Summary
A large, private dairy producer in the northeast, which produces dairy products and ready-to-drink coffee beverages, looked to POWERS for ways to increase capacity at reduced costs operationally to remain a leader in their industry.
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Problems
The company needed to increase capacity and throughput to drive the cost-per-unit down, to remain an industry leader. Investments had been made in equipment, but not in their people. The challenge was realizing the equipment’s capabilities. A crucial part of developing a continuous improvement culture involved training and empowering front-line leaders and driving ownership and accountability all the way down to the operator level. This process also entailed breaking down silos so that organizations could handle challenges as a team.
Objectives
- Reduce costs to manufacture
- Increase capacity and capability to utilize with increased demand
- Increase leadership skills and process knowledge of front-line leaders
- Develop Best Practices that reduce cycle times and increase repeatable outputs in CIP’s
- Develop and implement Production and Maintenance Management Operating system focused on continuous Improvement behaviors
Strategies
- Gather and document actual ‘current state’ processes across the business sites
- Complete Functional Business Unit reviews of current MOSs, critique and identify missing or ineffective elements in Production, Maintenance and Planning and Scheduling
- Collaboratively develop enhanced Management Operating Systems to drive data to information-driven proactive leadership for performance improvement
- Train and development front-line leadership on required skills to be dynamic and successful
- Coach and mentor leadership throughout implementation providing execution support
- Improve communication lines from the Business Development, Supply Chain through Production, and the Distribution Teams to foster collaborative problem solving
Results
- $6.7M in recurring Annual Savings
- 36.9% improvement in Packaging Productivity
- 33.4% improvement in Evap. Productivity
- 30% improvement in CIP’s in the Packaging area
- 30% improvement in Tank Changes in the Packaging area
- Developed a structured financially driven S&OP process with C-Suite support
- Broke down silos between Planning and Scheduling and Production to improve the process and structured methodology for when to raise run rates
Testimonials
“One of the biggest benefits of the project has been the teams are working together.”
“I could never understand why we scheduled Butter the way we did, until I started going to the meetings with Ellen and the scheduling team.”
“I didn’t think you could fix this meeting (Production Meeting), but you did.”
“Communication between departments has increased. We have come a long way since the start of the project. When we put a schedule together, it meets every department’s needs.”
“Project increased communications across the plant. WGLs are more involved, more active and are more empowered to do their job.”
“I feel as though POWERS has been able to move the business into one direction. Before, we all set expectations for our individual departments. Now we all are focused together to attain one goal. We now have a more clearly defined understanding of our duties, keeping us knowingly moving forward.”
“I would like to express my gratitude for the support and guidance you all at The Powers Company have provided over the last 40 weeks. I appreciate the thought-provoking conversations we have had. You have helped me build my confidence throughout this process. You have helped validate ideas that I have had but was afraid to pursue. We have been able to increase our engagement throughout the whole business overall from entry-level all the way to the top.”
“Thank you for your time helping me and my team to become better versions of ourselves every day. Most of all, you provided a great sounding board for ideas and concepts.”
