Case Study on Efficient Problem Solving in F&B Industry

 Problem –

A company, known for being synonymous with premium and high-quality brands of coffee, is looking to reduce overtime from their Saturdays. Averse to the idea of adding automation and additional capital investment, the company needed a quick and viable answer for their predicament.

Solution –

The company’s production plants were responsible for delivering freshly ground coffee to millions of people. Anything from an issue in the packaging line, to bad weather, or occasional illness of any one of the employees could attribute to a significant increase in overtime. A step by step approach was taken to find out the areas that could be improved upon to prevent this.

·        The Packaging line produced 25% of the plant’s total volume. Mostly manual, it involved having the operators to move heavy bags of coffee by hand, and onto the packaging line.

·        Data was collected to see where the company was losing out on time. Everything from mechanical issues to upstream delays. All were taken into account. And how the time variable was affected by each one of these processes.

·        Automation of the packaging line, or investing in a new one. Both of these were unfavorable and costly outcomes.

Within this smokescreen of data, lay the answer to the company’s problems. And that was to increase the packaging line’s speed. The operators were waiting for as long as 15 seconds in every minute long cycle in the sealing process. By finding the answer to that riddle, they were able to make production faster, thereby saving time.

Result –

The sealing machine’s programming was evaluated with the help of the maintenance department and the quality department. Unnecessary processes were eliminated and the airflow process improved. Within a span of 2 weeks, the line was running 25% faster, reducing the need for overtime, while still maintaining the same quality of coffee.