VOL. 96 No. 3... Circulated to people interested in improving their products and processes.

How Do Your Employees Feel
At The End Of The Day?

If the answer is "rotten", it is possible the problem can be resolved by teaching employees how to use their workplaces more efficiently from an ergonomic perspective.

A well laid-out, uncluttered, and organized workplace allows employees to concentrate on the important elements of their jobs.

A poorly-designed workplace, however, can affect both employees and the company. A poor design, or no design, creates strain, fatigue, loss of motivation, possibly injury, and an awkwardness of movement that is counterproductive, and affects both quality of work and quality of life.

Every time the body works in a fatiguing or unnatural way, the potential for error exists. For example:

• An aching back slows the typist, causes loss of concentration, and leads to errors in the document being typed.
• If a plant is arranged so that employees have to make excessive reaches, or continually lift heavy boxes without mechanical assistance, production levels will decrease, especially late in the shift when fatigue sets in.

Creeping debilitation, rather than immediate physical harm, could result, which almost certainly will cause absenteeism and sick leave. All of these effects cost the employer.

Laying out the workplace to minimize effort can all be achieved at little cost. The payoff, however, is far from small:

• Efficiency will increase through minimized efforts.
• Employees will enjoy better health, particularly in the long term.
• Employees will experience less physical stress and fatigue in the short term.
• Employers will see improved quality and productivity.

Kaiser Aluminum Achieves

ISO-9000 Certification

We would like to extend our congratulations to Kaiser Aluminum, a manufacturer of aluminum extrusions, located in London, Ontario. Their product is mainly used in the building trade, as well as automotive. Stan Slezak, Q.A. Manager, led the effort with support and involvement from everyone in the organization.

Our congratulations to you all!

Help Employees

Understand Company Operations

Employees should know the sequence and interaction of functions within the company, such as design, manufacturing, sales and marketing, shipping, and field service.

When employees understand how the company operates, they will better understand how their work contributes to the company's success, and how improving quality will benefit the company.

Employees become better customers to their upstream suppliers, and better providers to their downstream customers. Teamwork is enhanced, quality improvement efforts focus on factors that improve the business process, and any barriers that may have existed between functions, break down.

ISO-9000 Survey:

In a study examining forty ISO-9000 registered firms in Colorado, managers were asked what they would do differently if they had to repeat the registration process.

The point most frequently mentioned was they would have more training and start the training earlier.

Several respondents commented on:

• the time lost due to poor organization
• placing the wrong person in charge of part (or all) of the project
• not properly training the appropriate people, including top management
• more attention should have been placed on learning from others rather than going it alone or re-inventing the wheel.

Actions That Would Be Done Differently

Action:                                                 (%)           
More emphasis on training or start training earlier     35.0
Greater appreciation of time required                   25.0
Better project management                               22.5
More emphasis on top-down commitment or get             17.5
commitment sooner
Learn from others going through the process             15.0
More emphasis on properly documenting procedures        12.5 
More emphasis on reducing resistance                    10.0
Do nothing different                                    20.0

Note: Respondents could give more than one response.