Case Study
Manufacturing
8-12% increase
in throughput
20-45% reduction
in waste
2-3% increase
in machine efficiency
Service line
Business Transformation: Operations, Sales
Duration
3 years; ~4 months / plant
Syngroup Office
Vienna / Austria
Geography
Austria, 5 sites
Manufacturing
Background
Our client is a leading manufacturer of plastics packaging for the food, healthcare, cosmetics and chemical industries with operations in 34 countries and a turnover in excess of €1.5bn

Our client’s business had gone through a period of rapid growth through acquisition. Although operational performance was reasonable, senior management decided that there should be increased focus on efficiency and Operational Excellence as part of a program of profitability improvement.
Based on our long-standing relationship and familiarity with our client’s operations, we were asked to conduct in-depth assessments in five countries across Manufacturing and Sales. This was followed by a programme of implementation to ensure that benefits would hit the bottom-line

Objectives
  • Carry out in-depth assessments of manufacturing to identify and quantify potential benefits.
  • Assess maturity of Performance Management and provide recommendations for improvement
  • Carry out a sales-margin analysis to identify low-margin products
  • Develop and run a margin improvement program
Focus area
Operations
Efficiency
Productivity
Waste reduction
Performance Management
Sales
Margin
Sales Management
Our Approach

Operations

  • A pilot site was chosen to conduct the initial assessment and learnings from this assessment were incorporated into the remaining sites
  • Each assessment was scheduled to take approximately six weeks during which the entire manufacturing process was reviewed in-depth. This included analysis of performance data to identify equipment and material losses and to prioritise further analysis according to the size of opportunity.
  • An assessment of KPIs was also completed to identify any gaps and weaknesses and to understand how KPIs were being used in practice to improve performance.
  • Production planning was also assessed as weaknesses in planning can often adversely impact efficiency in production, especially when late or frequent changes to plan result in additional or excessive changeovers.
  • Machine changeovers were looked at in detail to identify ways of reducing changeover times. In some plants, improvements to changeover times were achieved through a combination of better planning and scheduling of products and support areas. Operators received additional training and additional, inexpensive, shop-floor equipment was installed to facilitate faster changeovers times.
  • In-depth line observations were carried out. The findings showed there was opportunity to reduce personnel through better organisation and resource planning at shop-floor level.

Sales

  • A detailed analysis of product margin was carried out to identify low-margin SKUs. It also identified the complexities that had resulted in poor margin and this information was used to initiate a program of margin recovery. In many cases, renegotiation of contracts led to an improvement in profitability.
Results
8-12% increase in throughput
20-45% reduction in waste
2-3% increase in machine efficiency
8-14% increase in productivity
1-2% increase in margin
€1-1.5m savings
Methodologies
  • OEE
  • Root-cause Analysis
  • Performance Management / KPIs
  • Manning Studies
  • Product Flow Analysis / Internal Logistics
  • Sales Margin Analysis
  • Sales Management