January/February 2010
By becoming the first company with a management system certified to ReMA's RIOS requirements, Ocala Recycling has made history for itself and for the scrap recycling industry.
By Kent Kiser
As you enter Ocala Recycling's shredding plant in Ocala, Fla., you can't miss the 2-by-4-foot banner on the office wall that displays the "RIOS Certified" logo and proudly proclaims it's the first RIOS-certified company in the world. That's not some wild boast: Ocala Recycling is indeed the first and only company in the world (so far) certified to conform to ReMA's Recycling Industry Operating Standard, or RIOS.
The certification recognizes the company's hard work to implement RIOS in its operations, but it's more than that. It's also the realization of ReMA's years-long effort to transform RIOS from an idea—an integrated quality, environmental, and health and safety management system for the scrap industry—to reality.
Reaping the Benefits
Let's cut to the chase: Was it worth it? Absolutely, say the company's directors, brothers Charley, John, Rich, and Mike Bianculli. RIOS has made Ocala Recycling more efficient, more compliant, and more profitable. Part of implementing a management system is measuring its results, and the company found some startling benefits. Among other things, RIOS implementation resulted in
More control of production, yielding greater operating efficiency and fewer nonconforming loads in terms of complaints, downgrades,
and rejections.
Fewer OSHA reportable incidents, which are down 85 percent since 2008, John reports. This has meant less downtime and fewer workers' comp claims and associated costs.
Greater employee retention, which improved 37 percent in a two-year period. Mike credits these gains to the extensive training regimen the company implemented to meet its RIOS goals, as well as to the system's focus on continuous measurement and improvement. "RIOS forces us to train employees, which gives them the tools for success and helps them to see how they fit into the big picture," he explains. Also, John adds, when the company cares enough to measure an activity, "that tells employees that what they're doing is meaningful."
Better compliance with local, state, and federal regulations, which has decreased Ocala Recycling's risk of environmental incidents and reduced its liability exposure. John recounts a recent, unannounced visit from a representative of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She asked a few questions and requested to see some information about the facility's emissions. The Ocala staff accessed the firm's RIOS information system, typed in a couple of keywords, brought up the requested information, and gave it to the DEP repproblem averted. "That's how the system is supposed to work," John says.
Organization and preservation of the company's operating procedures and institutional knowledge, making the information accessible to all.
"If you lose employees, you don't lose the work knowledge with them," Rich notes. "It's all there in RIOS."
Another benefit, the Biancullis note, is that they now can use the RIOS certification as a marketing and branding tool to distinguish the company from its competitors. "We're rolling out our RIOS certification [on communications] to all of our suppliers and consumers so they know they're dealing with a company that takes quality, environmental, and health and safety issues seriously," Mike says. "We'll also use our certification to get our foot in the door at new prospects," Rich says. "It shows we're the real thing." The company has thus far added the "RIOS Certified" logo to its business cards, stationery, and Web site; created T-shirts; and posted the banner on the office wall at its shredding facility, among other activities.
Taken together, the above achievements have created a company that not only reflects excellence in its QEH&S efforts but also makes more money while doing it. "We didn't do this so we could see a little RIOS logo on our business cards," Rich asserts. "We implemented RIOS as a management tool to make more money, and we get a return on this system every day."
The Road to Excellence
Achieving those results was a long and somewhat arduous journey for both Ocala Recycling and ISRI. The company got involved at the beginning of ReMA's efforts to develop a QEH&S management system standard, then called SCRAP3, signing on as a charter member in 2003. (ISRI renamed it RIOS in 2004.) Rich Bianculli, who started Ocala Recycling in 1988, already was familiar with the ISO 9001 quality management standard and liked the idea of operating his business in a more systematic way. "The more you can manage your decisions and measure them, the better off you're going to be," Rich says. He also envisioned the potential competitive benefits of implementing a management system. "We're in a small market," Rich notes, "so in order to survive, we felt [RIOS would] make us as competitive as possible."
The brothers were not all equally enthusiastic about the idea, they admit. "I was incredibly skeptical," Mike says. "I thought the process looked bureaucratic and time-consuming without producing results." Charley, the eldest brother, is more blunt. "I hated it at first," he states. "It was an investment, and I wasn't ready to say, It's worth it.'"
What won them over, the brothers say, is RIOS' scrap-specific focus and its integration of quality, environmental, and health and safety issues together in a single standard. "We thought our customers would see it as a special designation in our industry, so we jumped onboard to see where it would go," Mike says. There was another enticement: "We really wanted to be first," Mike recalls. "When we fully committed to this effort in 2006, our goal was to be first, which helped push us along."
As one of three pilot RIOS facilities, Ocala Recycling received early guidance from First Environment (Boonton, N.J.), the consulting firm ReMA selected to develop RIOS and the RIOS Implementation Guide and to implement the RIOS pilot project. First Environment visited the facility, provided phone consultations, and offered other support to educate the company's staff about management systems in general and RIOS in particular. Even with that help, "it was very hard for us to understand exactly what we were supposed to do," John says. The standard itself was new, so "no one had a real idea how to set up the [management] system," Rich says. Ocala Recycling already had policies and procedures in place, a strong safety program, and a sensitivity to environmental concerns, "so we didn't understand what was missing," John says.
The missing piece, the Biancullis learned, was a framework for its efforts and an organized, sustainable process for managing everything. For example, the company lacked specific improvement goals, John notes. Once it decided to add goals, it needed methods for determining those goals, reporting results, improving its performance, and handling problems. "We [were doing] most of that already," John says, "but not within the framework of an integrated system, so we naturally were missing some elements."
What the brothers didn't realize at the time, they say, is that intense consideration, deliberation, and discussion are part of implementing any management system. The standard provides a basic structure, but every company is unique and must adapt the management system to its specific operations and information. "First Environment gave us some tools, like the RIOS Implementation Guide, patiently reviewed them with us, and answered our many questions, but then it was up to us to create the system that was built to our particular business and needs," John says.
Guiding them through this process was RIOS' Footprint Identification Tool. "The FIT identifies what requirements you need to address in your processes, then you address how to take them on," John says. For each of the three elements of quality, environment, and health and safety, the tool helps the company identify its regulatory requirements and operational controls, define its objectives, and determine how it will measure or track those objectives, report the results, and implement changes in areas of "nonconformance." This creates a continual loop of improvement.
As a RIOS pioneer, Ocala Recycling used John's systems-development expertise to create a new computer application that helps the company meet the standard's requirements. The application includes a nonconformance management system and a work-order module that ensure the company resolves problems the FIT review identifies. "If you have a nonconformance in any of your processes, you need to get to the root cause and outline steps for remediating the problem," John explains. For example, the monthly health and safety inspection might discover that workers are not using proper lock-out/tag-out procedures when cleaning out material stuck in the baler. That would trigger the recording of a nonconformance event, subsequent analysis, and a corrective action plan. "If one of the steps is revise the underlying safety procedure,' then that goes into the work-order system," John says. "Once the tasks are completed, then the work order is closed out, and the nonconformance is considered addressed."
Over three years—from 2006 through the first half of 2009—Ocala Recycling continued to apply, refine, and expand its RIOS efforts, steadily meshing its previous business practices with the new system until they became one and the same. "The original temptation is to do RIOS,' then do your work," John observes. "It takes a lot to change your mindset to recognize that RIOS is your work. It gets incorporated into everything you do so that eventually there's no line between RIOS and everything else. It's a very holistic approach to managing your company."
The process offered plenty of challenges along the way, forcing Ocala Recycling to do a lot of introspection. "It forces you to really look at your processes and determine whether you're living up to what you think you're doing," Rich says. "We had to reexamine everything, which created a lot of confrontation between our perceptions and reality." For instance, the Biancullis thought their company had a "fairly decent" quality control program, John notes. When they began investigating quality concerns through the company's nonconformance system, however, they realized "we had to review and revise many job descriptions and update the corresponding employee training sheets to close the gaps that the RIOS quality process identified."
