Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 15

I t was the last Sunday in January 1996, although it was early afternoon, the light was already starting to fade. There had been heavy snow that morning and the skies promised more. Traffic was slow, and although conditions were improving as I travelled into the urban area, I was running late and hoped that this wouldn’t reflect too badly on me. This wasn’t the first time I’d been in charge of an installation project but this was the first time that the installation team was an independent outfit. I’d established a good working relationship with them and didn’t want to blow it at this late stage. Normally we would put together an installation team from our own workforce but this project had necessitated using an independent outfit. We’d used this team several times; they’d previously worked alongside our own people and I knew that they were good but I also knew that they “didn’t suffer fools,” especially Bob, their team leader. Building a good working relationship had mostly come down to respecting their ability, not trying to micromanage them, and making the tea when required (never underestimate the importance of tea in any British endeavor). As I headed to site, I mused that it had been an odd project from the start but I didn’t realize that it was going to get much odder before the day was done. A MONORAIL INSTALLATION, WITH A LITTLE GHOSTLY ASSISTANCE 7 That day ought to have been a formality. The project was all but completed and had reached the stage where it was a case of tidying up loose ends and running final checks. The installation team had been reduced to a crew of two for the final day. My task was to show up and effectively to sign off on the completed project. As I said, it had been an odd project from the start; the foundry was part of a larger company that made phosphor bronze components. Some were machined from billets but most started life as castings. The company comprised of three square buildings arranged in one rectangle with the machine shop on the left hand side, the offices block in the centre, and the foundry on the right. Each had its own parking and the foundry yard was fenced off from the main enclosure, linked only by internal pedestrian access gates. An external gate gave access to the foundry yard. Effectively the foundry was its own entity. While the machine shop and office building probably dated from the 1960s the bulk of the foundry had a good hundred years on them and was originally built as a Methodist chapel. A re-used chapel isn’t uncommon in the north of England. As the STEVEN HARKER Technical Director Acetarc Engineering Co. Ltd ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS: • Managing raw material inventory management -- identifies thievery! CASE STUDIES Continued on next page