MRO Today - Smith gets kicks as greenbelt

Smith gets kicks as greenbelt

by Paul V. Arnold

Don’t ask Bruce Smith to punch or kick a board in half.

Don’t ask if his middle name is Lee.

No, his hands are not registered as deadly weapons.

And, no, you cannot see his greenbelt.

He’s heard it all before.

"My friends tease me constantly," says Smith, a certified ultrasonic technician at Dow Chemical’s manufacturing complex in Freeport, Texas.

When Smith, a Freeport native, recently told his non-Dow pals about becoming a greenbelt and working with a blackbelt on a Six Sigma project, he set himself up for a world of ribbing.

"Now it’s ‘There goes karate man,’ or ‘How’s the kung-fu classes?’" he says.

The bows, chops, nunchuck gags and screaming "Hi-yahs!" get a little old. But that guff hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for Six Sigma or the project he’s working on.

"I want to be part of the solution," he says.

In late 2000, Dow blackbelt Bob Alvarado recruited Smith for a project centered on reducing delays in the inspection of chemical storage vessels.

A considerable amount of preliminary work must be done prior to the vessel’s checkup by ultrasonic (thickness measurement) technicians and inspectors.

"Scaffolds must be in place, insulation removed in the right areas and all permits completed," Smith says.

Scaffold builders and insulators frequently aren’t on the same page as the inspection crews. Thirty- to 90-minute delays are common.

"Other times, we have to come back a couple of days later to do the job," he says.

Smith’s Six Sigma teammates include engineers, plant veterans and Alvarado, a metallurgical engineer. The group’s first meetings erased any unease young Bruce felt going into the project.

"They asked me, ‘Bruce, what do you see out there?’" he says. "That made me feel good. Many times, it takes someone with a little less experience to explain a whole lot of things that happen in the real world."

Active participation, combined with a wealth of collected and analyzed information, helped Smith and his teammates generate some important conclusions about the inspection process.

1) The four groups — technicians, inspectors, scaffold builders and insulators — need to break down walls and communicate better.

2) Managers need to draw up project schedules sooner.

The team’s plan is to schedule tasks six months in advance. As jobs near, Smith will serve as a field planner and ensure all pieces are in place. Increased organization and communication will reduce confusion and delays, and cut project costs 25 to 30 percent.

"If anyone has a problem, they will let me know," he says. "Those problems will be resolved before a job is scheduled to begin."

Way to go, karate man.