MRO Today - Burch excels in champ role

Burch excels in champ role

When John Burch took a job at the Kansas City plant that’s now known as Exide Technologies GNB Industrial Power, he didn’t envision big things.

He was 18, fresh out of high school, and thought there was some truth to the stereotype of blue-collar work as a dead-end career.

“Usually when someone at my age gets hired to work in manufacturing, they think, ‘Well, this is my job title. This is what I’m going to do for a living,’” he says.

Burch couldn’t have been more wrong.

The personable guy has pretty much seen it all and done it all at the plant in the past 10 years.

“I’ve worked on all the processes in assembly, from plate wrapping to cell drop to cell burning to heat sealing. I’ve also done some work in parts casting,” he says.

Burch’s stock shot up in 1997 when the plant created a facility to manufacture lead oxide, a key component in making lead-acid batteries.

“They were looking for four people with problem-solving skills, math aptitude and technical skills,” he says. “Those people are pretty much in charge of that area.”

Burch got one of the spots and for four years was responsible for quality control, testing batches of lead oxide. He also made necessary adjustments to machinery and did maintenance tasks such as changing out motors.

Managers remembered his performance and work ethic when they rolled out Exide’s lean manufacturing initiative in April 2001. They placed him on its first kaizen team.

“Seeing it first-hand, the whole lean concept made sense to me,” he says. “If I were running my own business, that’s how I would run it. I wanted to be a part of this.”

He got his chance when the plant posted a job opening for a full-time “lean champion,” a non-management worker who would run kaizen events, provide training and serve as a go-between on lean-related issues.

“I applied for the job, and all of the finalists were given the task of using basic lean tools on an area of the plant,” he says. “I did my presentation on some ideas I had for the assembly area. A few weeks later, I was selected.”

The plant recently added a second lean champion position, which was filled by Ed Chmidling.

Burch believes his work as a champion has helped plant floor workers embrace the lean program.

“I’m not an office person. I don’t work upstairs. I work on the floor and know floor life,” he says. “When employees talk to me or Ed about ideas or problems, they know that we’re cut from the same cloth. We’re just like them.”

He says his hourly status and experience give him confidence in his capacity as a teacher.

“I know most of the people by name. I’ve worked side by side with them,” he says. “It’s easy to talk with them about this stuff.”

He says he enjoys getting them to see the world in a different way.

“Is the glass half full or half empty?” he says. “Looking at it from a lean perspective, I want them to ask, ‘Why is it half full?’ Do we need to shorten the glass? Do we need to add more liquid?”

— by Paul V. Arnold