Ocala Recycling helped everyone on staff keep their minds on RIOS through relentless trainingin safety meetings, new employee orientations, mentor programs, and moreand by posting the RIOS mission statement and other RIOS messages around its two plantsincluding both inside and outside employees' hard hats.
Passing the Test
In early 2009, Ocala Recycling felt it had fully implemented RIOS as a management system, and it was ready to get certified. Initial certification consists of Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits. Facilities typically determine their readiness for certification by the results of their internal audits and the management review RIOS requires as part of continual improvement. As the first company to go through this process, however, Ocala Recycling took a few extra steps on the way to certification. It conducted a preliminary internal audit and management review, then it hired consultants to review its safety and environmental systems. The company wanted "to get a gut check on what it meant to be audited in those areas," John explains.
After reviewing the results of those efforts, the firm took one final preliminary step, asking SGS Systems & Services Certification (Rutherford, N.J.), the first firm accredited to conduct RIOS certification audits, to do an unofficial pre-audit of the company. Though these additional reviews were not necessary to pass the official audits, they identified opportunities for improvement for Ocala Recycling, prompting it to generate more than 60 work orders. By resolving those issues, the company strengthened its system and increased its confidence heading into the certification audits, John says.
Ocala Recycling began the first "official" steps toward certification in June 2009 with another internal audit and management review. SGS then conducted the Stage 1 audit, which reviews the structure of a company's management system.
If the auditors "see no major nonconformances, they'll complete the Stage 1 audit quickly," John says. "If they don't like what they see in a particular area, they start probing your system in depth." In the Stage 1 audit, SGS identified 31 findings. This was not cause for concern, John explains, because the company was ready to take corrective action. The firm simply entered the nonconformances into the work-order module, and it resolved the problems in short order.
Next up was the Stage 2 audit, which reviews the real-life application of a company's management system. "This audit looks to see if you actually do what you say you do," John says. Among other steps, auditors interview employees at all levels, including hourly workers, with a wide range of responsibilities to verify their knowledge of the system as it applies to their duties. From Ocala Recycling's 90 employees the auditors interviewed, among others, a torchman, a sorter, and a baler quality control inspector. Though the Biancullis believed in their system, they still wondered how their staff would do under this interrogation. "These guys were just unbelievable," John says. "They had completely absorbed their RIOS training. It was part of what they were, and they were proud of the system. That was the most exciting part for us."
In the end, SGS found seven nonconformances and 37 opportunities for improvement in the Stage 2 audit. Ocala Recycling once again ran the problems through its nonconformance and work-order system and resolved the issues promptly.
In late August 2009, SGS recommended Ocala Recycling for certification, and by late October the company received its official certificate. It had achieved its goal of being the first RIOS-certified scrap recycling company in the world.
Though the audit process was arduous, it definitely "helped crystallize everything and pull it all together," John says. The company celebrated the accomplishment with a companywide barbecue, including raffle giveaways every half hour of flat-panel TVs, vacation days, lottery tickets, gift certificates, and more. This achievement also gave the company widespread exposure in local and national media, as well as recognition on Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who represents Ocala Recycling's congressional district, read a statement on the House floor Nov. 18 congratulating the company on its RIOS certification. Stearns followed up his floor address with a personal visit to the company's shredding facility Nov. 23, where he once again praised the firm for its historic achievement.
Ready for RIOS?
As the Biancullis look back on their RIOS quest, they marvel at the time and effort they invested as well as the results they achieved. They admit they "had no idea how much work this would be," Rich says. "We probably underestimated it by a factor of 10." The company faced some lows along the way. "There were times when we were frustrated," Rich admits, "but we never thought this was a waste of money or considered stopping." Through the process, the company learned a lot about management systems, and its principals have plenty of advice for other scrap companies considering a similar quest.
First and foremost, the Biancullis say, make sure the effort has 100-percent management support, or it will fail. In their case, they initiated the RIOS effort and personally stoked the fires throughout the process. "We were going to make it work, and that's all there was to it," Rich says. "If the people at the top aren't excited about it, stop. You're wasting your time."
Without support from the top down, most companies won't have the staying power to persevere through the inevitable challenges or the will to invest the necessary effort and funds. "It's a lot of staff time and ugly thinking in the beginning, and that's what's going to turn a lot of people off," Rich says. "You have to stay excited about it, and that starts with upper management."
Scrap operators also must be open-minded and flexible enough to look objectively at their business practices and acknowledge that a management system will almost certainly require some changes in how the company operates. This step might be especially difficult for older, multigenerational scrap firms wedded to the mindset of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." That wasn't a problem for the Biancullis, who are first-generation scrap recyclers. "We didn't grow up in the scrap business, so we weren't stuck with old paradigms," Rich notes. Instead, they pooled their disparate business talentsRich was in the restaurant business, Charley was an international leather trader, Mike had a financial background, and John was in systems developmentwith those of their RIOS management team to guide Ocala Recycling down a new path without looking back.
That said, implementing RIOS doesn't mean discarding all current business practices and starting from scratch, the Biancullis note. If a company already has a safety program, for instance, it can fold that program into RIOS. "You don't have to reinvent everything," John says. "The more programs and procedures you have in place, the easier time you'll have with this. RIOS simply leverages what you have."
The trickiest part for most scrap companies will be understanding what a management system is, how it's supposed to work, and what they're supposed to end up with, John says. He cautions other recyclers against thinking that RIOS is a turnkey system that requires no work by the user. RIOS provides a general framework, but users must adapt it to their specific operations and populate it with their specific information. "It can be intimidating at first, but once you understand it, RIOS becomes an invaluable tool," John says.
Though RIOS does require a considerable investment of time and finances, the Biancullis encourage other recyclers to view the effort as exactly that—an investment—one that pays dividends every day for years to come. "It absolutely makes you money," Rich says, "and it keeps your systems running the way you want them to run." Mike concurs, adding, "It's patently obvious that we're going to reap the benefits for the rest of the time we're in business." He says he now can't imagine doing business without it.
The Biancullis go so far as to suggest that the future of the scrap industry lies in RIOS-type management systems. Charley predicts that scrap generators—especially larger firms—eventually will require their recycling vendors to be certified to some standard as a way to ensure accurate weights, freedom from downstream environmental liability, and top-notch service. "Their loop is closed when they ship to us, and that's an extra hour of sleep on—the pillow that night," he says.
At the other end, scrap consumers will prefer dealing with certified recyclers, Charley says, because they will deliver higher-quality scrap and have a system in place to address any issues that arise. Ocala Recycling already shows its consumers the nonconformance reports it generates in response to any complaints, downgrades, or rejections, which indicates to the consumer "that we take their quality concerns seriously," Charley notes. "That type of effort builds instant and lasting credibility."
One move in this direction came last fall from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine. AQSIQ's new licensing process for scrap exporters who wish to ship material to China requires companies applying for new licenses, or modifying existing licenses, to hold either ISO 9001 or RIOS certification.
Though Ocala Recycling is justifiably proud of its accomplishment, certification is not the end of the process. RIOS requires continual improvement, so the company refines its management system daily, in part to draw closer to perfection and in part to ensure the company is in shape for the three-year recertification cycleone year each for quality, environment, and health and safety. Now, even Charleythe Bianculli brother who initially hated the ideaconfesses to being a RIOS convert. "I was a reluctant follower who has found it a significant tool," he says. "Best of all, it really adds dollars and cents to the bottom line." •
Kent Kiser is publisher and editor-in-chief of Scrap.
