State of the Nation
by E. W. Phares II
We have now completed the first three quarters of 2011, and I am pleased to report that our sales are running approximately $1,000,000 ahead of plan, however somewhat behind last year. Pretax income for the first three quarters is behind plan from last year, but holding up well considering the worldwide economic conditions.
Sales in Canada, due to continued dramatic growth in the tar sands area, are well ahead of plan, as is our operating income. All areas in West Canada are doing well and we anticipate the fourth quarter to continue ahead of plan.
Sales unfortunately at Penetone are well behind plan, as is our operating profit. Dramatic cost increases in raw materials have had an extremely
negative impact on our operating profits primarily in the pulp and paper industry with the exorbitant increase in D’Limonene. We have now been able to pass on cost increases and anticipate that profitability in pulp and paper, as well as overall, will improve during the fourth quarter.
Petron has had strong sales for the first 9 months of the year, however, operating income is somewhat behind plan due to continued raw material increases, a direct result of continued high oil prices. Sales are continuing strong, both in the U.S. as well as China and South America, and we are looking forward to a quite profitable fourth quarter.
There continues to be a deep concern about the prognosis of the future economy. Continued weakness in the Euro, coupled with a high unemployment rate here in the U.S. strongly suggests that we will have a slow-down in our recovery and possibly another recession. We are taking all the appropriate cost reduction actions necessary to minimize any lowering of our profit and are quite optimistic about our new ventures into China and South America, as well as continued sales development in the U.S.
In spite of our concerns of the weak economy, we are optimistic that 2011 will be a good year. Thanks again to all for your continued hard work and commitment.
Petron uses FEMAs to reduce process failures
By Jim Bittner
Petron has adopted the use of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FEMA) as a process that we follow as part of our Management of Change
process. Failure Modes are any actual or potential errors or defects in a process, design or product that affect our customers.
FEMA was originally developed by the US military in the 1960s as a means to identify potential failures and then classify them. Failures are prioritized
according to how serious their consequences, how frequently they occur, and how easily they can be detected.
The basic process is to identify a potential failure mode (what could go wrong) for each step of a process. Each failure mode is then given a
ranking on a scale of 1 to 10, to indicate the frequency of the occurrence of the failure mode, 1 equaling no known occurrences and 10 equaling
very high occurrences.
Next each failure mode is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, to indicate the severity of the failure, 1 equaling no effect and 10 equaling very hazardous
or unsafe conditions or an angered customer.
Finally, each failure mode is assigned a ranking on a scale of 1 to 10 to indicate the likelihood of detection, 1 indicating the fault will certainly be
caught to 10, and the fault will go undetected.
These factors are multiplied together to calculate a Risk Priority Number (RPN) and the higher the number the greater the need for a corrective action to be implemented.
Petron originally started the FEMA process at the request of a customer. Since we’ve implemented its use, we have found the FEMA process
to be quite eye opening. We have used the FEMA process to eliminate several potential problems in our process before they became real issues for our customers.
And now you know…
By Bruce Muretta
“And now you know the rest of the story” was a short segment on ABC radio by famed broadcaster, Paul Harvey. Here are a few West Penetone
versions of “and now you know. . .”
Dr. Robert West and Emil Taussig began West Chemical (then called West Disinfecting) in 1890. Mr. Taussig went to England for a visit in 1912.
Unfortunately, his return trip to the U.S. was booked on the magnificent new ocean liner, The Titanic. Mr. Taussig did not survive.
During the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in early 1942, the navy released a request for a solvent emulsion product to clean resultant
strong carbon residues. Penetone responded with Navee 42.
Other Penetone product names also had unique origins. An odorless solvent was developed with an assumed chemical composition initials, but
TPC actually was only an acronym for The Penetone Corporation.
The Bergen Record newspaper required a specialty solvent emulsion product for cleaning presses. The product developed suggested a sodium
chloride presence, but Old Salt was only a name given in recognition of the “Old Salt Diner” where our salesman and the Record’s purchasing
agent met for lunch.
