Packaging Manufacturing
Understanding Packaging Manufacturing Business Challenges
Consider this: Your operating costs are the same, regardless of fluctuations in throughput (and therefore your profits). So every minute of production lost due to a true constraint is equal to the cost of a minute of running the entire line or plant. And every minute gained is a true contribution to your bottom line.
"We have experienced around a 7% reduction in manufacturing costs, which is a lot of dollars for an old plant that really helps the business. So rather than build a new plant, because of capacity constraints, we are just making these old lines turn out more product better than they ever have before."
- Corporate Production Manager
North American Beverage Bottler
"By making product quicker and better than we ever have before, we are freeing up time in our schedule, to the tune of something like 1/2 million extra cases of available production per year."
- Wayne Luxford
Continuous Improvement Manager
Throughput Analyzer™ can put those lost minutes of production back into your shift. What would a 5% improvement equaling an extra 21 minutes mean to your facility? In a continuous low bottling operation, that can mean thousands of more units equaling millions of dollars.
"Collected correctly, data turned into information aids us in our 'Genchi Gembutsu' or Go and See activity to grasp the situation. Grasping the Situation is one of the first things that we are taught to do at Toyota, as it is part of the Toyota Way. The Activplant Performance Management System enables our Go and See Process."
- Parker Shannon
Project Manager
If you have to identify an additional 5% in throughput improvements would you know where to look?
Activplant Customers know where to look!
While packaging companies range from small local operations to multinational
enterprises with facilities and distribution across the globe, their challenges
remain the same. How do you lower unit costs to remain competitive when
consumer expectations demand that you offer a wide variety of products with
varying sizes and packaging? How do you handle massive seasonal swings in
demand and rising forecasts with the same or less resources - ultimately do
more with less?
Many manufacturers are told by software companies that the answers to
improving your operations are better OEE metrics and downtime reports. This
thinking does not go far enough to make a significant impact on your bottom
line. Activplant has the only solution that can identify your chronic constraints
and increase the overall throughput for your entire system. We understand
the packaging industry, and we can help you turn these challenges into a
competitive advantage. With Throughput Analyzer's clear focus on improving
your business, you could expect to experience an increase of 5% - 25% in
production throughput like other Activplant customers. In an average sized
packaging facility, a 5% increase in production throughput could result in over
$1.2 million in annual savings. Now that's a result you can take to the bank.
But don't wait to make your deposit, with Throughput Analyzer's rapid and
repeatable deployment of less than 14 weeks, you could be cashing in the
savings in as little as 3 months.
Activplant's Throughput Analyzer can transform the raw data coming from your line into actionable information. A Balance Map (shown here) is updated in real time using intuitive color coding, allowing you to identify production constraints at a glance.
Delivering the Solution
The challenge has always been how to isolate and identify the most inefficient area
on the line that impedes or chronically disrupts product low. The problem
is that when one machine goes down on the line, it can simultaneously shutdown
multiple other machines on that line making it more difficult to understand the
root cause. Further complicating this process is the fact that constraints move from
hour to hour and shift to shift making it nearly impossible to identify the chronic
constraint in the line.
Activplant's Throughput Analyzer is a proven performance management application
that simplifies the complexities of high volume continuous packaging . By
identifying and prioritizing the chronic disruptors to the packaging low, otherwise
known as the constraints, Throughput Analyzer empowers plant personnel to
focus on the issues that will result in the largest gains in throughput – and enables
management to make informed decisions that will positively impact the bottom
line.
"Activplant is now just the way we do business. If Activplant was to be turned off or taken away, we would be absolutely lost. We have just become entrenched and ingrained over the past few years of doing business."
- Wayne Luxford
Continuous Improvement Manager
Now packagers have a solution to respond to the everyday challenges faced in
their industry. By eliminating the waste caused by constraints, getting more units
out the door with fewer resources is no longer a challenge but a reality. Whether
the constraint is on your assembly or packaging line, Throughput Analyzer will
account for every second of production and identify with the touch of a button
whether the root cause is for example a changeover issue, speed loss or downtime
loss. Throughput Analyzer drives unit and packaging cost down by enabling the
correction of the #1 problem limiting throughput and overall line velocity. Now you
can spend your day fixing the problems, not trying to figure out where they are.
It's About Time
At Activplant, it's about time. Our Throughput Analyzer application is defined by
its ability to identify lost minutes of production within a line, plant or enterprise
and then provides you with the knowledge to put those minutes back into your
day. Identifying and regaining those lost minutes of production may mean 100%
delivery rate on your customer's orders, unlocking hidden capacity during times
of high seasonal demand or reducing unit/case cost to the lowest possible level.
See what Throughput Analyzer can do for you
Watch a product demo now or request additional information.
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