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January/February 2010
Making RIOS a Reality
By becoming the first company with a management system certified to ReMA's RIOS requirements, Ocala Recycling has made history for itself and for the scrap recycling industry.
By Kent Kiser
As you enter Ocala Recycling's shredding plant in Ocala, Fla., you can't miss the 2-by-4-foot banner on the office wall that displays the "RIOS Certified" logo and proudly proclaims it's the first RIOS-certified company in the world. That's not some wild boast: Ocala Recycling is indeed the first and only company in the world (so far) certified to conform to ReMA's Recycling Industry Operating Standard, or RIOS.
The certification recognizes the company's hard work to implement RIOS in its operations, but it's more than that. It's also the realization of ReMA's years-long effort to transform RIOS from an idea—an integrated quality, environmental, and health and safety management system for the scrap industry—to reality.
Reaping the Benefits
Let's cut to the chase: Was it worth it? Absolutely, say the company's directors, brothers Charley, John, Rich, and Mike Bianculli. RIOS has made Ocala Recycling more efficient, more compliant, and more profitable. Part of implementing a management system is measuring its results, and the company found some startling benefits. Among other things, RIOS implementation resulted in
More control of production, yielding greater operating efficiency and fewer nonconforming loads in terms of complaints, downgrades,
and rejections.
Fewer OSHA reportable incidents, which are down 85 percent since 2008, John reports. This has meant less downtime and fewer workers' comp claims and associated costs.
Greater employee retention, which improved 37 percent in a two-year period. Mike credits these gains to the extensive training regimen the company implemented to meet its RIOS goals, as well as to the system's focus on continuous measurement and improvement. "RIOS forces us to train employees, which gives them the tools for success and helps them to see how they fit into the big picture," he explains. Also, John adds, when the company cares enough to measure an activity, "that tells employees that what they're doing is meaningful."
Better compliance with local, state, and federal regulations, which has decreased Ocala Recycling's risk of environmental incidents and reduced its liability exposure. John recounts a recent, unannounced visit from a representative of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She asked a few questions and requested to see some information about the facility's emissions. The Ocala staff accessed the firm's RIOS information system, typed in a couple of keywords, brought up the requested information, and gave it to the DEP repproblem averted. "That's how the system is supposed to work," John says.
Organization and preservation of the company's operating procedures and institutional knowledge, making the information accessible to all.
"If you lose employees, you don't lose the work knowledge with them," Rich notes. "It's all there in RIOS."
Another benefit, the Biancullis note, is that they now can use the RIOS certification as a marketing and branding tool to distinguish the company from its competitors. "We're rolling out our RIOS certification [on communications] to all of our suppliers and consumers so they know they're dealing with a company that takes quality, environmental, and health and safety issues seriously," Mike says. "We'll also use our certification to get our foot in the door at new prospects," Rich says. "It shows we're the real thing." The company has thus far added the "RIOS Certified" logo to its business cards, stationery, and Web site; created T-shirts; and posted the banner on the office wall at its shredding facility, among other activities.
Taken together, the above achievements have created a company that not only reflects excellence in its QEH&S efforts but also makes more money while doing it. "We didn't do this so we could see a little RIOS logo on our business cards," Rich asserts. "We implemented RIOS as a management tool to make more money, and we get a return on this system every day."
The Road to Excellence
Achieving those results was a long and somewhat arduous journey for both Ocala Recycling and ISRI. The company got involved at the beginning of ReMA's efforts to develop a QEH&S management system standard, then called SCRAP3, signing on as a charter member in 2003. (ISRI renamed it RIOS in 2004.) Rich Bianculli, who started Ocala Recycling in 1988, already was familiar with the ISO 9001 quality management standard and liked the idea of operating his business in a more systematic way. "The more you can manage your decisions and measure them, the better off you're going to be," Rich says. He also envisioned the potential competitive benefits of implementing a management system. "We're in a small market," Rich notes, "so in order to survive, we felt [RIOS would] make us as competitive as possible."
The brothers were not all equally enthusiastic about the idea, they admit. "I was incredibly skeptical," Mike says. "I thought the process looked bureaucratic and time-consuming without producing results." Charley, the eldest brother, is more blunt. "I hated it at first," he states. "It was an investment, and I wasn't ready to say, It's worth it.'"
What won them over, the brothers say, is RIOS' scrap-specific focus and its integration of quality, environmental, and health and safety issues together in a single standard. "We thought our customers would see it as a special designation in our industry, so we jumped onboard to see where it would go," Mike says. There was another enticement: "We really wanted to be first," Mike recalls. "When we fully committed to this effort in 2006, our goal was to be first, which helped push us along."
As one of three pilot RIOS facilities, Ocala Recycling received early guidance from First Environment (Boonton, N.J.), the consulting firm ReMA selected to develop RIOS and the RIOS Implementation Guide and to implement the RIOS pilot project. First Environment visited the facility, provided phone consultations, and offered other support to educate the company's staff about management systems in general and RIOS in particular. Even with that help, "it was very hard for us to understand exactly what we were supposed to do," John says. The standard itself was new, so "no one had a real idea how to set up the [management] system," Rich says. Ocala Recycling already had policies and procedures in place, a strong safety program, and a sensitivity to environmental concerns, "so we didn't understand what was missing," John says.
The missing piece, the Biancullis learned, was a framework for its efforts and an organized, sustainable process for managing everything. For example, the company lacked specific improvement goals, John notes. Once it decided to add goals, it needed methods for determining those goals, reporting results, improving its performance, and handling problems. "We [were doing] most of that already," John says, "but not within the framework of an integrated system, so we naturally were missing some elements."
What the brothers didn't realize at the time, they say, is that intense consideration, deliberation, and discussion are part of implementing any management system. The standard provides a basic structure, but every company is unique and must adapt the management system to its specific operations and information. "First Environment gave us some tools, like the RIOS Implementation Guide, patiently reviewed them with us, and answered our many questions, but then it was up to us to create the system that was built to our particular business and needs," John says.
Guiding them through this process was RIOS' Footprint Identification Tool. "The FIT identifies what requirements you need to address in your processes, then you address how to take them on," John says. For each of the three elements of quality, environment, and health and safety, the tool helps the company identify its regulatory requirements and operational controls, define its objectives, and determine how it will measure or track those objectives, report the results, and implement changes in areas of "nonconformance." This creates a continual loop of improvement.
As a RIOS pioneer, Ocala Recycling used John's systems-development expertise to create a new computer application that helps the company meet the standard's requirements. The application includes a nonconformance management system and a work-order module that ensure the company resolves problems the FIT review identifies. "If you have a nonconformance in any of your processes, you need to get to the root cause and outline steps for remediating the problem," John explains. For example, the monthly health and safety inspection might discover that workers are not using proper lock-out/tag-out procedures when cleaning out material stuck in the baler. That would trigger the recording of a nonconformance event, subsequent analysis, and a corrective action plan. "If one of the steps is revise the underlying safety procedure,' then that goes into the work-order system," John says. "Once the tasks are completed, then the work order is closed out, and the nonconformance is considered addressed."
Over three years—from 2006 through the first half of 2009—Ocala Recycling continued to apply, refine, and expand its RIOS efforts, steadily meshing its previous business practices with the new system until they became one and the same. "The original temptation is to do RIOS,' then do your work," John observes. "It takes a lot to change your mindset to recognize that RIOS is your work. It gets incorporated into everything you do so that eventually there's no line between RIOS and everything else. It's a very holistic approach to managing your company."
The process offered plenty of challenges along the way, forcing Ocala Recycling to do a lot of introspection. "It forces you to really look at your processes and determine whether you're living up to what you think you're doing," Rich says. "We had to reexamine everything, which created a lot of confrontation between our perceptions and reality." For instance, the Biancullis thought their company had a "fairly decent" quality control program, John notes. When they began investigating quality concerns through the company's nonconformance system, however, they realized "we had to review and revise many job descriptions and update the corresponding employee training sheets to close the gaps that the RIOS quality process identified."
