Sparkling performance refreshes the business

When Calypso embarked on its lean ‘war on waste’ programme, it discovered it needed better information. Brian Tinham reports on what’s being achieved with powerful shop floor data collection Key benefits Enabling pragmatic grass roots capacity and process improvement Quantified and prioritised cross-training, supplier, manufacturing process and maintenance improvement requirements Improved cycle time and target setting for realistic scheduling Saving at least 1% on materials alone Automates QA checks and calculates precise yields for batches and recipes Automatic supplier performance monitoring Provides complete visibility, with detailed management reports “I didn’t believe you could get meaningful information from machines every two minutes, but it’s not just about counting production cycles. It’s pushing our business forward and we’re improving with it.” So says Denver Higgins, production co-ordinator at £26m soft drinks giant Calypso, based in Wrexham, North Wales. He’s talking about the firm’s shop floor data capture (SFDC) system, which has now been rolled out throughout production, and is already being requested by other parts of the business. Calypso manufactures more than 500m units a year to stock in a variety of single-serve packaging formats – mostly cups, Tetra cartons and freeze pops. In 2003, the firm embarked on a ‘war on waste’ programme, starting with an activity-based costing project, which was successful, but quickly highlighted poor data and lack of visibility where it mattered most – on the factory floor. As IT director James Holmes says: “We had a lot of data but it was all driven by spreadsheets – it was manual, time-consuming, and 24 hours behind. We didn’t have the information we needed to drive productivity improvements.” Just as important, the data lacked consistency and accuracy: machine downtime was being recorded ad hoc by operators. Says Higgins: “We needed accurate information about what was going wrong. If you only see that a machine has stopped you can’t do meaningful work: you need reasons.” Holmes found MVI, offering its Eventsengine system and an implementation methodology. “They looked at what we were doing on a monthly and weekly basis with paper reports and said, ‘we’ll generate that live, straight away’.” It worked: the system went live on the first line before Christmas and the next two in January 2004. Higgins: “Our production manager says the system has been a real turning point for the company… Everyone can see what’s happening live on the system, the reasons for it and the time.” Typical problems uncovered? Holmes refers to a ‘Waiting for staff’ button on the machine screens for agency staff. “They’re contracted to start work at six but they were being dropped off at six, so the line was starting 10 minutes late. We told them to get here 10 minutes earlier.” Production up. “We also had a robot dropping cups. Eventsengine allowed us to quantify the problem [which] turned out to be an airline.” An end of shift clean means a controlled 10-minute stop rather than unscheduled stops throughout the shift – and no waste. “We also had a cutting tool that was leaking nitrogen and the operators kept topping it up.” As it escalated, the system picked it up “and we found there was a leaking seal. The engineers fixed it – end of downtime.” ROI? “My justification for the project was straightforward,” says Holmes. “If we saved just 1% on raw materials we would get our money back – and I can already see we’ll do that.”