|
 Dave
Holte, Maintenance worker
Pactiv Corporation,
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Pactiv is a division of Hefty Corporation. This union shop makes
foam plates, cup and other food service products, and Dave Holte has
been there for 17 years.
When new employees come on board, the company gives them manuals on
various components they will work with, including power
transmissions, gears and hydraulics.
“Dave will sit down and go through the books with them, and he
doesn’t have to do that,” says Bret Engel, procurement
administrator. “They’ll come to him with questions and he helps them
out, even after his shift is over. And he’s a union member, too.”
As part of his daily duties, Dave troubleshoots the extrusion lines.
As problems crop us, he has been using them as training
opportunities for younger employees.
“He’ll take a repair order, pull the parts and grab a new person and
take them along and show them how to do different jobs. It’s a
six-month training process and he has really taken it upon himself
to take these guys under his wing. He’ll say, ‘Okay, you’ve done
that. Now the the next step is to do this.’ And the next time he
gets a call for that work he takes that trainee on that job, too.”
On cost savings
“He’s done some wonderful things. He’ll go though our inventory
because they’ll come in and pull their parts — it’s all on an SAP
system here, and he’ll compare items and say, ‘We could really use a
less expensive product for this job,’ or ‘We can double up and use
the same bearing on different lines.’
“And some people won’t take the time — they’ll just say, ‘I need
this part — get it for me.’ Well, he’ll do the research on it and
that has resulted in some major cost savings for us.
“He’s improved organization, he’s done some parts kitting so when
they do a PM, everything they need will be grouped together.
“His title is maintenance but a better title is, ‘Maintenance go-to
guy.’
“Dave goes above and beyond what is asked of him, not just once in
awhile, but every day. He takes the time to do things right while
teaching the younger employees along the way. He does an excellent
job at cost savings in the plant and I wish I had ten more just like
him!
“For example, we do a lot with roller chains for our conveyors. He
researched them and recommended we go with a different brand of
chain. We’ve switched over three of our lines now and it works just
as well as our old chain, plus we have saved a couple thousand
dollars on each line. That’s just one instance of numerous times
he’s helped me out with vendor reductions and consolidation.”
This
article appeared in the December 2007/January 2008 issue of
MRO Today
magazine. Copyright 2007.
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