Tuesday, September 2, 2008

HPM Team went to Antipolo

Who said we can't make our own teambuilding? Well we just did it! Last weekend HPM team tried to have a weekend full of fun. Although not all of us were there we still made sure that we had fun. It was indeed a fruitful out of town activity for all of us.

Joan, Hazel and Jaydan went ahead of us, while me and Mark met at cubao farmers. Our travel going to Antipolo seems so easy. We were able to catch up all the directions instructed by Joan through text. Well, I think Mark has a very good sense of direction. We arrived at Joan's place at around 9 am. We met her parents and siblings. They are such a good family I can say. I love talking with her parents because they are soo cool and I learned a lot from them. Joan's family were such a good host. There were no dull moments for all of us especially when we were all around the table eating and talking. I missed those days with my family and maybe that's also the reason I enjoyed it very much.

At around 3 pm, the troops were already set to spend the night in one of the resort there. As usuall Mark were always the cream of the crop. Good thing Mark was always cool and patient. He was our cook for the night while me, Joan, Hazel and Jaydan were enjoying the picture taking while walking around the resort. We ate, we enjoyed the water, we drink... opps that's only for Mark, LOL! But much more we had fun. I was able to somehow know them better and I'm really glad I had a chance to be with them outside our work.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I'm so sad....

Gosh, my domain is still not working until now. After several attemps nothing really happened. I don't know what to do now but to just use my previous url. The sad part was that, I paid for that domain and it will just come to a waste? I tried several things I've read in other blogs but I think my problem was different from them. Oh well I hope you will still visit this blog even if the domain does not really work out. I'm just so sad and frustrated about it.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

This Site will soon have it's own Domain!

After I been through with a lot of problems in buying my own domain for this site I finally made it! It's really hard if you did it first time, good thing was that Brigie, one of my friends online help me out and patiently explained to me how things work. It took me awhile to figure it out and it almost frustrate me until I got it right. Well I hope to, though I haven't encountered error already I still have to wait for two more days before the effectivity of the new URL for this site.

Oh well, I can't wait for another day to give you the new URL of this site so here it is:

http://www.highvalleyprecision.com/

Watch out for this!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Holiday Monday but not for HPM Team!

I thought I'll be off to work today since it's a national holiday. Too bad because I still need to work. I might not be at the office but I need to ensure that all the indicators has been pull out so comes Tuesday I have something to present. But I think I am luckier than with our HPM technicians because they need to be at the manufacturing floor to do the PM schedule even if it's holiday. I got an email from one of them at around 6 PM! Mind you, they even extend beyond 4 pm to finish the task. Hmmm, let me check tomorrow how things goes with them.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Green PM

Talking about Green PM is not as easy as talking about green field. There are many things incorporated on that. But what exactly is Green PM? I remember Hazel, our new technician who just recently joined the group. She was asking about Green PM and when it can be Green PM. At first it was difficult for us to explain since she need to understand first all the indicators we were tracking.

So to give you a background, PM can be classify as green when all criteria we set are being met. Safety, Quality, Run in cotrol, availability and PM time are the criteria that we set. First of course there's no safety issues encountered during PM or Preventive Maintenance. Then of course no quality issues after PM and aside from that the quality of our PM should exceed expectation as much as possible. We should also perform the PM within the defined time schedule, it should be within or less than the PM time. But PM does not end there because we are also measuring the performance of the machine after PM. As much as possible tool availability is greater than the set value for at least 4 consecutive shift, much better if it will not be down until such time that it is due for PM again.

It will only be considered Green PM if all the set criteria are being met. Sounds ideal but the truth is until now we are still working hard to meet our goal for the Green PM. But we are positive that when we implement the changes that we were driving, time will come that Green PM will be easier. I hope we will!

Layer upon Layer

::START::RULES:
1. Add your blog/s to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. It’s okey if you only post this questions in one blog as long as you answer them.
2. Get back to Me {YEN} and I’ll add your blogs to the master’s list HERE! Note that you are not ALLOWED to change the link of the here.
3. Copy from Start to End.
4. Tag as many friends online you know. But you don’t need to be tag in order to join.Copy this Participants List:Me and Mine Creative in Me For the LOVE of Food Little Peanut Pea in a Pod It’s Where the HEART Is Around the World SugarMagnolias I Am Mommy All About The Memories Enchanted Play Just My Scrap Whats Up Simply Me Kitchen Deelite A Mothers Horizon In Depth A Life in Bloom Because Life is a Blessing Digiscraptology Joys iN life Life is What we Make it Photo Blog Dancing in Midlife Tune Pinay Mommy Online Mommy Earns Money Online Blessings and Beyond Biz-N-Honey Aeirin's Collections All About Me Simple Delights Motherhood in a Nutshell My world at yourfingertips Learn, Love and Laugh through Blogging!

