Kyle Denton has worked in a Team Leader role at Logan Aluminum position for the past ten years. For the past six months, he has been the Operational Team Leader of the Cold Mill Logistics Team. A native of Benton, Kentucky, Kyle graduated from Murray State University, where he began a career in northern Kentucky at 3M. After six years and the birth of his child, he and his wife decided to move closer to their families so their children would know their grandparents. After interviewing with over fifty different companies, Kyle accepted a position with Logan.
“I was attracted by the vibe, Logan’s team concept, and the ownership you had, not only in a leadership, but as an operator.”
The Logistics Team is focused on the oversight of metal movement, tub movement, and scrap on the south end of the plant for Cold Mill and Finishing. Unlike the typical hiring process at Logan, the Logistics team was developed by bringing in team members from different units.
With a group of people that had never worked together before, Kyle said that it took some time for the teams to get adjusted to their new dynamic. With thirty-six team members total, four teams of nine work a 12-hour DuPont schedule. Although the majority voted to trial the new schedule, Kyle said it could be taxing on work-life balance for a team leader.
The team’s ownership and continuous improvement of the pup coiler process has saved Logan more than $1.5 million in six months with a projection of $3 million for the year. The team continues to improve processes and efficiencies, testing out new processes, including a coil tracking system and crane scheduling system.
“The Logan team always rises to a challenge. The Logistics team is a great example of rethinking work and reorganizing to improve performance and efficiency. The Eat the Elephant project is another example. A need was highlighted and across the manufacturing plant, the teams started developing improvements. Once a problem is identified (See), willing ownership of the problem occurs (Own), solutions are identified (Solve) and improvements are implemented (Do It). This is the Logan culture in action!” said Paul Banks