Oliveras' job is always improving

Jose Oliveras is a support technician with a unique job description – find things to improve and improve them. A member of the maintenance department at S•K Hand Tool Corp’s Chicago, Illinois manufacturing facility for the past eight years, Jose was hired to fill the then-new position of engineering support person. His primary job was (and still is today) to work with the engineering staff on improvement projects, with a secondary duty to help the maintenance staff with critical repairs or backlogs. Jose spends roughly 75 to 80 percent of his time pursuing improvements projects in the 150,000-square-foot plant. Thanks to SK’s mandated employee suggestion system and his own ingenuity, Jose has no end of ideas and suggestions for projects.

“When I find something that can be improved, I go to Tim (Herrick, plant manager) or Bill and tell them about it, “ Oliveras says. “They talk it over and decide if the improvement will be cost-effective or improve safety and decide if I should go ahead. If it is, then I do it.”

One such improvement involved a custom-fabricated, air-powered parts chute on a drill press.

“I came up with the foot-pedal-controlled parts chute because the operators were having a lot of problems with oil pooling in the parts bins and leaking out onto the floor,” he explains.

However, his solution led to the discovery of additional benefits including easier inspection and reduced parts handling. This “bonus benefit” phenomenon has repeated itself several times in conjunction with improvements in other parts of the factory.

It’s a fluid process. Even in the course of a single improvement project, new possibilities continually present themselves, altering original plans and taking improvements in previously unforeseen directions. Oliveras is never bored.

And, since the facility’s major 5-S cleanup began in 2002, the orderly, bright working environment makes his job more pleasant and potential areas for improvement much easier to see.

“It’s much better to work in a clean environment,” Oliveras says. “Some of the ideas I get for improvements make people’s jobs easier and safer and working in a clean environment really helps you see how much better things can get.”

This article appeared in the April/May 2006 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2006.

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