BETTER: Employees are improving daily the housekeeping at the Expral plant, some 30 kilometers outside Madrid. Here is an illustration, before (left) and after (right). Many more examples are available in the PDF document in the right-hand column, under 'Attachments.'

Hydro acquired Expral on April 18, and has organized the site as part of Hydro Aluminium Extrusion Spain. This company, which is headed by Rafael Fuertes, also includes the La Roca-based extrusion plant near Barcelona. The plants have combined annual volume of around 30,000 metric tons.

The integration of Expral and its 90 employees into the Hydro group is going to take time, and management is leading the way. Several months ago, Fuertes and Eduard Canet, who manages the Expral plant, agreed upon a detailed integration plan that is designed to make the transition as smooth as possible for employees while also improving the operations, step by step, at Hydro's newest plant.

Integration work during the first month covered aspects from most of the functions at the site, including HSE, IS/IT, and Sales.

Since most of the employees at Expral work as operators, the area with most participation was occupational safety. In addition to introducing regular safety meetings and focusing on safety at the presses - Expral has two presses - management has brought housekeeping into the picture at Pinto.

"This is something that everyone can see with their eyes and improve with their hands. We are communicating the fact that good housekeeping is one of the basic elements in building a world-class safety culture," says Canet.

Pictures tell the story

Every day, excluding Saturdays and Sundays, when the plant is normally closed, Canet and the plant's other managers take good time walking through and evaluating the floor operations while speaking with the production team. And they are taking a lot of pictures.

Canet alone has taken nearly a thousand photos during the past four weeks. It is easier in this way to show improvements in "before and after" format.

"We have not made any dramatic changes, but many small improvements are being made every day," he says.

The integration work in the next two-to-three months will include:

• HSE. Risk assessment, TRI analysis, near-miss system
• Communication. Logo, brochure corrections
• HR. Recruitment policy, mid-term organization
• Sales. Margin split, reporting
• Manufacturing. Quick wins for performance drivers, finish master plan
• IT. GIO implementation
• Finance. KPIs, benchmarking, reporting