LAYER ONE:
–Name: Grace
– Birth date: Sept. 15
– Birthplace: Philippines
– Current Location: Cavite
– Eye Color: Black
– Hair Color: Black
– Righty or Lefty: Righty

LAYER TWO:
– Your heritage: Filipino
– The shoes you wore today: not shoes, just slippers
– Your weakness: procrastination
– Your fears: not being able to meet the man I dreamed. LOL!
– Your perfect pizza: I'm not into pizza.
– Goal you’d like to achieve in life: To become a writer, be able to tour the world with my mom and dad.

LAYER THREE:
– Your most overused phrase on AIM: Time is gold I must double my effort
– Your first waking thoughts: take a bath
– Your best physical feature: hair?
– Your most missed memory: spending time with my bespren.

LAYER FOUR:
– Pepsi or Coke: COKE!
– McDonald’s or Burger King: Mc Do
– Single or group dates: group dates
– Adidas or Nike: Both.
– Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Nestea.
– Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate.
– Cappuccino or coffee: coffee

LAYER FIVE
– A famous person, dead or alive, would you interview: Oprah
– Movie can you watch and say the lines along with the actors: 50 First Date
– Name two of your passions in life : family and writing
– Least favorite time of day: 5am!

LAYER SIX
– Use hairspray or gel: None.
– Your favorite meal: Sweet and Sour shirmp
– Color is the inside of your head when you close your eyes: Black
– Listen to classical music: yeah especially if im feeling senti. hehe
– Ever said LOL in real life without thinking about it: yup!
::END::

passing this tag along to Joy, Kate, Jas, Bregie, Ate Lara and Anig . hope you'll enjoy answering this tag!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

mRatio



Again, mRatio is one of the indicators we tracked for us to know if we are on track in getting our goal and that is of course our aim towards manufacturing excellence. But what exactly mRatio is? Unlike the CoV, mRatio is easier to understand. It measure the predictability of our tool or it simply means scheduled downtime over unscheduled downtime.



Knowing when will your tool will be down is just one of the key elements of the HPM but execution of preventive maintenance is another thing. Bottom line, we wanted to be the one to dictate when will our tool be down and not the other way around.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Designing our own LOGO


Just like any other working groups we also wanted to have our own LOGO. An emblem to easily remember us. So during our meeting our team lead asked us to think about designing our logo. He asked us to collaborate and come up with the design.
Crazy as I am, I seen the head of one of our team mate and asked him if I can get some photo of his head. It was indeed a crazy idea but I think Mark was crazier than me when he willingly agreed and even gave me a good angle for a photo ops. I was planning to get the portion of his head and used it as a base for my logo design. hahaha. I know it was a crazy idea and not really serious about it. But what Mark don't know was that I'm going to post his photo here. hehehe.
Sorry Mark if you will see your photo here. I make it smaller though. LOL! Peace!
I told you, we are bunch of crazy people. We work and we definitely knew how to have fun despite of our busy schedule.

Coefficient of Variation or Simply CoV

CoV or the coefficient of variation are just one of the indicators we are looking at. But what the heck is that? LOL!

To give you a background about it, CoV is a good measure of variation. It is being measured in terms of std/mean. Having a good CoV means that you have a good predictability when will your tools or your machine will be down and at the same time having that you will be sure that your tools will be available anytime you need it. It is considered one of the key parameters of factory health.

Lunch out with the HPM Team

As the saying goes that all work and no play makes us dull! And HPM team knew that well. So to properly kick off our mission towards the manufacturing excellence we had to fuel ourselves too. So last August 5 the team decided to had a lunch out at Kingbee. One of the Chinese restaurant near our work place.

We enjoyed the food gusto. I'm the one who ordered for our food and since they told me that sky's the limit I ordered all the food I want, LOL! Of course I also considered what they want just to be fair with everybody. It was really a memorable lunch out for us that we even had a side trip to McDonalds for our coke float before finally going back to our work. It was my first time to work with our technician and somehow I was able to reach out with them during the lunch out. I knew that it was the start of a good working relationship with them and not only that because I knew that somehow we all became friends.

See how our lunch out goes.




Sunday, August 10, 2008

Our Journey towards the Manufacturing Excellence..

HPM may sounds vague to you but the truth is it has been there for quite sometimes already. HPM or High Precision Maintenance is just one of many ways towards manufacturing excellence. And right now we are into it. We were actually adopting the concept of the HPM.

But why HPM? There lots of reasons why but to give you an overview we chose HPM because we wanted our tools to be available, flexible and predictable and that what HPM promises us. As I go through the journey towards HPM, I'll be discussing also the factors contributing to the measurement we put in like the Coefficient of Variation or the CoV, the Green PM and the mRatio.

I know that those words are jargons to you but I'll try to explain it one by one in my next article.

What are the ways to Manufacturing Excellence?

Excellence is just one of the things manufacturings wanted to achieve. But why excellence? What is it for them? Well, as far as I know, excellence speaks the overall quality and distinction of one company. If your company have this extra ordinary quality products of course consumers will likely be your follower and that's also the reasons why manufacturers are trying hard to achieve it.

