Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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4 New Information Centers At Chatham Blanket Sales Force All departments at Chatham are seeing old bulletin boards being replaced with new information centers like the one being observed by Barbara Childress (Spinning) and Daniel Davis (Carding). These wooden framed peg boards and wooden glass front cabinets now give Associates Company and department updates at a glance. The peg boards exhibit daily and weekly quality figures including Company and departmental charts. Weekly inventories, efficiency records, and job postings are displayed here. The glass front wooden cabinets contain Company quality and safety policies, Com pany operating philosophies, accident records, holiday and vacation schedules, and Company memos. The section labeled “PERSONALS” is reserved for such items as thank you notes submitted by Associates to supervision. Information centers have been useful tools to help our Associates to stay well informed about business at Chatham. Chatham’s Safety Seven On April 6, 1992, a Safety Team consisting of seven Associates from the Engineering and Technical Depart ment was formed to help improve safety. Ab Brown, Director of Engineering is responsible for seeing that the team has the necessary resources to operate. The team will be working all over the Company from lists generated by Safety inspections, departmental manage ment, and production Associates. The Safety Team will also be on the alert for any additional opportunities to improve safety. Teamwork of this kind allows safety prob lems to be addressed and corrected without direct supervision. Every morning the team meets to discuss the previous day’s problems and to plan their course of action for the new day. These Associates are working well together as a self-managed team. At the conclusion of their first three days, they had successfully resolved thirty-eight items on their list. They enjoy attacking a problem as a team using their different skills and seeing that task completed. Their efforts have made a tremendous contribution to the work life and safety of all Associates. They deserve our appreciation. Safety is not just the responsibility of this team. It is the personal responsibility of every Chatham Associate. Should you see a safety violation, it is your obligation to make it known. If you have a safety OFI, please direct it to your manager. Also, feel free to discuss any safety violation with a safety team member or with Ab Brown. Ab Brown Director of Engineering On April 10 and 11 the Chatham Blanket Sales Force met here for their annual sales meeting. On Sunday, April 12, they left for New York to attend the April market week where they will be meeting with our customers to introduce our new products for the coming year. The members of the Blanket Sales Force pictured above are Jim Phillips, Jim Howell, Bill Roth, Brian Richards, Bruce Wyllys, Alan Kennedy (Na tional Sales Manager), Mike Radesky, Millie Krueger, Jim Connolly, Terry O’Con nor, Bill Butler, and Joseph Del Castillo. OFI Gives Each Associate a Voice In Problem Solving The OFI, Opportunity For Improvement, is a new program giving Chatham associates direct access to management. This is not a suggestion system. Any associate wishing to give a statement of a problem on his job relating to safety, quality, cost, delivery, service, or machine efficiency, is encouraged to complete an OFI form. The OFI forms are prominently located in every Department. The associate is not required to offer solutions to problems unless (s)he wishes to do so. After completing the OFI, an associate turns the form in to his supervisor. The supervisor signs it and forwards the OFI to the manager who would be responsible to take action on this problem. The responsible manager maps out a course of action. This response is then reviewed with the submitting associate. Supervisors must respond to the OFI requests within 24 hours of their submission. Associates will be given a personal review within 72 hours. This new feedback system is working for Chatham associates. Those who have us ed the system seem to agree that this has been a positive move for the Company. Some associates who have seen the system in action* were willing to share how the system has worked for them. Chatham Safety Team Members — Front Row: Mike White, James Gentry, David Bur- chette. Back Row: Phillip Vanhoy, Tony Bauguess, Timmy Ladd, Wayne Gentry. 1991 Safety Certificates Awarded One hundred fifty-one associates received safety certificates of merit for service without a lost time accident for the year of 1991. Those awarded certificates are listed below. 40 YEARS (1951) — Wavely M. Hunt, Shipping; Frank J. Wilborn, Shipping; Lorene Mendenhall, Binding; and Denver R. Ledbetter, Garnett.