GLOBAL INFORMATION XCHANGE
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Shareholders, Customers, Employees
Vol. 1, Issue 8
November, 1997
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Global Now
By Larry Nance
[Editor's note: WSJ, November 10, 1997: Mexican authorities evacuated residents in Pacific coast villages (including Oaxaca) as Hurricane Rick (the second major storm in as many months) blew in on 85 mph winds Sunday night (November 9). Flooding in Somalia has left 800,000 people homeless as torrential rains rake East Africa's coast. El Niño is powering these weather events.]
What Have You Done!
An Open Letter to the Men and Women of Global Industrial Technologies; Ameri-Forge; Specialty Equipment Group (CTI and Processing); Harbison-Walker; and INTOOL.Dear Group:
Your barely fledged Global International Volunteer Effort (GIVE) took flight in October. What you have accomplished in a very short time is astounding: nearly 7,000 articles of clothing, bedding, food, medicine, baby formula, and bottles were collected from Global Divisions around the country and delivered to Pauline storm ravaged victims in Oaxaca and Guillermo Mexico. The short version: $11,798.00 in commodities.The week following the initial corporate-wide collection and distribution reported earlier, the GIVE Forum met to review the previous week's campaign. Leopoldo Lopez (REFMEX) and Homero Hernandez (CTI, Mexico) made a passionate appeal for baby bottles. You and your Divisions responded. Within two weeks, 3,456 bottles (54 cases) with top-of-the-line caps and nipples were on their way to Mexico City for pickup and distribution by Jose Moya and his team from Tlalnepantla, Mexico. The bottles arrived at Atlanta's International Airport Wednesday afternoon and left Saturday, November 8 from Miami aboard American Airlines flight 2199 bound for Mexico City. Jose Moya and his team from REFMEX picked up the shipment released from customs for distribution Wednesday, November 12.
Concerned partners Yellow Freight provided transport of clothing from Pennsylvania to Chicago, E.S. Robbins provided three additional cases of bottles, and Dan Transport out of College Park Georgia, airlifted the baby supplies by American Airlines to Mexico City.
An appreciation letter (a segment of which follows) was sent to Yellow Freight, along with comparable ones to E.S. Robbins and Dan Transport:
"...A little over two weeks ago, Global Industrial Technologies 4,000 employees, through our Global International Volunteer Effort (GIVE), embarked on a mission to help the men, women, and children of Oaxaca and Guillermo Mexico recover from the ravages of hurricane Pauline. These proud people, who were already living in poverty, lost what little they had in the winds, rains, and floods that devastated these southern states. Those in the hills were reported by Mexico's President, and by our employees in Mexico, to be starving. Some 250 throughout the two states had died in the storm.
"Within hours of being advised of the need, Global's divisions, including Harbison-Walker Refractories in Pittsburgh, PA and Mexico; INTOOL in Houston, TX, Cleveland, and Springfield OH; Ameri-Forge in Houston TX; and Specialty Equipment Group, Dallas, TX and Mexico, began to collect clothes, medicine, food and baby supplies to send to Oaxaca and Guillermo through Mexican Consulates and Mexicana Airlines around the country.
"Those supplies from Harbision-Walker's employees in Pittsburgh required transport to Newark, N.Y. and Mexicana Airlines for shipping to our friends in Mexico. Yellow Freight System, Inc. in Pittsburgh was contacted. Without hesitation, your Pittsburgh team volunteered their transporting services.
"We extend to the men and women of Yellow Freight System, our profound admiration, thanks and gratitude for your caring about those whom you only knew needed help. Your kindness has helped clothe, feed, and restore a sense of security for these impoverished people. Our employees in Mexico tell us how wonderful it is to realize that we all care about them, and that they are not alone...."
The same goes for everyone at Ameri-Forge, Specialty Equipment Group, Harbison-Walker, INTOOL, and Headquarters. What you have done is respond to the need of people you neither know nor will ever meet, but whose lives you have affected profoundly. And just as importantly, we have touched one another. You have, for the first time as members Corporate, pooled resources, talents, belongings, and money in a concerted effort to relieve suffering wherever it is.
This has been a unique experience, a unique opportunity for all of us. You have truly given freely in love. No greater love is there to give.
