On the Ball in Birstall!
As part of our Extra Mile initiative we're always looking to share the stories of staff members within PPG and reward astute knowledge and quick-thinking in their every day roles. Meet Tony Griffiths, he's a Control Room Process Technician at PPG AC UK & Ireland at the Birstall site and is someone you can count on in a tough spot!
One Sunday morning while working at the plant, Tony realised there could be an issue with the stock levels of an important raw material. The chemical is widely used as an extender in flat and satin paint products as it provides a high degree of opacity and tint strength.
Without this raw material the Yorkshire site would be left unable to manufacture any paint in their Unit 4 as it's required for all manufactured products. The proposed delivery for the next shipment, Tony realised, was not until the following Tuesday, it was Tony's sharp eye that alerted him to the fact that the bank holiday weekend had the potential to scupper any plans to manufacture any product on the Monday.
Knowing we needed to manufacture paint on the Monday I realised I needed to try to do something about it if possible.
Luckily, through the relationships Tony has built at PPG, he already had the mobile phone number of his normal delivery driver and although it was Sunday, he thought he'd try his luck and ring the driver to explain the situation. The driver, being understanding and sympathetic to the situation, then rang his own company and passed the information on.
It was a tense few minutes while Tony awaited the response but thanks to his quick decision making a delivery arrived the very same day, by 10.30am! The Unit 4 Control Room operatives could then continue to manufacture paint without any worries, ready for filling urgent customer orders on the Tuesday morning.
Tony's perceptive, customer-focussed mentality meant that on the Bank Holiday Monday, the plant was able to produce 49,000L of paint ready for production, which enabled the filling department to fill an additional 4,900 containers of paint for a priority customer, to be delivered the following day. If you have a story like Tony's or you know someone in your team that deserves some recognition, email the communications team here and we'll be in touch soon!