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COMPANY NEWS
Kal Tire UK Proves More To Retreads Than Just Rubber
recycling and environmental efficiency – after all, ‘retreading is recycling’.”
Tyre Repairs
The global nature of the Kal Tire Mining Tire Group is such that the transfer of manufacturing or service principles, together with products and supplies, has opened many new avenues for process improvements.
Large tyre injuries have always been a concern – the side wall or tread damage that exposes or breaks large areas of the tyres infrastructure has always been a major health and safety issue. Perhaps more prevalent in the North American mining environment, Canadian tyre repair component specialists have started a ‘major injuries’ training programme for Kal Tire’s UK repair technicians and a number of tyres will be out on trial shortly.
“If these larger repairs prove successful then again, we will be giving our customer the chance to extend their tyre life, at a fraction of the replacement cost” said Wayne Cornell.
Health and Safety
“Paramount at Kal Tire globally is the health and safety of employees and those operating in the working environment that Kal Tire are part of – this statement is a part of the corporate aims” said Darren Flint. To add to the strict policies and procedures already in place, the factory in the UK has recently introduced a monthly ‘safety valve’ project where, to ensure a different perspective on workplace health and safety, a different manufacturing tyre technician joins senior factory management
and the company health and safety officer, for a visual safety audit of the
manufacturing areas.
“The group carry out a ‘walk round’ inspection of all working areas, reacting to and rectifying any point of concern that may happen – providing a ‘safety valve’ for the problem. It reiterates that health and safety in our working environment is our main priority” said Darren Flint.
Training and Staff development
Training and staff development remain an integral part of the philosophy at Kal Tire. Apart from the obvious health and safety issues that need to be addressed regularly with training, staff are all given the opportunity for personal development.
The Kal Tire Learning Management System is a global set of standards accessible to all Kal Tire team members, giving staff a solid industry foundation to build on. At Kal Tire UK a number of tyre technicians achieved related NVQ’s that are geared towards their own ability base. In addition, Manufacturing Manager Wayne Cornell completed his MBA, with Assistant UK Manufacturing Manager Jody Green completing his Institute of Line Management qualification and shortly embarking upon an HND course at University.
“Individuals set their own targets of where they want to be and we assist them in achieving their goals” said Darren Flint.
Kal Tire is the world’s largest earthmover and mining tyre service company, with operations in North, Central and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.
Retread manufacturing at Kal Tire Mining Tire Group’s UK plant has shown that despite global raw material costs increasing and a major shortage of good casings to retread, a quality product will always be in demand, with more than 1.3 million pounds of rubber compound used and in excess of 3,000 tyres produced over the past 12 months.
Whilst the actual manufacturing output has shown good results for the year, it is the infrastructure that has been put in place over the past three years, the initiatives introduced and adhered to and the performance of the manufacturing team, that have all contributed to the outstanding results.
Factory
The manufacturing facility, located at Kal Tire’s UK head office, near Alfreton, Derbyshire, houses state of the art retreading machinery. New mould matrices, satisfying customer demand for different tyre sizes and tread patterns plus a refurbished semi automatic tyre builder to work alongside the recently purchased fully automated builder, take the value of the equipment to in excess of £4million.
“We have a continual improvement programme in the factories” said UK and Ghana Manufacturing Manager Wayne Cornell “and we will continue to look and find ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole process”.
LEAN Initiative
Introduced 3 years ago into the Alfreton factory following research and development by UK Managing Director Darren Flint, the LEAN initiative has made a significant
contribution to performance since then.
The core components of the initiative centre around the ‘5 S’s philosophy’ – sort, set in order, shine, standardise and sustain. Darren Flint added “We are delighted with the way the manufacturing team have taken the initiative on to improve many aspects of the factory. The bottom line is simple – reduce all forms of ‘waste’ be that material waste, effort, energy, time
etc. – it is a case of recognising where there is waste, and doing something about it”.
The recent introduction of energy efficient lighting not only improves safety with a lighter, brighter working environment but also cuts energy costs and reduces the whole site’s carbon footprint.
So successful has the introduction of LEAN been in the factory that, with the involvement of Continuous Improvement Manager Alan Todd, the initiative has now been rolled out across the UK to all the Kal Tire service depots, where similar marked performance improvements are also being seen. Whilst accepting that the manufacturing process of retreading earthmover and mining tyres will always generate ‘waste’, what Kal Tire have indentified and reacted upon is that this discarded material (primarily rubber compound ‘crumb’ buffed from the tyres prior to retreading or repair) may have a secondary use. Hysteresis testing has been introduced for a trial period to determine if the reclaimed materials can be reused, together with other raw materials and compounds, in the manufacturing process.
As Wayne Cornell said “This initiative again highlights Kal Tire’s continual commitment towards
Darren Flint (Left) and Wayne Cornell (right)
32 Retreading Business