Yours,
The GIVE Forum Team
Larry Nance, (Chair); Roland Almendarez, Leigh Ann Contreras (Team Leader), Eric Howard (Ameri-Forge); Laura Edney (Team Leader), Randy Harvey, Bonnie Gillette, Elizabeth DeCross, Glenn Shaw, Homero Hernandez (Specialty Equipment Group); Jim Caprio, Ken McPherson, Phil Rydeski (Team Leader), Calvin Cross, Dawn Weiss, Lise Boismenu, Leopoldo Lopez, Ramiro Valenzuela (Harbison-Walker ); Jan Beam, Debbie Pantalian (Team Leader), Jane Yater (INTOOL); Sandy Baird (Team Leader), Ken Fernandez, Jane Gaines, Sherry Miller, Carmen Nieves, Mark Stott (Corporate).
Global Roundup
Headquarters
www.prnewswire.com/gixGlobal Provides Guidance On Fiscal Year-End 1997 Results and Reports Reorganization
Global Industrial Technologies Inc. reported in a September 21 press release that earnings for the year are expected to be below Wall Street estimates. The decline in projected results is due to several operating issues, as well as a charge to fourth quarter earnings that relates to a reorganization also announced September 21 at the Corporation's largest operating unit, Harbison-Walker Refractories. Global will report audited financial results on or about December 18, 1997.Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer J. L. Jackson said some of the factors negatively impacting the fourth quarter (as described below) will carry over into the first quarter of 1998. However, the effect of the Harbison-Walker reorganization, cost cutting, together with growing production at Ameri-Forge in Houston, should, Jackson predicted, improve 1998 operating earnings over 1997.
Jackson explained that while "we are confident that Global's businesses are capable of providing our shareholders with above average returns over time, a delayed start-up in our new Ameri-Forge undercarriage venture, currency issues (primarily European currencies and the Peso), as well as lower operating margins in the North American refractories business due to unanticipated changes in sales mix, continue to temporarily hinder our earnings growth."
"We are dealing aggressively with all of these issues, and that includes," Jackson concluded, "a significant realignment of our Harbison-Walker Refractories business management team, and their worldwide responsibilities."
[Forward-looking statements concerning earnings and results from operations are contained in this announcement. The following important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements: recouping delayed business on a schedule different than anticipated; development of new products; changes in currency exchange rates; litigation; timing of additions to manufacturing capacity; unanticipated production or shipment delays; and significant variances in sales or costs at a major business unit.]
Harbison-Walker
Where Paleo and Northeast Indians, European settlers and H-W Miners Lived and Worked Is Now an Historical Wilderness AreaHarbison-Walker has, in collaboration with the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Mount Union Area Historical Society, set aside the "Thousand Steps" and "Jack's Narrows" area in Central Pennsylvania as a monument to those ancient peoples who called it home, the miners who worked there in the early part of the century, and to the area's unique ecosystem and biosphere. The sale of the site was concluded on October 31.
The "Steps" is in 671 acres of mountain land on the northern side of a water gap known as Jack's Narrows where the Juniata River cuts through the 100-mile-long, 2,000-foot high Jack's Mountain. In addition to the Thousand Steps, the land is home to threatened plant and animals, unusual fossils, the Pennsylvania Canal, and ancient large game trails used by Paleo-Indian and later northeastern tribes, that remain today as testimony to their presence and passing.
Trails throughout the river and valley areas that were cut by mammoth and other post ice age big game, were used by pre 8,000 B.C. Paleo-Indians ( 7,000-1,500 B.C.) who roamed the Juniata River and Jack's mountain area in seasonal search of food and shelter. Not much is known about these archaic peoples except from the points and other tools they left behind for archeologists to find and study.
The Jack's mountain Juniata River area was from 500 B.C. through 500 A.D. unoccupied. Then came what is referred to as the Woodlands peoples, Susquehanna, and others, from 1,300 A.D. through 1675 before being exterminated by the Iroquois and European settlers.
The Monogahela Indians and their predecessors also used the ancient mountain game trails. The Monogahela (A.D. 900-1600) were intensive agriculturists living in heavily stockaded villages. They disappeared prior to the first European contact in southwestern Pennsylvania. The later displaced Delaware, Shawnee, an other eastern tribes settled in western Pennsylvania until continued European pressure pushed them "further westward."
