Anywhen

Does your plant run anywhen or whenever?

You know, like when you try to schedule an appointment with the cable company and they tell you they will be there, “whenever”? Your customers­, external and internal, don’t like it any better than you do.

You need to run your plant anywhen so you can give your customers what they want anywhen they want it. Many companies say they practice this. The world-class companies live it.

Anywhen depends on flexibility in your plant and particularly in your line design. Here are some ways you can achieve greater flexibility:

• High-speed, fully automated machinery is great if you have predictable production of a few products. Many plants don’t. This is particularly true of contract packagers. Multiple lower speed lines may be a better way to optimize throughput.
• Consumers, like you and I, are constantly demanding greater product variety. The 80/20 rule applies in many cases, with 20% of products accounting for 80% of production. A high-speed line can be dedicated to those high runners. A second, lower speed, lower tech line may be able to handle the remaining products. This strategy can minimize downtime and maximize production of your bread and butter products.
• Training is important for many reasons, but one important reason is flexibility. It is important to train people not only for their own job, but to cross-train them for others jobs as well. This allows them to be moved about the plant as needed to optimize production.
• Modular machines allow lines to be put together as needed for any product. One successful contract packager has a collection of mature but well maintained machinery. If they get an order for a shampoo, they can pull a filler, capper, labeler and cartoner into a packaging room and have a line up and running in hours. This strategy allows them to fill small orders quickly and profitably. Frain, with its quick capability and machine rental program can serve as a machinery warehouse for your plant.

Flexibility, the ability to meet your customer’s challenges anywhen, must be baked into your company’s DNA. These are just a few of the ideas in our toolbox. Give us a call – we have a lot more.