Ocala Recycling helped everyone on staff keep their minds on RIOS through relentless trainingin safety meetings, new employee orientations, mentor programs, and moreand by posting the RIOS mission statement and other RIOS messages around its two plantsincluding both inside and outside employees' hard hats.
Passing the Test
In early 2009, Ocala Recycling felt it had fully implemented RIOS as a management system, and it was ready to get certified. Initial certification consists of Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits. Facilities typically determine their readiness for certification by the results of their internal audits and the management review RIOS requires as part of continual improvement. As the first company to go through this process, however, Ocala Recycling took a few extra steps on the way to certification. It conducted a preliminary internal audit and management review, then it hired consultants to review its safety and environmental systems. The company wanted "to get a gut check on what it meant to be audited in those areas," John explains.
After reviewing the results of those efforts, the firm took one final preliminary step, asking SGS Systems & Services Certification (Rutherford, N.J.), the first firm accredited to conduct RIOS certification audits, to do an unofficial pre-audit of the company. Though these additional reviews were not necessary to pass the official audits, they identified opportunities for improvement for Ocala Recycling, prompting it to generate more than 60 work orders. By resolving those issues, the company strengthened its system and increased its confidence heading into the certification audits, John says.
Ocala Recycling began the first "official" steps toward certification in June 2009 with another internal audit and management review. SGS then conducted the Stage 1 audit, which reviews the structure of a company's management system.
If the auditors "see no major nonconformances, they'll complete the Stage 1 audit quickly," John says. "If they don't like what they see in a particular area, they start probing your system in depth." In the Stage 1 audit, SGS identified 31 findings. This was not cause for concern, John explains, because the company was ready to take corrective action. The firm simply entered the nonconformances into the work-order module, and it resolved the problems in short order.
Next up was the Stage 2 audit, which reviews the real-life application of a company's management system. "This audit looks to see if you actually do what you say you do," John says. Among other steps, auditors interview employees at all levels, including hourly workers, with a wide range of responsibilities to verify their knowledge of the system as it applies to their duties. From Ocala Recycling's 90 employees the auditors interviewed, among others, a torchman, a sorter, and a baler quality control inspector. Though the Biancullis believed in their system, they still wondered how their staff would do under this interrogation. "These guys were just unbelievable," John says. "They had completely absorbed their RIOS training. It was part of what they were, and they were proud of the system. That was the most exciting part for us."
In the end, SGS found seven nonconformances and 37 opportunities for improvement in the Stage 2 audit. Ocala Recycling once again ran the problems through its nonconformance and work-order system and resolved the issues promptly.
In late August 2009, SGS recommended Ocala Recycling for certification, and by late October the company received its official certificate. It had achieved its goal of being the first RIOS-certified scrap recycling company in the world.
Though the audit process was arduous, it definitely "helped crystallize everything and pull it all together," John says. The company celebrated the accomplishment with a companywide barbecue, including raffle giveaways every half hour of flat-panel TVs, vacation days, lottery tickets, gift certificates, and more. This achievement also gave the company widespread exposure in local and national media, as well as recognition on Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who represents Ocala Recycling's congressional district, read a statement on the House floor Nov. 18 congratulating the company on its RIOS certification. Stearns followed up his floor address with a personal visit to the company's shredding facility Nov. 23, where he once again praised the firm for its historic achievement.
Ready for RIOS?
As the Biancullis look back on their RIOS quest, they marvel at the time and effort they invested as well as the results they achieved. They admit they "had no idea how much work this would be," Rich says. "We probably underestimated it by a factor of 10." The company faced some lows along the way. "There were times when we were frustrated," Rich admits, "but we never thought this was a waste of money or considered stopping." Through the process, the company learned a lot about management systems, and its principals have plenty of advice for other scrap companies considering a similar quest.
First and foremost, the Biancullis say, make sure the effort has 100-percent management support, or it will fail. In their case, they initiated the RIOS effort and personally stoked the fires throughout the process. "We were going to make it work, and that's all there was to it," Rich says. "If the people at the top aren't excited about it, stop. You're wasting your time."
Without support from the top down, most companies won't have the staying power to persevere through the inevitable challenges or the will to invest the necessary effort and funds. "It's a lot of staff time and ugly thinking in the beginning, and that's what's going to turn a lot of people off," Rich says. "You have to stay excited about it, and that starts with upper management."
Scrap operators also must be open-minded and flexible enough to look objectively at their business practices and acknowledge that a management system will almost certainly require some changes in how the company operates. This step might be especially difficult for older, multigenerational scrap firms wedded to the mindset of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." That wasn't a problem for the Biancullis, who are first-generation scrap recyclers. "We didn't grow up in the scrap business, so we weren't stuck with old paradigms," Rich notes. Instead, they pooled their disparate business talentsRich was in the restaurant business, Charley was an international leather trader, Mike had a financial background, and John was in systems developmentwith those of their RIOS management team to guide Ocala Recycling down a new path without looking back.
That said, implementing RIOS doesn't mean discarding all current business practices and starting from scratch, the Biancullis note. If a company already has a safety program, for instance, it can fold that program into RIOS. "You don't have to reinvent everything," John says. "The more programs and procedures you have in place, the easier time you'll have with this. RIOS simply leverages what you have."
The trickiest part for most scrap companies will be understanding what a management system is, how it's supposed to work, and what they're supposed to end up with, John says. He cautions other recyclers against thinking that RIOS is a turnkey system that requires no work by the user. RIOS provides a general framework, but users must adapt it to their specific operations and populate it with their specific information. "It can be intimidating at first, but once you understand it, RIOS becomes an invaluable tool," John says.
Though RIOS does require a considerable investment of time and finances, the Biancullis encourage other recyclers to view the effort as exactly that—an investment—one that pays dividends every day for years to come. "It absolutely makes you money," Rich says, "and it keeps your systems running the way you want them to run." Mike concurs, adding, "It's patently obvious that we're going to reap the benefits for the rest of the time we're in business." He says he now can't imagine doing business without it.
The Biancullis go so far as to suggest that the future of the scrap industry lies in RIOS-type management systems. Charley predicts that scrap generators—especially larger firms—eventually will require their recycling vendors to be certified to some standard as a way to ensure accurate weights, freedom from downstream environmental liability, and top-notch service. "Their loop is closed when they ship to us, and that's an extra hour of sleep on—the pillow that night," he says.
At the other end, scrap consumers will prefer dealing with certified recyclers, Charley says, because they will deliver higher-quality scrap and have a system in place to address any issues that arise. Ocala Recycling already shows its consumers the nonconformance reports it generates in response to any complaints, downgrades, or rejections, which indicates to the consumer "that we take their quality concerns seriously," Charley notes. "That type of effort builds instant and lasting credibility."
One move in this direction came last fall from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine. AQSIQ's new licensing process for scrap exporters who wish to ship material to China requires companies applying for new licenses, or modifying existing licenses, to hold either ISO 9001 or RIOS certification.
Though Ocala Recycling is justifiably proud of its accomplishment, certification is not the end of the process. RIOS requires continual improvement, so the company refines its management system daily, in part to draw closer to perfection and in part to ensure the company is in shape for the three-year recertification cycleone year each for quality, environment, and health and safety. Now, even Charleythe Bianculli brother who initially hated the ideaconfesses to being a RIOS convert. "I was a reluctant follower who has found it a significant tool," he says. "Best of all, it really adds dollars and cents to the bottom line." •
Kent Kiser is publisher and editor-in-chief of Scrap.