H-W purchased the Jack's mountain land to mine high-grade ganister rock that was crushed and re-formed into silica bricks for the steel industry. What became known as the Mount Union Plant was once the largest silica brick manufacturer in the world. Rock was gathered and transported in tramcars pulled by a "dinkey" steam locomotive that crossed a bridge over the Juanita River and traced over switchbacks and counter balanced inclines to transport loads of minerals.
Workers were transported in the dinkey cars up the switchbacks to the mining work sites. When the inclines went into service, workers were not allowed to ride the cars because it was not safe. So, a set of 1,000 stone steps were set in the mountain's side up to the quarry for the miners to use, 30 minutes up, and 30 minutes down.
The people of Mount Union hold the steps as representing "fitness, and toughness." If you are from Mount Union, you have to "walk the steps" at least once in your life to prove that you have the same fortitude as those hardy souls that used them to go to work every day.
The Save our Steps Committee, Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission, The Mount Union Historical Society, The Raystown Country Visitors Bureau, Keystone Trails Association, and the Huntingdon County Historical Society helped raise funds for the purchase.
[Editor's Note: This story was assembled from news stories by Robert Mull and Toni Hancock in the Pittsburgh Daily News, and telephone interviews with Dr. James Richardson III, Curator and Chair of Anthropology of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Prof. Emeritus Paul Heberling of Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA.]
Global Walking-The-Talk
WANTED!
Individual(s) guilty of one or more of the following traits: helps your group be more productive; doesn't give up when the going gets tough; is selfless; is creative and contributes to your Division and the corporation's success; helps us grow; and, maintains a cheery disposition when things look bleak! In short, one whom Walks-The-Talk and inspires you to do the same.If you've witnessed such behavior, please write it down (on a nomination form) and report the individuals(s) to your local authorities, or Sandy Baird, by November 21, 1997.
A jury of seven will circle the wagons and select the top four practitioners. Justice will be served!
Refractarios Mexicanos, S.A.
[Editor's note: Translated from September's REFMEX magazine]
SOMETHING ABOUT OUR PROJECTABLE PRODUCTS
One of the refractory specialties produced by REFMEX is projectable products. They are one of the state-of-the-art lines offered by our company to its customers. In order to find out some of their characteristics at this time, we spoke to the commercial manager in charge of this area, Engineer JosŽ Vicente Frausto, and asked him to answer some of our questions:REFMEX: What are "Projectables," and where are they used?
Projectables are powdered refractory materials and they are used to repair the most deteriorated parts of the bricks in steel furnaces and vats during their operation.
REFMEX: If they are powders, how can they be applied?
They are indeed powders, but they are deposited in the tank of the "Projection Machine," where they are submitted to a pressure jet of air, which makes them come out through a hose to a nozzle where they are mixed with water and launched or projected on the surface that needs to be covered, hence the name "projectable."
REFMEX: We heard that the "Projection Machines" are a Mexican technological adaptation. Is that right?
Yes, it is. Based on a commercial prototype of the projection machine, Refmex made various adaptations to meet the needs of its customers, which led to the construction of a more advanced projection machine. For example, conventional machines are manual, while those of Refmex are automated electronically. This allows for precise, automatic opening and closing of the valves that feed the material, sweeping for cleaning and the "relief" of the pressurized tank. On the other hand, the size of the jet which is used as an element generating and controlling the pressure that mixes the compressed air with the powder and makes it flow through the hose was increased, avoiding constant blockage and increasing the volume of the material applied.
We also added "electronic weighing cells" which allow measuring the volume of material applied, which is an essential control element that did not exist in commercial models.
All this places Refmex projection equipment above that which is used commercially, with the added satisfaction and pride of being original adaptations made by us in our Ramos Arizpe plant.
REFMEX: Can we then say that this is one of our advantages over the competition?
Yes, having a good projection machine and human resources qualified to project, plus our product, are advantages that give us a good position in the market.
REFMEX: What do you consider the most important aspects to being successful in the market with this type of product?
There are several factors, such as:
- Service and qualified technical assistance concerning the product and equipment,
- Consistent product quality,
- Reliable machines for its application,
- Organized planning of tests and follow-up,
- Supplying the product and service appropriate for each customer, and
- Making friends with our customers, in a Win-Win partnership.
If one of these aspects is missing, all the work will fail.
REFMEX: What advantages do our customers have when using these products and equipment?
They increase the useful life of refractory bricks, with quite significant operating savings.
