Operational and Enterprise Intelligence solutions acquire data in real-time and provide enterprise-wide visibility, including key operating data, consumption, profitability, efficiencies, capacity and cost data. These systems are easy to deploy, asset agnostic and have payback periods of only a few months.
When a leading manufacturer of quality packaging materials in North and Central America wanted to improve plant performance and reduce operational costs, they faced two main challenges. The first was transitioning to an automated data collection process without significant downtime, the second was to translate the automated data into a measurable value that could tie-in with their operator’s incentive program.
Our OEM provided a real-time reporting and analysis solution that was rolled out to nine plants in total. Management was provided with real-time reporting and analysis capabilities that provided visibility into operations to support planning and strategic decision making. At the plant level, they provided real-time visibility of equipment performance to each operator with an LED display located above assets on the plant floor which empowered the operator to take immediate action to improve machine performance as issues occur rather than after the fact.
Installation of the equipment in each plant was easy and completed in only half a day with virtually no downtime. According to the client’s project manager, “The product was highly intuitive and within a few hours our operators were trained and interfacing with the system without skipping a beat”.
As a result of the implementation, the client achieved their goals of improving plant performance and reducing costs. Make ready times were reduced by 36% and run speeds increased by an average of 23%. This was accomplished with significantly reduced operator involvement as there was also a 65% reduction in labour required for reporting. “Eliminating our manual data took out the guesswork. We no longer question the reliability of our machine data so we are able to make production decisions with confidence”, according to the project manager.
The client had incentive programs in place where operators received bonuses based on individual accomplishments. With the new system installed the company was able to assign accountability and identify key contributors to reward them appropriately during performance reviews. As a result, operators aspired to higher levels of operational excellence, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
“Our operators are more proactive and better equipped to improve the output of their machines while supporting our productivity goals. At the same time, our management team is able to make better and more informed decisions based on real-time equipment information. Within the first few weeks of installing the system we identified a significant amount of unused capacity on our die cutting machines. Knowing exactly where to focus our efforts, we increased our Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by 40%. With this additional capacity, we deferred the purchase of additional equipment, saving us millions of dollars in capital investment” according to the client.
The client’s project manager said “We are truly leveraging the skills and knowledge of operators with this system. It has elevated us to a whole new level of productivity and we are closer to our vision of manufacturing excellence”.