Olympic Steel – Bettendorf, IA: Dan Parmentier and Brandon Knorrek
At the Bettendorf, IA division, when you load a sheet product on a Timken rack (a customer-specific requirement), the rack must be positioned on the packaging line with two 5-foot 4x4s on either end, under the rack. When putting the steel on the rack with the sheet lifter, the rack was unstable. Dan Parmentier, Crane …
At the Bettendorf, IA division, when you load a sheet product on a Timken rack (a customer-specific requirement), the rack must be positioned on the packaging line with two 5-foot 4x4s on either end, under the rack.
Chuck Stipanovich (Operations Manager), Dan Parmentier (Crane Operator), Brandon Knorrek (Maintenance Technician), Jeff Carson (General Manager), Olympic Steel, Bettendorf, IA
When putting the steel on the rack with the sheet lifter, the rack was unstable. Dan Parmentier, Crane Operator, and Brandon Knorrek, Maintenance Technician, noticed this opportunity to improve the process and drew up a plan to weld tubing to the top and bottom of a plate. This stabilized the rack when loading the material.
They used secondary steel and internal resources to design and weld the plate. The plate is kept next to the packaging line so it’s easy to get to when needed.
Lesson Learned: Challenges create opportunities for us to look at a situation differently. Our customers may have specific requirements that appear to create challenges. When fulfilling these requirements and you’re faced with a challenge, shift your mindset to identifying opportunities to work safer and smarter.
