tetons. I have pictures, but I have to learn how to do a slide show on Word-press so please be patient with me. Our tour guide and oarsman was Andy who was originally from North  Carolina, but went skiing once at Jackson Hole and has not returned since. Andy is finishing up his Geography degree from Wyoming University and he educated us of many geological facts  of the area. The Tetons are very young Mountains only 8 million years old if I remember correctly.  Yellowstone is about 50 miles from the Tetons and has an active volcano that goes off every 600,000 years. They know it went off 1.2 million years ago and about 600,0000 years ago. Geologists are predicting that it could blow any time the next 10,000 years. The Yellowstone volcano, when its blows top will be 250 times greater than Mt St. Helens.   This will destroy most of the western US and  put so much ash into the air that the ice age will come back and the glaciers will take over again like they did 15,000 years ago in this region. This was a great first day!

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings | No Comments »

August 22nd, 2008

By Eric Olander

Next week I will be attending Masterlock's North American Supplier Conference in Jackson Hole, WY. We hope to get in some river rafting and/or hiking in the Grand Teton National Park  besides working with Masterlock.

This week I recorded a i-podcast for MetalFinshing.com.  Reg Tucker  the editor of Metal Finishing magazine ask me questions about EPi's trivalent yellow chromate new developments longer  corrosion resistance up to 600-700 hours salt spray, passes the thumb test, and the E-Chrome Ultra Yellow 600  approaches salt spray hours of zinc alloy plating. We also discussed our new plating process for plating on magnesium, Ultra Blak 400 hot black oxide and Insta Blak 333 process for steel. Stay tune for this release of the podcast in the near  future.

EPi is also working on re-doing our web-site. Stay tuned!

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings | No Comments »