Materials Award: A Will to Cut Waste
by L. Carol Christopher
Vice President of Operations Richard Hackney remembers that Steve McManus was frustrated when McManus started working in the pressroom at the Sun Herald in Charlotte Harbor, Fla. (morning, circulation 29,244). And, Hackney says happily, look where McManus' frustration has gotten the Sun Coast Media Group's pressroom.
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Improvements have been not only continuous, but numerous-better record keeping; a new handbook describing processes and jobs; and a mission statement that charges each member of the pressroom with producing high-quality, low-waste work in the least amount of time while keeping a professional ethic and a clean workplace.
During slow times, the crews now "clean out the spider webs," says Tom Roman, the day press foreman, who remembers earlier times when spare parts and ink barrels littered the pressroom floor, and when toolboxes were a jumble. Now, crews have even started repainting the 12-unit Goss Urbanite press.
The improved processes, a better product, lowered waste, a cleaner pressroom, fewer crises, and money-in-the-pocket bonuses for the crews based on current waste-reduction statistics have changed attitudes all the way down the line, says Roman: "It's a better and more productive workplace, and a better place to work. We're making more money, and we have a lot more pride."
And that has translated into material rewards for Sun Coast Media Group as well: 1997 newsprint run waste has gone from an average of 6.0 to 2.7 percent. White waste is below 1.3 percent; and unscheduled press stops have gone from over 50 a week with 5.5 hours of downtime, to 9 stops and less than two hours of downtime.
McManus, says Hackney, had faith in the continuous-improvement principles of Total Quality Management, which had been a core part of the group's management strategy for five or six years. But in the pressroom, upper management often only went through the motions without really listening to the crews.
McManus did listen, and Hackney says it was like "flicking on a light switch."
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The Sun Herald's pressroom devised a detailed fishbone diagram (top), which helped effect dramatic reductions in waste (bottom). |
When McManus became pressroom manager in February, he and three shift supervisors--Tom Roman, Keith Erickson, and Jode Fisher--set out to make TQM a reality. They formed a pressroom steering committee to create flowcharts of each shift's pressroom procedures. Then they gathered the crews together to talk about how improving quality can also lower waste.
The four shifts, now teams, were headed by volunteer captains-Jeff Harris, Jerry Robinson, Kurt Wurz and Don Grower. Each oversees a different project: white waste, run waste, mechanical maintenance and cleaning maintenance. Teams meet during their shifts to come up with ideas for improvements and for making work easier. Any team member can toss in his or her two cents, and eventually ideas scrawled on a chalkboard set in motion improved pressroom processes and a part of the pressroom's "fishbone," which illustrates the relationship between quality and waste reduction.
Having identified problems, the crews tackled the smaller ones first-the immediate results kept early efforts from fizzling. McManus says after that, the big problems really didn't seem so big.
Roman says these changes have also led to less turnover. And though the traditional tension between day and night crews didn't disappear immediately-in fact, he says, it was harder in the beginning-they now flow together a lot better because management attitudes have changed and set a better example.
"In newspaper operations, where the focus is on maximization, it's rare to take time to manage properly," says John D'Alessandro, NAA's assistant manager for production materials. "It's like stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime."
Now, as the 1998 Best Practices Award winner for Materials, they get to pick up $1,000!