Print
This Article
Print
This Article
January/February 2010
Making RIOS a Reality
By becoming the first company with a management system certified to ReMA's RIOS requirements, Ocala Recycling has made history for itself and for the scrap recycling industry.
By Kent Kiser
As you enter Ocala Recycling's shredding plant in Ocala, Fla., you can't miss the 2-by-4-foot banner on the office wall that displays the "RIOS Certified" logo and proudly proclaims it's the first RIOS-certified company in the world. That's not some wild boast: Ocala Recycling is indeed the first and only company in the world (so far) certified to conform to ReMA's Recycling Industry Operating Standard, or RIOS.
The certification recognizes the company's hard work to implement RIOS in its operations, but it's more than that. It's also the realization of ReMA's years-long effort to transform RIOS from an idea—an integrated quality, environmental, and health and safety management system for the scrap industry—to reality.
Reaping the Benefits
Let's cut to the chase: Was it worth it? Absolutely, say the company's directors, brothers Charley, John, Rich, and Mike Bianculli. RIOS has made Ocala Recycling more efficient, more compliant, and more profitable. Part of implementing a management system is measuring its results, and the company found some startling benefits. Among other things, RIOS implementation resulted in
More control of production, yielding greater operating efficiency and fewer nonconforming loads in terms of complaints, downgrades,
and rejections.
Fewer OSHA reportable incidents, which are down 85 percent since 2008, John reports. This has meant less downtime and fewer workers' comp claims and associated costs.
Greater employee retention, which improved 37 percent in a two-year period. Mike credits these gains to the extensive training regimen the company implemented to meet its RIOS goals, as well as to the system's focus on continuous measurement and improvement. "RIOS forces us to train employees, which gives them the tools for success and helps them to see how they fit into the big picture," he explains. Also, John adds, when the company cares enough to measure an activity, "that tells employees that what they're doing is meaningful."
Better compliance with local, state, and federal regulations, which has decreased Ocala Recycling's risk of environmental incidents and reduced its liability exposure. John recounts a recent, unannounced visit from a representative of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She asked a few questions and requested to see some information about the facility's emissions. The Ocala staff accessed the firm's RIOS information system, typed in a couple of keywords, brought up the requested information, and gave it to the DEP repproblem averted. "That's how the system is supposed to work," John says.
Organization and preservation of the company's operating procedures and institutional knowledge, making the information accessible to all.
"If you lose employees, you don't lose the work knowledge with them," Rich notes. "It's all there in RIOS."
Another benefit, the Biancullis note, is that they now can use the RIOS certification as a marketing and branding tool to distinguish the company from its competitors. "We're rolling out our RIOS certification [on communications] to all of our suppliers and consumers so they know they're dealing with a company that takes quality, environmental, and health and safety issues seriously," Mike says. "We'll also use our certification to get our foot in the door at new prospects," Rich says. "It shows we're the real thing." The company has thus far added the "RIOS Certified" logo to its business cards, stationery, and Web site; created T-shirts; and posted the banner on the office wall at its shredding facility, among other activities.
Taken together, the above achievements have created a company that not only reflects excellence in its QEH&S efforts but also makes more money while doing it. "We didn't do this so we could see a little RIOS logo on our business cards," Rich asserts. "We implemented RIOS as a management tool to make more money, and we get a return on this system every day."
The Road to Excellence
Achieving those results was a long and somewhat arduous journey for both Ocala Recycling and ISRI. The company got involved at the beginning of ReMA's efforts to develop a QEH&S management system standard, then called SCRAP3, signing on as a charter member in 2003. (ISRI renamed it RIOS in 2004.) Rich Bianculli, who started Ocala Recycling in 1988, already was familiar with the ISO 9001 quality management standard and liked the idea of operating his business in a more systematic way. "The more you can manage your decisions and measure them, the better off you're going to be," Rich says. He also envisioned the potential competitive benefits of implementing a management system. "We're in a small market," Rich notes, "so in order to survive, we felt [RIOS would] make us as competitive as possible."
The brothers were not all equally enthusiastic about the idea, they admit. "I was incredibly skeptical," Mike says. "I thought the process looked bureaucratic and time-consuming without producing results." Charley, the eldest brother, is more blunt. "I hated it at first," he states. "It was an investment, and I wasn't ready to say, It's worth it.'"
What won them over, the brothers say, is RIOS' scrap-specific focus and its integration of quality, environmental, and health and safety issues together in a single standard. "We thought our customers would see it as a special designation in our industry, so we jumped onboard to see where it would go," Mike says. There was another enticement: "We really wanted to be first," Mike recalls. "When we fully committed to this effort in 2006, our goal was to be first, which helped push us along."
As one of three pilot RIOS facilities, Ocala Recycling received early guidance from First Environment (Boonton, N.J.), the consulting firm ReMA selected to develop RIOS and the RIOS Implementation Guide and to implement the RIOS pilot project. First Environment visited the facility, provided phone consultations, and offered other support to educate the company's staff about management systems in general and RIOS in particular. Even with that help, "it was very hard for us to understand exactly what we were supposed to do," John says. The standard itself was new, so "no one had a real idea how to set up the [management] system," Rich says. Ocala Recycling already had policies and procedures in place, a strong safety program, and a sensitivity to environmental concerns, "so we didn't understand what was missing," John says.
The missing piece, the Biancullis learned, was a framework for its efforts and an organized, sustainable process for managing everything. For example, the company lacked specific improvement goals, John notes. Once it decided to add goals, it needed methods for determining those goals, reporting results, improving its performance, and handling problems. "We [were doing] most of that already," John says, "but not within the framework of an integrated system, so we naturally were missing some elements."
What the brothers didn't realize at the time, they say, is that intense consideration, deliberation, and discussion are part of implementing any management system. The standard provides a basic structure, but every company is unique and must adapt the management system to its specific operations and information. "First Environment gave us some tools, like the RIOS Implementation Guide, patiently reviewed them with us, and answered our many questions, but then it was up to us to create the system that was built to our particular business and needs," John says.
Guiding them through this process was RIOS' Footprint Identification Tool. "The FIT identifies what requirements you need to address in your processes, then you address how to take them on," John says. For each of the three elements of quality, environment, and health and safety, the tool helps the company identify its regulatory requirements and operational controls, define its objectives, and determine how it will measure or track those objectives, report the results, and implement changes in areas of "nonconformance." This creates a continual loop of improvement.
As a RIOS pioneer, Ocala Recycling used John's systems-development expertise to create a new computer application that helps the company meet the standard's requirements. The application includes a nonconformance management system and a work-order module that ensure the company resolves problems the FIT review identifies. "If you have a nonconformance in any of your processes, you need to get to the root cause and outline steps for remediating the problem," John explains. For example, the monthly health and safety inspection might discover that workers are not using proper lock-out/tag-out procedures when cleaning out material stuck in the baler. That would trigger the recording of a nonconformance event, subsequent analysis, and a corrective action plan. "If one of the steps is revise the underlying safety procedure,' then that goes into the work-order system," John says. "Once the tasks are completed, then the work order is closed out, and the nonconformance is considered addressed."
Over three years—from 2006 through the first half of 2009—Ocala Recycling continued to apply, refine, and expand its RIOS efforts, steadily meshing its previous business practices with the new system until they became one and the same. "The original temptation is to do RIOS,' then do your work," John observes. "It takes a lot to change your mindset to recognize that RIOS is your work. It gets incorporated into everything you do so that eventually there's no line between RIOS and everything else. It's a very holistic approach to managing your company."
The process offered plenty of challenges along the way, forcing Ocala Recycling to do a lot of introspection. "It forces you to really look at your processes and determine whether you're living up to what you think you're doing," Rich says. "We had to reexamine everything, which created a lot of confrontation between our perceptions and reality." For instance, the Biancullis thought their company had a "fairly decent" quality control program, John notes. When they began investigating quality concerns through the company's nonconformance system, however, they realized "we had to review and revise many job descriptions and update the corresponding employee training sheets to close the gaps that the RIOS quality process identified."
