25 Per Cent Higher Yield Because One Person Listened Closely

Rafik Bouhajra, 44, trained electrician and communications technician, father of four, has been working as a plant operator in our rolling technology department since 2018. At his workstation, metal foils are rolled without which no X-ray machine in the world would function. The foil thickness is best compared to the skin of a soap bubble: deviations in the micrometre range, invisible to any human eye, are enough to render an entire batch unusable.

With foils like these, there is no room for "close enough". Either the tolerance is met, or the material is scrap.

What Bouhajra Noticed

Bouhajra has known his machine for eight years. He can hear when something sounds different from usual, even when the displays show nothing out of the ordinary. Over the course of several weeks, he observed how the machine responded to fluctuations in the rolling process and came to a conclusion: the control system's response time could be faster. The readings were within specification, there was no alarm. But Bouhajra had the impression that adjusting certain control parameters would noticeably shorten the machine's reaction time.

He submitted a corresponding improvement proposal.

What Came of It

And then something happened that makes this story stand out: Bouhajra subsequently took over the project management for the implementation himself. He coordinated the parameter changes, ran the test cycles, documented the results. In the end, the yield for these specific high-performance foils for the medical sector increased by around 25 per cent. Anyone who works with ultra-thin metal foils knows what that number means; every single percentage point is hard won with materials like these, because the physics at this thickness level leaves almost no margin for error.

The company awarded Bouhajra a special bonus for his contribution.

Voices from Production

Bouhajra himself says: "I am glad to work in an environment where everyone can contribute their initiative, ideas and experience. We are continuously developing, especially thanks to our family-like working culture. It is great to experience that we can communicate openly at all levels and receive appreciative feedback."

Production Manager Georg Phlipsen shares this view: "The employees in production make a valuable contribution by bringing in their experience and observations from daily practice. This involvement is very important because it supports the continuous optimisation of our processes and shows that improvements are achieved together. For production, this kind of commitment is an important factor for continued success in the future."

EppsteinFOILS is currently investing around one million euros in the modernisation of its rolling mills, including new control systems and optical measurement technology. Bouhajra's improvement demonstrates that alongside such investments in hardware, the experience of individual plant operators can make a measurable difference. Particularly at a company that has been developing and maintaining its machinery largely in-house for over 170 years.