The Insider
April 2016
News this month...
bauma 2016
Smiley Monroe best ever bauma!
New Starts
New faces and newborns.
Charity Event
Why not be part of our charity Mournes Trek this June?
bauma 2016
Smiley Monroe reached a milestone in our company's history this year by exhibiting independently for the first time at bauma in Munich. All the hard work and planning resulted in a very successful week in which we showcased a number of core products and launched our range of hot moulded Special Belts, Zip Clip replacement belts, and our new grey, energy-saving, polymer King Roller.
Our bauma team showed the upmost professionalism over the seven-day exhibition and generated over 100 leads, many of which are potential new business opportunities. There were a number of high-level meetings with key customers, which we were able to accommodate thanks to the highly professional hospitality and design of our stand.
Global Sales Director, Chris Monroe, feels "the success of the show will fuel sales growth in the region and elevate the status of Smiley Monroe in the Industry". Well done to everyone who was involved in making the show a success - from those holding the fort back at head office to all the team who worked on the stand.
Welcome to Smiley Monroe :-)
Wesley McAvoy
Gary Gillespie
Accounts Assistant
Laura McKnight
Supply Chain Forecaster
Jamie Gillespie
Sales Advisor
Zöe Barnes
HR Manager
Gary Crawford
Sales Administrator
From new starts to newborns....
Kris Fitzpatrick from endless belts saw the birth of his new baby girl, Izabella, born in January. Lynsey Nixon from Sales had a baby boy, Jaxon, in April and finally, congratulations to Joshua Audley from our Cut Rubber department, on the birth of his baby girl, Darcy, also in April.
Smiley Monroe Sunny Mournes Charity Trek
We're planning a charity trek up Slieve Donard to take place on Saturday, June 18th to raise money for the Simon Community and NI Chest, Heart & Stroke (NICHS). A Just Giving page for each of the 2 charities has already been set up, so we'd urge you to click the links below and donate, no matter how little, as it all helps! We're also keen to make this a fun day out, so we hope as many of the Smiley Monroe team and their families & friends as possible can come along to support us, as there'll be food and refreshments after the trek for all who attend. Watch this space for more details in the coming weeks...
Simon Community Just Giving Page
NI Chest, Heart and Stroke Foundation Just Giving Page
June 18th.....save the date!
Hillhead 2016
Hot on the heels of the bauma 2016 show in Munich, Hillhead is now just around the corner! Following its global launch at bauma 2016, we'll be showcasing our Special Belts to the UK and Ireland market, as well as launching our new MegaFlex Screen, and our new environmentally friendly Cold Bond vulcanising adhesive. Bauma may be the world's biggest trade show, but our stand at Hillhead will be the biggest and most impressive in our company's history, designed to give our customers the best experience possible.
Dates - 28th to 30th June
Location - Buxton, Derbyshire
Continuous Improvement Activities
Since the start of 2016, Smiley Monroe, with the support of Lean tools and techniques, has implemented a number of key projects and business improvements across the business.
One of these improvement activities is a standardisation of our manufacturing process, providing control and visibility of potential Quality and H&S issues throughout manufacturing activities.
Another measure we have set in place is the introduction of daily start-up communication meetings in Factory 1, 2, India, and soon to be rolled out company wide. These meetings are designed to improve visibility of how well we are preforming to meet customer requirements and act as a mechanism for us all to raise issues and suggest improvements.
There will be a continuous improvement activity report released every quarter, which you will find posted in the coffee dock, canteens, factories and at the Hub. For more information, or if you would like to make an improvement suggestion, please contact our Operations Improvement Manager, Wesley McAvoy.
Irish Cement Training Day
At the request of our customer, Irish Cement, Smiley Monroe's Applications Engineer, Keith Stevenson and Ireland Sales Manager, David Mullan, have just delivered our 'Working Safely with Conveyors' training course on site in Drogheda. The course was highly praised by Irish Cement's Maintenance Planner, Frank Hughes, who said, "the training was excellent", he received "great feedback" and our training evaluation sheets revealed that 92% of the course participants rated the course as either "excellent" or "very good". This successful outcome was down to the close collaboration of our sales, marketing and technical teams, who tailored the content specifically to meet our customer's needs.
Rubblemaster Breakthrough
For some time now we have been supplying Rubblemaster in Austria with rubber parts and low friction polyurethane conveyor skirting. However, we haven't had much luck supplying them with endless belts...until now. A few months back we got a call from their sister company, Rubblemaster Retail Park, who claim to have 40 machines in operation across Austria, for which they have purchased a number of our screen mats. So, we're delighted to report that just last week we received a call requesting a trial order of a RipStop chevron and cross-cleated Overband magnet belts from their Rental Fleet & Service Manager, who said that if our belts perform well, we’d stand a good chance of winning more of their business.