The Biggest ROI Opportunities in the Food & Beverage Industry

J&A International, Inc. deployed a team of Lean experts to assess and improve a Dairy’s Blowmold operation. The results were a resounding success, and CEO Keith Johnson was willing to share the process his team went through to get there.

Seneca, United States – May 27, 2015 /PressCable/ —

The types of problems that J&A International, Inc.’s CEO Keith Johnson and his team of veteran consultants encountered in dairies are common in the food and beverage industry.

“We have implemented numerous Lean systems in Dairies and other beverage industries over the last 20 years and the problems are almost 100% predictable. Almost all of our Beverage clients had major issues with packaging in some form. Most of these packaging issues were equipment related due to preventive maintenance, maintenance planning and operator awareness. This includes casepackers, labelers, blowmolds, coders, cappers, wrappers, carton formers and other packaging equipment. A recent client was purchasing 40% of their half gallon and gallon jugs from outside blowmolders due to equipment reliability issues in 3 blowmolds. The weekly cost variants ranged from $20,000 to $25,000. The total cost savings opportunity to eliminate outside purchases was over $509,000.”

“Additionally, data collection on the blowmolds was inconsistent and no reliable information was available to manage performance.”

“Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): the 3 blowmolds under-supplied the filler by 873 jugs per hour at the OEE rate of 82%. The half-gallon blowmold had one head that was not operational due to mold reliability issues which equaled a 12.5% OEE loss.”

J&A consultants approached these problems on two essential fronts. First, operators began collecting data on the blowmold in the following areas: number of bottles produced per day/ hour, delay times and types, and pounds of scrap and regrind.

Secondly they identified top 3 downtime reasons: cooling bed lubrication, dirty and cracked molds, and lack of operator trouble-shooting skills, including incorrect weight adjustments and Parison adjustments.

To solve this Dairy’s problems, Johnson and his team executed 9 very specific tasks:

They wrote a detailed trouble-shooting guide and wrote detailed lubrication procedures. They implemented a Standard Work for Leaders Board and Visual Management. They posted one point lessons for lubrication and adjustments, built shadow boards for tools and cleaning supplies, and wrote standard work for operators and posted it on boards. They implemented visual workplace for lubrication points, weight adjustments, and mold and mandrel cleaning. And finally they trained all three shifts of operators and mechanics in all tools and procedures.

After completing these Lean Transformation Processes, the Impacts to the company’s bottom line was significant: they eliminated the need for outside blowmold jug purchases, Increased uptime by 30%, reduced rework by 20%, reduced scrap by 12%, reduced quality issues and leakers by 5%, increased teamwork and empowerment, developed maintenance SOP’s, reduced setup time, and increased operator trouble shooting skills. The total annual savings exceeded a half million dollars.

There is such a prevalent need for this type of waste reduction in the industry that the team at J&A International, Inc. recently announced that it will provide a complimentary expert professional shop floor assessment for companies in the Food and Beverage Industry. See this announcement in the Boston Globe.

“Every industrial operation can benefit from a third party evaluation of their processes. As the above case study shows, we have the experience and confidence to share our process and make it a worthwhile investment” said Johnson. He can be reached at 864-888-7190. More of J&A International, Inc. success stories can be found at http://leantoc.com.

For more information about us, please visit http://leantoc.com

Contact Info:
Name: Keith Johnson
Email: tkjohns1@mindspring.com
Organization: J&A International, Inc.
Address: 273 Applewood Center Place, Suite 218, Seneca, SC 29678
Phone: 864-888-7190

Release ID: 82968