Ocala Recycling helped everyone on staff keep their minds on RIOS through relentless trainingin safety meetings, new employee orientations, mentor programs, and moreand by posting the RIOS mission statement and other RIOS messages around its two plantsincluding both inside and outside employees' hard hats.
Passing the Test
In early 2009, Ocala Recycling felt it had fully implemented RIOS as a management system, and it was ready to get certified. Initial certification consists of Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits. Facilities typically determine their readiness for certification by the results of their internal audits and the management review RIOS requires as part of continual improvement. As the first company to go through this process, however, Ocala Recycling took a few extra steps on the way to certification. It conducted a preliminary internal audit and management review, then it hired consultants to review its safety and environmental systems. The company wanted "to get a gut check on what it meant to be audited in those areas," John explains.
After reviewing the results of those efforts, the firm took one final preliminary step, asking SGS Systems & Services Certification (Rutherford, N.J.), the first firm accredited to conduct RIOS certification audits, to do an unofficial pre-audit of the company. Though these additional reviews were not necessary to pass the official audits, they identified opportunities for improvement for Ocala Recycling, prompting it to generate more than 60 work orders. By resolving those issues, the company strengthened its system and increased its confidence heading into the certification audits, John says.
Ocala Recycling began the first "official" steps toward certification in June 2009 with another internal audit and management review. SGS then conducted the Stage 1 audit, which reviews the structure of a company's management system.
If the auditors "see no major nonconformances, they'll complete the Stage 1 audit quickly," John says. "If they don't like what they see in a particular area, they start probing your system in depth." In the Stage 1 audit, SGS identified 31 findings. This was not cause for concern, John explains, because the company was ready to take corrective action. The firm simply entered the nonconformances into the work-order module, and it resolved the problems in short order.
Next up was the Stage 2 audit, which reviews the real-life application of a company's management system. "This audit looks to see if you actually do what you say you do," John says. Among other steps, auditors interview employees at all levels, including hourly workers, with a wide range of responsibilities to verify their knowledge of the system as it applies to their duties. From Ocala Recycling's 90 employees the auditors interviewed, among others, a torchman, a sorter, and a baler quality control inspector. Though the Biancullis believed in their system, they still wondered how their staff would do under this interrogation. "These guys were just unbelievable," John says. "They had completely absorbed their RIOS training. It was part of what they were, and they were proud of the system. That was the most exciting part for us."
In the end, SGS found seven nonconformances and 37 opportunities for improvement in the Stage 2 audit. Ocala Recycling once again ran the problems through its nonconformance and work-order system and resolved the issues promptly.
In late August 2009, SGS recommended Ocala Recycling for certification, and by late October the company received its official certificate. It had achieved its goal of being the first RIOS-certified scrap recycling company in the world.
Though the audit process was arduous, it definitely "helped crystallize everything and pull it all together," John says. The company celebrated the accomplishment with a companywide barbecue, including raffle giveaways every half hour of flat-panel TVs, vacation days, lottery tickets, gift certificates, and more. This achievement also gave the company widespread exposure in local and national media, as well as recognition on Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who represents Ocala Recycling's congressional district, read a statement on the House floor Nov. 18 congratulating the company on its RIOS certification. Stearns followed up his floor address with a personal visit to the company's shredding facility Nov. 23, where he once again praised the firm for its historic achievement.
Ready for RIOS?
As the Biancullis look back on their RIOS quest, they marvel at the time and effort they invested as well as the results they achieved. They admit they "had no idea how much work this would be," Rich says. "We probably underestimated it by a factor of 10." The company faced some lows along the way. "There were times when we were frustrated," Rich admits, "but we never thought this was a waste of money or considered stopping." Through the process, the company learned a lot about management systems, and its principals have plenty of advice for other scrap companies considering a similar quest.
First and foremost, the Biancullis say, make sure the effort has 100-percent management support, or it will fail. In their case, they initiated the RIOS effort and personally stoked the fires throughout the process. "We were going to make it work, and that's all there was to it," Rich says. "If the people at the top aren't excited about it, stop. You're wasting your time."
Without support from the top down, most companies won't have the staying power to persevere through the inevitable challenges or the will to invest the necessary effort and funds. "It's a lot of staff time and ugly thinking in the beginning, and that's what's going to turn a lot of people off," Rich says. "You have to stay excited about it, and that starts with upper management."
Scrap operators also must be open-minded and flexible enough to look objectively at their business practices and acknowledge that a management system will almost certainly require some changes in how the company operates. This step might be especially difficult for older, multigenerational scrap firms wedded to the mindset of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." That wasn't a problem for the Biancullis, who are first-generation scrap recyclers. "We didn't grow up in the scrap business, so we weren't stuck with old paradigms," Rich notes. Instead, they pooled their disparate business talentsRich was in the restaurant business, Charley was an international leather trader, Mike had a financial background, and John was in systems developmentwith those of their RIOS management team to guide Ocala Recycling down a new path without looking back.
That said, implementing RIOS doesn't mean discarding all current business practices and starting from scratch, the Biancullis note. If a company already has a safety program, for instance, it can fold that program into RIOS. "You don't have to reinvent everything," John says. "The more programs and procedures you have in place, the easier time you'll have with this. RIOS simply leverages what you have."
The trickiest part for most scrap companies will be understanding what a management system is, how it's supposed to work, and what they're supposed to end up with, John says. He cautions other recyclers against thinking that RIOS is a turnkey system that requires no work by the user. RIOS provides a general framework, but users must adapt it to their specific operations and populate it with their specific information. "It can be intimidating at first, but once you understand it, RIOS becomes an invaluable tool," John says.
Though RIOS does require a considerable investment of time and finances, the Biancullis encourage other recyclers to view the effort as exactly that—an investment—one that pays dividends every day for years to come. "It absolutely makes you money," Rich says, "and it keeps your systems running the way you want them to run." Mike concurs, adding, "It's patently obvious that we're going to reap the benefits for the rest of the time we're in business." He says he now can't imagine doing business without it.
The Biancullis go so far as to suggest that the future of the scrap industry lies in RIOS-type management systems. Charley predicts that scrap generators—especially larger firms—eventually will require their recycling vendors to be certified to some standard as a way to ensure accurate weights, freedom from downstream environmental liability, and top-notch service. "Their loop is closed when they ship to us, and that's an extra hour of sleep on—the pillow that night," he says.
At the other end, scrap consumers will prefer dealing with certified recyclers, Charley says, because they will deliver higher-quality scrap and have a system in place to address any issues that arise. Ocala Recycling already shows its consumers the nonconformance reports it generates in response to any complaints, downgrades, or rejections, which indicates to the consumer "that we take their quality concerns seriously," Charley notes. "That type of effort builds instant and lasting credibility."
One move in this direction came last fall from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine. AQSIQ's new licensing process for scrap exporters who wish to ship material to China requires companies applying for new licenses, or modifying existing licenses, to hold either ISO 9001 or RIOS certification.
Though Ocala Recycling is justifiably proud of its accomplishment, certification is not the end of the process. RIOS requires continual improvement, so the company refines its management system daily, in part to draw closer to perfection and in part to ensure the company is in shape for the three-year recertification cycleone year each for quality, environment, and health and safety. Now, even Charleythe Bianculli brother who initially hated the ideaconfesses to being a RIOS convert. "I was a reluctant follower who has found it a significant tool," he says. "Best of all, it really adds dollars and cents to the bottom line." •
Kent Kiser is publisher and editor-in-chief of Scrap.