There are many ways to achieve it. Many company actually excel using one these ways. Toyota for example were known using the HPM. Many companies in Japan used the 5S. There's also the Lean Manufacturing, the Six Sigma and a lot more.

Considering all of those technique sometimes lead us to a lot of things but leads us to dead end. We tried several of those techniques. The concept was wonderful and ideal but what I think was lacking was that we were not able to focus on how to sustain it. If you evaluate each concepts it has common denominator that whichever you choice you will achieve the excellence you are looking for. But there are also things you have to consider before implementing it. Learn the concept by heart, be objective, don't be too idealistic, plan for it, implement it and most of all know how to sustain it.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

My oh my other blog!

It's been a long time since I am able to write again on this blog. I been so preoccupied with my work and the same time writing on my other blog site that giving me no time to write on this blog. I was thinking to actually delete it but doing so wont really give me a peace of mind. LOL! But kidding aside I created this blog to really help me out keep track on my day to day as an engineer. It was a whole new things to me and I am still adapting. The good thing was that my colleagues are very supportive and approachable.

I know it is still a long journey for me but I hope through this I am able to help out young engineers especially those who are just starting. I'll try my best to update this blog every now and then. So I hope you will still continue visiting this. Thanks and more power!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Test Engineers while Having a good TIME!

Out of office notice: Test Engineers are out today, May 29, 2008.
Reason: Teambuilding/Summer Outing

Test Engineering couldn’t just let the summer pass without having a good time. So last May 29, 2008 our group headed to Circle Island resort for the department summer outing and teambuilding. Engineers started to arrived at the venue around 8:00 am and were so excited to swim. Some of them bring their own families so it became like a family gathering as well. Though I was not able to swim on that day I also had a good time with the karaoke caravan with matching san mig light, LOL! It was a long time since I drink beer but what the heck; I just want to have some fun with my colleagues.

Good thing that it was a sunny morning so everyone has a good time. Beers and red horses were roaming around the table while passing the microphone from one another. I think everyone had a chance to share their heartfelt voice to give a rock song or a love song. It was a feast of foods also and I just love the spaghetti made by Gloan. I hope I can have a taste of it again. So calling Gloan for the request. Hehehe.

I was the camera man for that day and was able to get a good shot of those unforgettable memories with my engineering family. I hope it will also be uploaded in our multiply website. I am just so happy I got a chance to meet these wonderful people and had a goodtime with them. Our department was a bunch of guys with very few gals but nonetheless they were also like us who need a break like this. Engineers know to have a good time after all!

Friday, May 30, 2008

My Excel and Powerpoint Teaching experienced!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 when I begun teaching the Excel basics as well as the powerpoint basics. It was actually a volunteer activity with our Manufacturing specialist and our technicians as the main audiences for this class. The series of classes will run for three weeks timeframe to cover our 2000 plus MS's and technicians.

Each class will last for two hours and most of the volunteered teachers were engineers like me or if not some other employees working at the office. I volunteered because for me it was one of my way to help upskilling our operators and technicians and it is also one of my way to learned how conquer my stage fright. At least thru this I will be able to share something and at the same time learn as well.


Teaching was always a rewarding experience for me. And for this special topic alone, I was able to reached out to other employees as well. In three classes that I already teached, there were attendees who were my co-operators before and I am really glad that now I am able to share something that I learned from the fast. It was not easy to teach because you have to know where to level your teaching. In my case, I need to explain everything to them. From the very basic of Excel and Powerpoint to ensure that all were calibrated.


I have to explained in layman's term for them to easily understand all the jargons incorporated in the training materials. At first it was really hard but as I teached from one class to another I already knew how to adjust. I still have classes lined up until end of June and I'm really excited in every classes that I teached. I was even looking for more open slots for teaching. I already emailed Jho to look for another vacant slot for me just incase there were classes that dont have teachers yet. My voice haven't covered yet but I don't really care, I still wanted to teach.

All about the Author of this site...

Hi everyone! before I start any topic on this site I would like you first of course to know some more about me. I think I owe you that one.

This blog site is actually my second and unlike with my first blog site I was not able to really write anything about myself. But before that let me share first with you my other site, the Learn, Love and Laugh Thru Blogging was my very first blog site. It is still up and on that site I talk anything under the sun. And for as for this second site that I'm starting right now, I want it a little more different. Different in a way that I want my readers to learn something while reading my blogs. Thru this site I want to share more of my engineering side. So expect topics more on engineering discussion. Ops, don't worry, I wont talk jargons. LOL!

I still want to share the lighter side of me as well as the serious side of me on this site. So, for the record, my name is Grace Ilagan. Currently, I am working as engineer. I love my job but also love writing. So starting today, I am welcoming you to my own world and it's only a fingertips away from you.

Thank you for visiting and hoping to see you more on my two sites. God bless you all!
Custom Search