Business

How to manage seasonality.

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Seasonality presents a significant challenge in the ever-evolving world of Fast Moving Consumer Goods. This cyclical pattern brings predictable yet disruptive fluctuations in demand that can interrupt production lines. With careful planning, you can overcome this challenge and turn seasonal highs and lows into lucrative opportunities. With summer just around the corner, the demand for … Read more

The 4 Factory Types. Which do you have?

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The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a powerful improvement technology that asserts that any manageable system is limited in achieving its goals by a very small number of constraints. Developed by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, it provides a useful way to understand and manage complex industrial processes. One of the key concepts of TOC is … Read more

3 steps to a renewable energy strategy

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Renewable energy strategies for the food & beverage industry can be quite complex and full of uncertainty. However, once the unique needs and location of a particular manufacturing site are understood then the strategy can become self-evident when the different options are examined in the context of technological maturity and payback. Step 1 – Understand … Read more

Which changeovers are the most important in the process industry?

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Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) is a Lean manufacturing tool developed around the 1960’s as a systematic way of reducing changeover times in the car assembly industry. Most SMED guides include 4 steps. Identify the changeover elements Separate external elements Convert Internal Elements to External Streamline Remaining Elements SMED was developed with single work … Read more

10 high-powered building blocks that change the way you look at your complex supply chain

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the ultimate guide to process factory performance

Ever wish that there were simple, fundamental building blocks that could be used to represent your supply chain, no matter its complexity?

Hidden in the industrial engineering literature are 10 building blocks that can be used to clearly establish the performance of an entire supply chain.

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How to create a factory performance metric that boosts productivity and changes behaviours

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Factory Performance Metric

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is often used as the main metric for factory performance in the process industry (food & beverage, liquids, sheet goods, solid & fluid packaging operations).

However, while OEE is a good measure for independent workstations and processes, production lines in the process industry are usually made up of several workstations and processes which are all connected together, rendering the OEE metric less than ideal.

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