Heat was on; Hoskin performed

by Paul V. Arnold

Scott Hoskin may well be the first MRO Today magazine MRO Pro to be on the television.

In fact, he's also been inside and underneath it.

Before coming to Reynolds Metals Company as a maintenance electrician in 1988, Hoskin spent more than 15 years fixing TVs, VCRs, camcorders and virtually any other consumer electronics device dropped off at a repair shop in the Richmond, Va., area.

"I've always found electronics fascinating," says Hoskin, our June/July honoree.   "My first job outside of high school was in a television repair shop."

But that wasn't his first taste.

He recalls staring at his father's electric razor as a youngster and wondering how it worked.  He found out by disassembling it.

"My dad chewed me out pretty good," he says.

Today, Hoskin is paid to be curious and, when necessary, take things apart.

He does electrical installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repairs on the Reynolds plant's annealing ovens.  Each of these gigantic, two-story structures hold more than 300,000 pounds of coiled aluminum.  The machine puts the metal through heating and cooling cycles, which soften the foil and give it both flexibility and strength.

"Scott makes an impact in this plant," says maintenance manager Mark Parrish.   "This is an empowered person.  He works for a supervisor, but he's on his own."

Hoskin has used that free rein to question standard operating procedures, find alternative solutions and save the company serious cash.

An example cited by many of his co-workers is a 90-minute fix on three annealing ovens that saved the company more than $75,000.

During an oven's cooling cycle, the coils' temperature is gradually reduced to avoid foil stress and damage.

"I noticed that instead of being regulated, the cooling water was turned on full force," he says.  "To counter that, and achieve the optimal cooldown rate, the heat was turned on and off several times during the cooling process."

Think of it as having a freezing cold living room in mid-July.  To get the temperature right, you can adjust the air conditioner that's blowing full blast, or you can turn on the furnace.

Hoskin asked plant engineer Ken Bourne why the ovens functioned in this manner.

"They were afraid they wouldn't be able to control the process as tight as they wanted (without the added heat)," Hoskin says.

Hoskin monitored the ovens for several months.  He installed timers to find how often the heat kicked on during the cooling cycle.

He then developed a plan to achieve the appropriate cooldown rate by regulating the cooling valves and completely turning off the heat.

"It wound up being a 30-minute job per oven," he says.

Comparing the new method to the old one, Hoskin conservatively puts annual energy cost savings at $75,000.  Parrish is bolder, estimating savings of $4,000 a week, or more than $200,000 a year.

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