Print
This Article
Print
This Article
January/February 2010
Making RIOS a Reality
By becoming the first company with a management system certified to ReMA's RIOS requirements, Ocala Recycling has made history for itself and for the scrap recycling industry.
By Kent Kiser
As you enter Ocala Recycling's shredding plant in Ocala, Fla., you can't miss the 2-by-4-foot banner on the office wall that displays the "RIOS Certified" logo and proudly proclaims it's the first RIOS-certified company in the world. That's not some wild boast: Ocala Recycling is indeed the first and only company in the world (so far) certified to conform to ReMA's Recycling Industry Operating Standard, or RIOS.
The certification recognizes the company's hard work to implement RIOS in its operations, but it's more than that. It's also the realization of ReMA's years-long effort to transform RIOS from an idea—an integrated quality, environmental, and health and safety management system for the scrap industry—to reality.
Reaping the Benefits
Let's cut to the chase: Was it worth it? Absolutely, say the company's directors, brothers Charley, John, Rich, and Mike Bianculli. RIOS has made Ocala Recycling more efficient, more compliant, and more profitable. Part of implementing a management system is measuring its results, and the company found some startling benefits. Among other things, RIOS implementation resulted in
More control of production, yielding greater operating efficiency and fewer nonconforming loads in terms of complaints, downgrades,
and rejections.
Fewer OSHA reportable incidents, which are down 85 percent since 2008, John reports. This has meant less downtime and fewer workers' comp claims and associated costs.
Greater employee retention, which improved 37 percent in a two-year period. Mike credits these gains to the extensive training regimen the company implemented to meet its RIOS goals, as well as to the system's focus on continuous measurement and improvement. "RIOS forces us to train employees, which gives them the tools for success and helps them to see how they fit into the big picture," he explains. Also, John adds, when the company cares enough to measure an activity, "that tells employees that what they're doing is meaningful."
Better compliance with local, state, and federal regulations, which has decreased Ocala Recycling's risk of environmental incidents and reduced its liability exposure. John recounts a recent, unannounced visit from a representative of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She asked a few questions and requested to see some information about the facility's emissions. The Ocala staff accessed the firm's RIOS information system, typed in a couple of keywords, brought up the requested information, and gave it to the DEP repproblem averted. "That's how the system is supposed to work," John says.
Organization and preservation of the company's operating procedures and institutional knowledge, making the information accessible to all.
"If you lose employees, you don't lose the work knowledge with them," Rich notes. "It's all there in RIOS."
Another benefit, the Biancullis note, is that they now can use the RIOS certification as a marketing and branding tool to distinguish the company from its competitors. "We're rolling out our RIOS certification [on communications] to all of our suppliers and consumers so they know they're dealing with a company that takes quality, environmental, and health and safety issues seriously," Mike says. "We'll also use our certification to get our foot in the door at new prospects," Rich says. "It shows we're the real thing." The company has thus far added the "RIOS Certified" logo to its business cards, stationery, and Web site; created T-shirts; and posted the banner on the office wall at its shredding facility, among other activities.
Taken together, the above achievements have created a company that not only reflects excellence in its QEH&S efforts but also makes more money while doing it. "We didn't do this so we could see a little RIOS logo on our business cards," Rich asserts. "We implemented RIOS as a management tool to make more money, and we get a return on this system every day."
The Road to Excellence
Achieving those results was a long and somewhat arduous journey for both Ocala Recycling and ISRI. The company got involved at the beginning of ReMA's efforts to develop a QEH&S management system standard, then called SCRAP3, signing on as a charter member in 2003. (ISRI renamed it RIOS in 2004.) Rich Bianculli, who started Ocala Recycling in 1988, already was familiar with the ISO 9001 quality management standard and liked the idea of operating his business in a more systematic way. "The more you can manage your decisions and measure them, the better off you're going to be," Rich says. He also envisioned the potential competitive benefits of implementing a management system. "We're in a small market," Rich notes, "so in order to survive, we felt [RIOS would] make us as competitive as possible."
The brothers were not all equally enthusiastic about the idea, they admit. "I was incredibly skeptical," Mike says. "I thought the process looked bureaucratic and time-consuming without producing results." Charley, the eldest brother, is more blunt. "I hated it at first," he states. "It was an investment, and I wasn't ready to say, It's worth it.'"
What won them over, the brothers say, is RIOS' scrap-specific focus and its integration of quality, environmental, and health and safety issues together in a single standard. "We thought our customers would see it as a special designation in our industry, so we jumped onboard to see where it would go," Mike says. There was another enticement: "We really wanted to be first," Mike recalls. "When we fully committed to this effort in 2006, our goal was to be first, which helped push us along."
As one of three pilot RIOS facilities, Ocala Recycling received early guidance from First Environment (Boonton, N.J.), the consulting firm ReMA selected to develop RIOS and the RIOS Implementation Guide and to implement the RIOS pilot project. First Environment visited the facility, provided phone consultations, and offered other support to educate the company's staff about management systems in general and RIOS in particular. Even with that help, "it was very hard for us to understand exactly what we were supposed to do," John says. The standard itself was new, so "no one had a real idea how to set up the [management] system," Rich says. Ocala Recycling already had policies and procedures in place, a strong safety program, and a sensitivity to environmental concerns, "so we didn't understand what was missing," John says.
The missing piece, the Biancullis learned, was a framework for its efforts and an organized, sustainable process for managing everything. For example, the company lacked specific improvement goals, John notes. Once it decided to add goals, it needed methods for determining those goals, reporting results, improving its performance, and handling problems. "We [were doing] most of that already," John says, "but not within the framework of an integrated system, so we naturally were missing some elements."
What the brothers didn't realize at the time, they say, is that intense consideration, deliberation, and discussion are part of implementing any management system. The standard provides a basic structure, but every company is unique and must adapt the management system to its specific operations and information. "First Environment gave us some tools, like the RIOS Implementation Guide, patiently reviewed them with us, and answered our many questions, but then it was up to us to create the system that was built to our particular business and needs," John says.
Guiding them through this process was RIOS' Footprint Identification Tool. "The FIT identifies what requirements you need to address in your processes, then you address how to take them on," John says. For each of the three elements of quality, environment, and health and safety, the tool helps the company identify its regulatory requirements and operational controls, define its objectives, and determine how it will measure or track those objectives, report the results, and implement changes in areas of "nonconformance." This creates a continual loop of improvement.
As a RIOS pioneer, Ocala Recycling used John's systems-development expertise to create a new computer application that helps the company meet the standard's requirements. The application includes a nonconformance management system and a work-order module that ensure the company resolves problems the FIT review identifies. "If you have a nonconformance in any of your processes, you need to get to the root cause and outline steps for remediating the problem," John explains. For example, the monthly health and safety inspection might discover that workers are not using proper lock-out/tag-out procedures when cleaning out material stuck in the baler. That would trigger the recording of a nonconformance event, subsequent analysis, and a corrective action plan. "If one of the steps is revise the underlying safety procedure,' then that goes into the work-order system," John says. "Once the tasks are completed, then the work order is closed out, and the nonconformance is considered addressed."
Over three years—from 2006 through the first half of 2009—Ocala Recycling continued to apply, refine, and expand its RIOS efforts, steadily meshing its previous business practices with the new system until they became one and the same. "The original temptation is to do RIOS,' then do your work," John observes. "It takes a lot to change your mindset to recognize that RIOS is your work. It gets incorporated into everything you do so that eventually there's no line between RIOS and everything else. It's a very holistic approach to managing your company."
