Before the crisis, the quality department was just for looks, we certainly werenít used much for problem solving, the most we did was inspection. Data from the quality department was brought to the production meeting and they would all look at it, but no one was looking behind it. (Quality Manager, Preston Plant).

The Preston plant of Rendall Graphics was located in Preston, Vancouver, across the continent from the headquarters in Massachusetts. The plant had been bought from the Georgetown Corporation by Rendall in March 2000. Precision coated papers for ink-jet printers accounted for the majority of the plant’s output, especially paper for specialist uses. The plant used coating machines that allowed precise coatings to be applied. After coating, the conversion department cut the coated rolls to the final size and packed the sheets in small cartons.

The Curl problem

In late 1998 Hewlett-Packard (HP), the plant’s main customer for ink-jet informed the plant of some problems it had encountered with paper curling under conditions of low humidity. There had been no customer complaints to HP, but its own personnel had noticed the problem and wanted it fixed. Over the next seven or eight months a team at the plant tried to solve the problem. Finally, in October 1999, the team made recommendations for a revised and considerably improved coating formulation. By January 2000 the process was producing acceptably. However, 1999 had not been a good year for the plant. Although sales was reasonably buoyant, the plant was making a loss of around $2 million for the year. In October 1999, Tom Branton, previously accountant for the business, was appointed as Managing Director.

Slipping out of control

In the spring of 2000, productivity, scrap and re-work levels continued to be poor. In response to this the operations management team increased the speed of the line