Members of this TSA chapter have been involved in mentorships at the Russell-Stanley Corp. in Woodbridge, NJ. The factory at which they worked manufactures steel drums that are used for the shipping products such as hazardous chemicals.



The cut-to-length line, which unrolls the coils of steel and cuts off pieces of the correct size for the drums.
The students worked in the maintenance department updating the preventive maintenance program. The program is used to schedule repairs for the machines before errors occur in order to eliminate downtime. Since it was first introduced in the factory, uptime and efficiency has improved. They have saved money on emergency repairs and handled each machine less often.



The Production Maintenance team under the new "lean thinking."
Last summer, the TSA students updated the information in the database. Through guidance and experience, the students were able to recalibrate the scheduling. They improved the timing by incorporating data and dates of previous repairs. New machines were added into the database and the overall information was updated. Both the initial incorporation of the technology and the recent improvement have helped the company.



Side shot of the Line 1 drum welder; it rolls up the pieces produced by the cut-to-length line into cylinders and welds them into shape.




Part of Line 2, with the sheet stacker, welder, and other machines that shape the drum.




The Cut-To-Length Single Minute Exchange of Dyes team under the new "lean thinking," which devised a faster process for changeovers on the cut-to-length line.
Photographs courtesy of the Russell-Stanley Corporation.

Without proper scheduling, the company could waste a great amount of time, money, and human resources addressing problems after they occur. The development and deployment of the technology allows Russell-Stanley Corp. to continue to prosper.