INITIATIVES / COLLABORATION Access the Global Intranet:
http://global.weirintranet.com
Global collaboration on Pull System implementation
The Weir Production System took another big step in March as delegates from all three divisions met to learn and discuss the imple- mentation of Pull Systems in their facilities. Representatives from 10 Weir facilities across the divisions spent three days learning the key elements required to implement Pull Systems and running simulation exercises. The teams then went onto the shop floor to design and simulate implementing a Pull System in the live production environment. By the end of the fifth day, the teams had developed implementation action plans for increasing product velocity, de- creasing lead times and minimising operational
expense for the products flowing through the pilot cells. Identical training was hosted at two sites: Weir Minerals Europe and Weir Minerals North America, for the 21 participants. The events aim to encourage operational innovation in getting products to the customer faster whilst reducing cost to the business and collaborating with Weir peers in other divisions on breakthrough manufacturing concepts. The events also increase collective Lean knowledge. Weir continues the Lean Journey towards operational excellence with the successful implementation of Pull Systems at participants’ facilities.
Oil & Gas Forum prompts positive progress on cross- divisional initiatives
Employees from all Divisions attended OTC 2011 Participants from the Madison Training Session Team in action at Todmorden
The Oil & Gas Forum set up at the start of the year continues
Weir American Hydro collaborates with graduates on successful Hydro Power projects
to make good progress in identifying cross-divisional initiatives to target the oil and gas sector. Most of the projects identified to date focus on the North American market with significant opportunities of Minerals Division’s Linatex, Hazelton and Floway businesses, Oil & Gas Houston and Power & Industrial valves. For example, at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston in early May there was great interest from major deep water players in Power & Industrial’s Subsea Rotary Gate Valve.
Other new opportunities include
As part of its commitment to the local community, US-based Weir American
Hydro is the corporate partner of Penn State University on a three year, $3 million Depart- ment of Energy series of hydropower research projects. A project progress meeting was held in May
at Weir American Hydro in York, Pennsylvania, USA, attended by 18 faculty members and students from Penn State, along with repre- sentatives from Weir American Hydro.
22 Each graduate student presented a
project overview and results to date and a number of projects generated considerable interest with regards to developing Weir American Hydro’s knowledge base and future analysis capabilities. Work on ten graduate projects will con- tinue until December 2012 to meet the overall project objective: to train Master of Science and PhD engineers who will contribute to the future of the hydroturbine industry.
Weir Specialty Pumps supplying speciality water pumps into the oil services market and developments for upstream field production. Oil & Gas Forum director, Perry
Podarek, outlines the next stage for the important initiative, “In the coming months, additional Forum kickoff meetings will be taking place in Europe, the Middle East, and Aus- tralasia. These meetings will create visibility on additional projects and the opportunities that we can develop, focusing on those specific regions”.
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