Jose Montalvo · Systems & production records

Workshops and walkthroughs

What happens when the whole plant has to see something, or when an audit has to become a list somebody can act on.

07

Hosting the workshop — showing the plant what changed

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
A workshop I organised and presented: five improvements, each shown with before-and-after photographs and explained in a sentence anybody on the floor could repeat back.
Why it existed
Improvements nobody sees get undone. People drift back to the old way because nothing ever told them the new way was finished, deliberate, and theirs to keep.
What changed
Five changes presented side by side with what they replaced. Two of them — the housekeeping schedule and the shadow boards — have their own cards on this site; this is the room where the floor was told about them.

The five slides

  1. Front office renovations — decor, lighting and functionality, before and after, and what it does to the first impression for a visitor
  2. The new housekeeping schedule — the floor plan laid out so responsibilities and the flow of cleaning are visible at a glance
  3. The new hazardous waste area — a designated, organised space for hazardous material, shown against what it replaced
  4. Machine guarding — updated barriers and safety features, brought in line with the standard
  5. Shadow boards — tools stored in their own outline, so they are found fast and not lost
08

Turning a walkthrough audit into a list somebody can act on

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
The written debrief sent to the whole team after a SHE&T walkthrough of the site: every observation, grouped by where it is — outside, indoors, in the office — plus what was already right, and the date of the meeting where the report gets discussed.
Why it existed
An audit that ends in a conversation is gone by the following week. Findings have to be written down, grouped so each person can see their own area, and given a date — or they are just opinions somebody had on a Tuesday.
What changed
Over thirty observations, each specific enough to act on without asking a follow-up question. It opens by thanking the team and naming two people for their integrity and leadership — before a single finding — and it closes with the date of the meeting where the report gets worked. The items themselves went into the action tracker.

Outside the building

  • Customer dumpsters under review for retrofitting with covers
  • Trash dumpster lids kept down so debris can't escape
  • PPE signage on every door leading into an unsafe zone
  • Confined space signage in the back loading dock
  • Move recycling to a safe-harbour vendor after ongoing issues with the current one
  • Clear out the unused machinery and accessories stored behind the building

Indoors

  • Lighting in the meter area by the compressor room
  • Remove the stationed ladder at the men's bathroom in the meter area
  • Bring the racks onto the PM schedule
  • Safety markers on the compressor room floor
  • Remove fire extinguisher signage where no extinguisher is located
  • Label the buckets in the compressor room
  • Nothing stored above the lockers; containers wiped down; anything on skids or shelves strapped or shrink-wrapped
  • Tally books for ice pellet storage current and present
  • Dust build-up in the stove area even though the stove is out of use
  • Crane tag in the slitting area illegible
  • Filter change tags missing on the water fountain
  • Not every blade carries an identifying label
  • Remove the unused first aid kits
  • Inspection tag added to the tinning shower station
  • Spark marking on the outlet outside the cafeteria
  • Lighting above the cafeteria where cores are stored
  • Unlabelled containers by the SDS station at the back wall
  • No cardboard or rags stored in flammable cabinets
  • Hazardous waste pickup under review — every two months instead of every three
  • Removable links and poles above the hazardous materials area

In the office

  • A SharePoint home for all safety and operational documents
  • The daily safety meeting sheet to carry that day's discussion topic
  • Daily meetings to tighten inventory management and tracking

What was already right

  • Pallet wall with identification and height limit markers
  • JHAs located and framed where they can actually be found
  • Site map updated with icons and identification tags
  • Overall facility cleanliness
  • The training records wall

The debrief as it went to the team. Names removed.