REFMEX: What advantages do you think we have over our competitors?
Technical Assistance, professionally trained personnel, highly capable of giving timely, correct answers.
Teamwork, the work done is the result of the shared responsibility of all of Refmex, committed to the customer's final results.
Automated Modern Equipment, as I said before, with the highest technology in Mexico. Some of our machines are even equipped with systems, which send projectable consumption information directly to the computer of our customers.
A variety of projectable products, we have a great variety of projectable products so that we can offer practically every customer a "customized answer to his special needs." And finally, Good service attitude, which starts at our plant and is passed on to the customer, who appreciates the care and timely attention given to his needs.
REFMEX: Is it possible to export these products?
Not only is it possible, but this is a fact. We currently export our projectable products to the southern United States, El Salvador and Venezuela, among other countries, where they are successful. As in Mexico, the key to this success is the consistency of their quality, as well as that of our service and technical assistance.
REFMEX: Summing up?
I am very proud of Refmex; in all the years I have worked in the area, I have seen it grow more than 7 times its size. I see with great joy the satisfaction of our customers, who now are also our friends; I like seeing the happiness of our personnel for work well done and sense their fulfillment and pride; consequently, this project enables us to develop all our potential in order to meet an ambitious challenge, which is highly gratifying and makes us better people, individually and as a group.
The growth of Sales in this area is a consequence of all this participation and effort, and must be acknowledged. I take advantage of this interview to acknowledge and be thankful, as a salesperson and the first and last business element, for the cooperation of my colleagues, particularly Engineer Manuel Reyna and his production team, Engineer Victor M. Garc’a, and his maintenance team, Engineer JosŽ Albino Gonz‡lez, and his engineering team, Engineer Mar’a Luisa Trujillo, and the Research and Development Department, the Sales personnel, and our technical advisors from Harbison Walker.
Each and every one of them had something to do with the development and success of this "new generation of projectables," in which there is no doubt that the support and confidence of our management, which gave us norms and rules established as a service policy, are making it possible for the "The Way We Do Things" at Refractarios Mexicanos, S.A., to be based on the respect of each person's individual values, in a positive, productive business climate.
INTOOL
www.INTOOL-inc.comITD Automation
www.LRapp@aol.com.Industrial Energy Products
www.airetool@airetool.comCorrosion Technology International
(Web site is under construction)
__________________________________________________________________________________
Global Tech
Becomeng Computur Literut
Where's The Data Bits Please?By Steve Vandewater
What's new in Global's Information Technology (IT- we must have our acronyms!) world? Lots, and more is coming. Windows 95 and Office 97 are slated to be on all desktops by January 1. In order to make that happen, and so some IT staff don't get tarred and feathered when it does, we're upgrading well over 500 PC's with more memory, faster chips and bigger hard disks.
Why are we doing this? The bottom line is to promote communication. Each company had good software to do its own word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. Unfortunately, whenever we needed to share that information with someone who didn't work in the same office we ran into trouble. I couldn't read your files and you couldn't read mine. What's more, trying to get information from the big business software packages (QAD, Pivot Point, PeopleSoft, and Hyperion) was harder than it needed to be. These systems have better interfaces to Microsoft Office than any other package.
We know that the transition from WordPerfect, Lotus, Word Pro and even older releases of Microsoft products will be painful. Training programs are being implemented at each site to help with that transition. Still, a lot of the work can only be done by you, the user.
What else is coming? Netscape for one. Global has purchased 1,200 copies of Netscape Communicator. This will become the common e-mail system for all our sites. Soon we'll be able to send and receive e-mail from anyone with a workstation at any Global company. Since Netscape uses Internet standards, we'll also be able to communicate with customers and vendors that have e-mail. IT staff at several locations are working with this product in the lab (after dark during lighting storms I've heard) to bring this plan to your PC or UNIX workstation.
It's an exciting time in IT but a lot of work too. Take an IT staffer to lunch, maybe they'll tell you a couple of Word or Excel secrets. A word to the wise, don't get them started on Bill Gates.
Next episode: Is The Internet The Garden Of Eden Or What?
Global Words of the Month
Baby Bottles
Global Information Exchange is published monthly at Global Industrial Technologies, 2121 San Jacinto Street, Suite 2500, Dallas, TX. Fax news items to: GIX, Attn: Larry Nance, 214/953-4595.