MRM pg 1-5.pdf - Mabati Rolling Mills

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MABATINEWS Balanced Scorecard As some of you may be aware, Mabati Rolling Mills has embraced the Balanced Scorecard philosophy alongside the Gemba Kaizen principles in the leadership and performance management strategy. Both initiatives are complementary rather than being in competition with each other. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic management system originated by Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton in the early 1990s in the United States. It is a methodology that actualizes corporate strategy. MRM embarked on the mechanics of implementing BSC, starting with top level management this July. The plan is to initiate the concept and cascade the learning process to all key players in the supply chain loop. By embracing the BSC system, MRM is aiming at empowering all key players with appropriate competencies to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of the following key performance perspectives: The Business Process Perspective The Customer Perspective The Financial Perspective The COO Mr. Mahesh Chavda and Manager HR Mr. Tony Nasirembe who have spearheaded the balanced scorecard initiative. The Learning, Growth and Human Resources Development Perspective MRM Employees recite the Gemba Kaizan Pledge before starting work every morning. Performance areas that need improvement will be easily identified. Appropriate training programs will purposely be designed and implemented. The result of this will be the creation of a high performance workforce. Studies have shown that by 2004 about 57% of global companies were using BSC as their strategic management tool. The companies using BSC included well known corporations such as British Telecommunications Worldwide, Caterpillar Inc. DaimlerChrysler, Defence Logistics Agency, DuPont, Ford Motor Company, General Electric Company, High Performance Systems, Inc. Hilton Hotels Corp., IBM, NCR Corp., Ricoh Corp. Royal Canadian Mounted Police and UPS. General Electric won the global leadership as the most admired corporation in (2006) taking over from Wal-Mart. Incidentally, the No. 2 position was won by Toyota Motors which applies the Kaizen principles in its management strategy. MRM has been using the Kaizen principles for sometime now. Coupled with the BSC strategy, it can be said that MRM has taken advantage of a unique leadership position to use the best from both worlds. BSC goes beyond embracing management concepts. It calls for identification of the right people with the right Corporate Governance Perspective By addressing these performance perspectives the Company’s strategic performance objectives would review the vision and align all performance objectives to the mission and strategy implementation. Strategic corporate objectives will be articulated, making it possible for the departmental and individual objectives to be linked to complete the value chain loop. Balanced Scorecard and Gemba Kaizen initiatives The two perspectives provide powerful platforms for employees to link corporate vision, mission to corporate strategy. It provides a clear focus of everyone to work in tandem with the other creating a very powerful performance bond. skills, competencies and attitude for the right jobs throughout the organization structure. The result will be creation of high performance teams that deliver world-class value to customers, employees and other stakeholders. The Kemba Kaizan “alone I am weak, together we are strong” slogan is the epitome of team work. Every employee sees the strength rather than the weakness in each other. By holding hands in a circular formation every morning the energy from every individual is combined to generate powerful energy source capable of shifting the MRM performance paradigm to the next level in corporate competitiveness. Cheers! 14 M A B A T I N E W S
ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS By Antony Kung'u Background A special trade relationship has existed between the European Union (EU) and African Caribbean and Pacific group (ACP) of countries since 1975 when the first Lome Convention was signed. Under the Lome Conventions, the ACP countries enjoyed unilateral trade preferences into the EU market. The Fourth Lome Convention was replaced by the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, which extends the unilateral trade preferences up to December 2007. Thereafter, the parties are dutybound to negotiate and conclude World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatible reciprocal trade agreements, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), at the beginning of 2008. The EPAs are touted as the new co-operative framework under the Cotonou Agreement and are expected to adopt an integrated approach based on partnership and promoting co-operation, multilateral trade and political dialogue between the EU and the ACP countries. The key features of EPAs are their reciprocity and non-discriminatory nature. They involve the removal of all trade preferences which have been established between the EU and the ACP countries since 1975 as well as the progressive removal of trade barriers between the partners. The EPAs are open to all developing countries thereby effectively bringing down the curtain on the ACP group as the main development partner of the EU. Regional Blocs Previously, the EU negotiated with all ACP countries as a bloc. However, for EPAs’ negotiations, the EU has split the ACP