And maybe the best story was the Penetone chemist who was having lunch at his lab bench when he placed a piece of his orange on a specific
residue he was working on to clean which spawned the innovation of orange terpene cleaning technology and our patented Citrikleen line.
And now you know…
Instrumentation gains edge on competition
By Elisa Pieroni
Petron has stepped up to the next level as a World Leader in heavy duty lubricant formulating and manufacturing through the purchase of the
Falex Four Ball Extreme Pressure Test Instrument.
The Four ball Extreme Pressure Instrument determines the load carrying capacity of a lubricant as well as evaluates the Extreme Pressure and
Wear Preventive characteristics of that lubricant. Having this instrument on site accomplishes several tasks:
- Greatly reduces formulation time for new lubricants. In the past we would have to wait up to a month to find out the results of a
formulation we sent an independent lab. If it passed testing we were good to move on but if it failed it was back to the drawing board for
another couple of months. Now we can cut that 1 month wait into a few hours wait for the test.
- Reduce formulation cost. Fine-tuning the amount of additives to achieve our desired results reduces the cost of a formulation. With the Falex Four Ball instrument at Petron we can also evaluate for synergistic tendencies.
- Competitive analysis. Always good to know how a competitor performs.
- Run second sourcing tests in house. We will be able to test EP additives from other raw material suppliers to assure we have a
second source for these valuable additives.
Building on success - National Sales Meeting 2011
By Paul Hayden
The 2011 bi-annual National Sales Meeting occurred in Las Vegas, on October 17 -18, 2011. The overall theme of this year’s sales meeting was
to “Build on Success” of our individual sales segments and sales people to strengthen and broaden knowledge from segment to segment and person
to person across North America.
From all accounts, our meeting was a resounding success. Delegates were renewed with a good overall review of our industrial division, interpersonal
relationships were strengthened from region to region and everyone included learned something new about our vast product line and company. Las Vegas provided an excellent back-drop both in scenery and nightlife for entertainment and a good time was had by all. Trump Plaza hotel provided excellent service and accommodations. The view from our 64th floor meeting room was breathtaking. Many of our staff who had been to Las Vegas before commented on the “refreshing” atmosphere of Trump Plaza, vowing to return for the next time they visit ‘Sin City’.
A large part of this year’s sales meeting focused on an information exchange so that all our employees could be on the same level information wise; but equally important was the time spent charting our future growth. Collectively, we set key performance indicators and time lines for upcoming projects and key accounts and from there assigned responsibility for action items. The result in 30, 60, 90 days should be positive for our growth curve in Western Canada as well as the United States.
Western Canada has an enormous potential with an emerging technology in ultrasonic cleaning as well as a rapidly growing production chemistry group. Our U.S. counterpart Penetone Corporation has an excellent opportunity to develop the drilling industry and expand in other areas as well.
This year’s Sales meeting brought together people from all points of North America resulting in the leveraging of information and the advancing of
West Penetone knowledge from sector to sector. From a management prospective, this exchange is vitality important to keep our employees focused, renewed and eager to achieve our collective goals of growth and prosperity. I look forward to reporting to all of you in 2013 that we have achieved all of our goals set forth at this year’s meeting. Until then thank you to all who participated in the 2011 National Sales Meeting. It is the people like you that make West Penetone what it is, a great company.
New Hires
This past quarter West Penetone hired Ryan Bobroske, Shipping & Receiving; Kim Desjarlais, Customer Service; and Tina Violetti, Receptionist.
Petron welcomed Joseph Kisley, Compounder to its ranks and Colleen McLaughlin joined Penetone as Customer Service/Credit Clerk.
Service Milestones
Congratulations to the following on their service achievements for the period July through September 2011.
3 Years
- Nick Murray – Petron
- Chris Bromberek – Petron
- Antoine Juno – West Penetone
5 Years
- Pierre Castagne – Petron
- Michele D’Alessandro – Penetone
- Francois Richard – West Penetone
- John Wilkes – West Penetone
35 Years
James Tormey – West Penetone
40 Years
Volkert Lindloge –West Penetone
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