Seattle Press on Line - Pacifica Workers Devise Innovative Solutions To Problems

Pacifica Workers Devise Innovative Solutions To Problems

Scott Allen and Chris Vick

Nov 03, 1998 -- As Pacifica workers began assembling the Talgo trains and completing the interior finish work, they found "A lot of little variations," according to Camins Bretts, who we talked to as she was getting the 'toilet seat doily' dispensers ready for installation in the trains' compact bathrooms. "The Spanish work out of a craft tradition," Bretts said, "so that the specs often differ from car to car. Lots of things just don't go together right and have to be hand fitted."

She was refitting the dispensers, which had to be relocated when Pacifica workers discovered that if they were installed according to plans, they would block access to an electrical service panel.

Pacifica workers have the freedom and flexibility to devise their own on-the-job solutions when problems come up, without going through several layers of management, Terry Stanford explained. "We don't have any managers here in the plant," Stanford said. "We're all workers except for Don (CEO Don Patz) and he's out on the road most of the time hustling up new business."

In another case, Dave Kennaston said the passenger car window channels were too tight, and it was very difficult to install the glass and the rubber gaskets.

The gasket installers came up with part of the solution. They asked for a big tub they could keep filled up with hot water, where they could soak the gaskets making them more pliable and easier to install.

"But the channels really were still just a teensy bit too small," Kennaston said. So window installer Sid Cookson came up with the idea to make the channels a little wider. The ad hoc team designed a guide for a router to fit right on the window channels. Kennaston machined the guide and made a shroud with duct tape and a vacuum hose to avoid spreading aluminum chips around the nearly finished car interiors.

With these on-the-spot solutions, window installation became much easier.

"In a conventional plant, a decision like that would have gone through several layers of management and engineering," said mechanic Terry Stanford.

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