After a long 44 year career in Sales, I’m not quite sure you could say I’ve seen it all, But I’ve seen a lot.
Because of my vast experience in an amazing amount of industries, I’ve been able to solve process problems. I’m proud of my problem-solving expertise which goes from simple to complex.
Case one:
After 12 years one of the companies I worked for had returns which amounted to 60,000 pounds of material. Some of the product leaked and was put in to overpack drums, some had lids which popped off and were buried into a very viscous sticky material weighing 100 pounds. I needed to get the lids out, in some instances repackage the material or have it burnt at a cost of $10.00 per pound. I purchased a pulley system with a mechanical advantage of 4 so all I had to do is lift 25 pounds. I needed a lid grabber which consisted of a vice grip plier and I had to come up with a unique way to attach the pliers to the pulley system – so simple but I’ll bet very few of you have ever attached vice grips in this manner. I had product moved to the corner of the pallet racks, moved the drums into place, clamped the vice grip on the lid and lifted the drum and slowly the lid would release as the drum would slide to the pallet. I next replaced the lid with a new one. In this way I was able to salvage all the 60,000 pounds to a non-critical customer for $1.00 a pound and save the $600,000 disposal cost.
Case 2:
Low Mw rubber is packaged in a nylon bag which is placed in a 100 # fiber drum. One customer used to dump the liner and product and slice the nylon, peel it away and dump the rubber into his process. I got a call that his worker sliced his arm with the knife and what did I recommend to literally “stop the bleeding”. The glass industry uses cut proof clothes and gloves, so initially I made sure his workers had the correct safety clothing. I devised an automated lifting and pneumatic valve system that clamps and blows the product out of the package. This system eliminates the nylon cutting and manual lifting altogether. Accidents have been eliminated, and only one person is needed to unload material where before there were two.
A sampling of industries:
Leather, car seat, gloves etc.
Paper specialty including paper gaskets
Aircraft – Investment casting -aircraft turbine blades,
Plating – Electronics, wear, aircraft, hardware, automotive.
Paint & Coatings (Marine Antifoulants) Marine – bake enamels, water based, oil based paints.
Glass – window sealants
PVC – vinyl windows, siding
Rubber – hose, gaskets, seals, belting, convertible tops., pressure diaphragms, electrical insulators, chewing gum, medical adhesives
Flame retardants (Antimony Oxide)
Pigments, dispersions, thickeners (Carbopol)
Printed Circuit boards – Dry film photo resists