The process offered plenty of challenges along the way, forcing Ocala Recycling to do a lot of introspection. "It forces you to really look at your processes and determine whether you're living up to what you think you're doing," Rich says. "We had to reexamine everything, which created a lot of confrontation between our perceptions and reality." For instance, the Biancullis thought their company had a "fairly decent" quality control program, John notes. When they began investigating quality concerns through the company's nonconformance system, however, they realized "we had to review and revise many job descriptions and update the corresponding employee training sheets to close the gaps that the RIOS quality process identified."
Ocala Recycling helped everyone on staff keep their minds on RIOS through relentless trainingin safety meetings, new employee orientations, mentor programs, and moreand by posting the RIOS mission statement and other RIOS messages around its two plantsincluding both inside and outside employees' hard hats.
Passing the Test
In early 2009, Ocala Recycling felt it had fully implemented RIOS as a management system, and it was ready to get certified. Initial certification consists of Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits. Facilities typically determine their readiness for certification by the results of their internal audits and the management review RIOS requires as part of continual improvement. As the first company to go through this process, however, Ocala Recycling took a few extra steps on the way to certification. It conducted a preliminary internal audit and management review, then it hired consultants to review its safety and environmental systems. The company wanted "to get a gut check on what it meant to be audited in those areas," John explains.
After reviewing the results of those efforts, the firm took one final preliminary step, asking SGS Systems & Services Certification (Rutherford, N.J.), the first firm accredited to conduct RIOS certification audits, to do an unofficial pre-audit of the company. Though these additional reviews were not necessary to pass the official audits, they identified opportunities for improvement for Ocala Recycling, prompting it to generate more than 60 work orders. By resolving those issues, the company strengthened its system and increased its confidence heading into the certification audits, John says.
Ocala Recycling began the first "official" steps toward certification in June 2009 with another internal audit and management review. SGS then conducted the Stage 1 audit, which reviews the structure of a company's management system.
If the auditors "see no major nonconformances, they'll complete the Stage 1 audit quickly," John says. "If they don't like what they see in a particular area, they start probing your system in depth." In the Stage 1 audit, SGS identified 31 findings. This was not cause for concern, John explains, because the company was ready to take corrective action. The firm simply entered the nonconformances into the work-order module, and it resolved the problems in short order.
Next up was the Stage 2 audit, which reviews the real-life application of a company's management system. "This audit looks to see if you actually do what you say you do," John says. Among other steps, auditors interview employees at all levels, including hourly workers, with a wide range of responsibilities to verify their knowledge of the system as it applies to their duties. From Ocala Recycling's 90 employees the auditors interviewed, among others, a torchman, a sorter, and a baler quality control inspector. Though the Biancullis believed in their system, they still wondered how their staff would do under this interrogation. "These guys were just unbelievable," John says. "They had completely absorbed their RIOS training. It was part of what they were, and they were proud of the system. That was the most exciting part for us."
In the end, SGS found seven nonconformances and 37 opportunities for improvement in the Stage 2 audit. Ocala Recycling once again ran the problems through its nonconformance and work-order system and resolved the issues promptly.
In late August 2009, SGS recommended Ocala Recycling for certification, and by late October the company received its official certificate. It had achieved its goal of being the first RIOS-certified scrap recycling company in the world.
Though the audit process was arduous, it definitely "helped crystallize everything and pull it all together," John says. The company celebrated the accomplishment with a companywide barbecue, including raffle giveaways every half hour of flat-panel TVs, vacation days, lottery tickets, gift certificates, and more. This achievement also gave the company widespread exposure in local and national media, as well as recognition on Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who represents Ocala Recycling's congressional district, read a statement on the House floor Nov. 18 congratulating the company on its RIOS certification. Stearns followed up his floor address with a personal visit to the company's shredding facility Nov. 23, where he once again praised the firm for its historic achievement.
Ready for RIOS?
As the Biancullis look back on their RIOS quest, they marvel at the time and effort they invested as well as the results they achieved. They admit they "had no idea how much work this would be," Rich says. "We probably underestimated it by a factor of 10." The company faced some lows along the way. "There were times when we were frustrated," Rich admits, "but we never thought this was a waste of money or considered stopping." Through the process, the company learned a lot about management systems, and its principals have plenty of advice for other scrap companies considering a similar quest.
First and foremost, the Biancullis say, make sure the effort has 100-percent management support, or it will fail. In their case, they initiated the RIOS effort and personally stoked the fires throughout the process. "We were going to make it work, and that's all there was to it," Rich says. "If the people at the top aren't excited about it, stop. You're wasting your time."
Without support from the top down, most companies won't have the staying power to persevere through the inevitable challenges or the will to invest the necessary effort and funds. "It's a lot of staff time and ugly thinking in the beginning, and that's what's going to turn a lot of people off," Rich says. "You have to stay excited about it, and that starts with upper management."
Scrap operators also must be open-minded and flexible enough to look objectively at their business practices and acknowledge that a management system will almost certainly require some changes in how the company operates. This step might be especially difficult for older, multigenerational scrap firms wedded to the mindset of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." That wasn't a problem for the Biancullis, who are first-generation scrap recyclers. "We didn't grow up in the scrap business, so we weren't stuck with old paradigms," Rich notes. Instead, they pooled their disparate business talentsRich was in the restaurant business, Charley was an international leather trader, Mike had a financial background, and John was in systems developmentwith those of their RIOS management team to guide Ocala Recycling down a new path without looking back.
That said, implementing RIOS doesn't mean discarding all current business practices and starting from scratch, the Biancullis note. If a company already has a safety program, for instance, it can fold that program into RIOS. "You don't have to reinvent everything," John says. "The more programs and procedures you have in place, the easier time you'll have with this. RIOS simply leverages what you have."
The trickiest part for most scrap companies will be understanding what a management system is, how it's supposed to work, and what they're supposed to end up with, John says. He cautions other recyclers against thinking that RIOS is a turnkey system that requires no work by the user. RIOS provides a general framework, but users must adapt it to their specific operations and populate it with their specific information. "It can be intimidating at first, but once you understand it, RIOS becomes an invaluable tool," John says.
Though RIOS does require a considerable investment of time and finances, the Biancullis encourage other recyclers to view the effort as exactly that—an investment—one that pays dividends every day for years to come. "It absolutely makes you money," Rich says, "and it keeps your systems running the way you want them to run." Mike concurs, adding, "It's patently obvious that we're going to reap the benefits for the rest of the time we're in business." He says he now can't imagine doing business without it.
The Biancullis go so far as to suggest that the future of the scrap industry lies in RIOS-type management systems. Charley predicts that scrap generators—especially larger firms—eventually will require their recycling vendors to be certified to some standard as a way to ensure accurate weights, freedom from downstream environmental liability, and top-notch service. "Their loop is closed when they ship to us, and that's an extra hour of sleep on—the pillow that night," he says.
At the other end, scrap consumers will prefer dealing with certified recyclers, Charley says, because they will deliver higher-quality scrap and have a system in place to address any issues that arise. Ocala Recycling already shows its consumers the nonconformance reports it generates in response to any complaints, downgrades, or rejections, which indicates to the consumer "that we take their quality concerns seriously," Charley notes. "That type of effort builds instant and lasting credibility."
One move in this direction came last fall from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine. AQSIQ's new licensing process for scrap exporters who wish to ship material to China requires companies applying for new licenses, or modifying existing licenses, to hold either ISO 9001 or RIOS certification.
Though Ocala Recycling is justifiably proud of its accomplishment, certification is not the end of the process. RIOS requires continual improvement, so the company refines its management system daily, in part to draw closer to perfection and in part to ensure the company is in shape for the three-year recertification cycleone year each for quality, environment, and health and safety. Now, even Charleythe Bianculli brother who initially hated the ideaconfesses to being a RIOS convert. "I was a reluctant follower who has found it a significant tool," he says. "Best of all, it really adds dollars and cents to the bottom line." •
Kent Kiser is publisher and editor-in-chief of Scrap.