countries into trading blocs, arguably undermining their solidarity, negotiating power and political power thus weakening their overall bargaining power. The ACP countries have formed six regional configurations or groupings through which to negotiate EPAs with the EU, some of which arethe Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the Eastern and Southern Africa group (ESA), the Caribbean Community and the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS). Kenya belongs to the ESA configuration. Effects of EPAs on ACP Countries Although the EPAs are aimed at supporting the on-going processes of economic integration and gradual liberalisation of trade between ACP countries and the EU, some very legitimate concerns have been raised on their effects on the ACP countries. The EU has chosen to negotiate the agreements under strict WTO rules that govern reciprocal free trade agreements (FTAs), requiring ACP countries to open their markets to "substantially all" EU imports over a limited period of time. The 10-year period given by EU to ACP countries to open their markets to substantially all trade is not adequate for the latter to develop their productive capacities and strengthen their competitiveness prior to the potential influx of EU products into the ACP markets. Inequalities resulting from the different levels of development between the EU and ACP countries make reciprocity untenable. The ACP countries also face a gargantuan task in their zeal to break into EU markets already dominated by long established, well loved and highly patronised European brands. Local producers lacking distinctive capabilities will not survive the potential onslaught to be waged by cheap imports from the EU. Furthermore, the EU is bound to apply stringent rules of origin (ROO) on imports from ACP countries, thus introducing technical barriers to market access. MABATINEWS Profiling lines at CGL Mariakani By Gabriel Olukwo As part of its modernization and equipment upgrading program in line with the developments in technology, MRM has installed and commissioned three profiling lines at the finishing department of the Continuous Galvanizing Line at Mariakani. Profiler 1 was commissioned in July 2004, while profilers 2 and 3 were commissioned in October 2006. These lines have replaced shearing lines and barrel corrugators. The profiling lines produce galvanized and aluminium-zinc coated corrugated standard profile sheets. These profiling lines and their layout are in line with Gemba Kaizen principles of lean manufacturing. Material and crane movement have been greatly reduced. Three processes have been combined into one. The order execution time has been reduced and the products from these lines do not have any variations. The profiling lines are far much superior to barrel corrugators in many ways. A higher range of materials can be processed on profilers. They can accommodate 0.20mm to 0.30mm thick material with minimum adjustments. Sheets of various lengths are produced ranging from a few centimetres to over 10 metres length to meet customer requirement. The profiling lines also produce sheets with uniform profiles. These profilers are highly automated with minimal setting time and once correct settings have been achieved, the profilers run automatically producing scratch free sheets. Since profiling lines combine three processes, (shearing, handling and corrugation), rejections are fewer and orders can be executed exactly as per requirements. Profiling lines occupy less space and do not require storage for cut plain sheets. Each Profiling line is manned by only five persons compared to 11 persons in barrel corrugators (three at shearing and eight at corrugator). Production cost of profiling lines is lower than that of lines with barrel corrugators because less manpower is utilised and less power is consumed. The profiling lines have a very high safety level as the operation position is far from moving parts and there is no manual feeding of sheets into the profiler. The operation is thus less tiresome resulting to decreased human errors as a result of fatigue. The noise levels at profiling lines are very low hence operators are not required to wear ear plugs or muffs. Conversely, barrel corrugators process only one gauge and a maximum sheet length of 3.7 metres. As the production process entails shearing, transfers and finally corrugation the rejection level is high because of the independent multiple processes involved. Continuous manual feeding leads to over dependency on humans. These lines are prone to accidents because of multiple handling of products, operation is near to moving parts and their inherent prolonged human fatigue. Lines with barrel corrugators occupy a lot of floor to accommodate the shearing lines, extra storage space for work in process plain sheets and the barrel corrugators. The noise levels at barrel corrugators are high and the operators must wear ear plugs or muffs for hearing protection. M A B A T I N E W S 15
Page 1 and 2: Volume 3, 4th Quarter 2006 is launc
Page 3 and 4: THE LAUNCH OF SAFAL, HORN OF AFRICA
Page 5 and 6: CHANGING OUR COUNTRY WHO SHOULD TAK
Page 7 and 8: Japheth Ojango has been the shop st
Page 9 and 10: Seeing the big picture in teamwork
Page 11 and 12: Dr. Manu Chandaria delivers his spe
Page 13: Christmas As a Christian kid, I gre
Page 17 and 18: awards MABATINEWS OVERALL CORPORATE
Page 19 and 20: M A B A T I N E W S 19

MRM pg 1-5.pdf - Mabati Rolling Mills

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