Case Study
Food & Beverages
Bottom-line annualised
savings of 1,1M€
~20% Increase in OEE
Increased machine availability
Service line
Business Excellence
Duration
3 month
Syngroup Office
Vienna / Austria
Geography
Austria
Food & Beverages
Background
Our client is an international bottling company with an annual turnover in excess of 100M€

The company operates one production site employing c. 200 people
As part of a program designed to take operational performance to the next level, our client asked us to carry out an all round assessment of their performance, in particular to identify improvements to do with efficiency, productivity and waste.
Syngroup has played an integral role in supporting our client to maintain a leading industry position among its peers.

Objectives
  • Take operational performance to the next level
  • Identify and prioritise potential efficiency gains with respect to labour, machine and material efficiency
  • Reorganise the maintenance department to increase responsiveness and impact
  • Implement staffing improvements within the logistics department
  • Review the current shipping structure and reduce cost of freight
Focus area
Manufacturing
Machine efficiency
Labour efficiency
Waste reduction
Line staffing
Maintenance
Logistics
Benchmarking / Freight costs
Our Approach

Our approach followed a two-stage process.

Stage 1: Assessment

  • An intensive two-week assessment was carried out across manufacturing, maintenance and logistics
  • The key findings showed that machine operators relied more on their own experience and intuition than operating according to best-practice and SOP.
  • Fork-lift operations used to move finished goods suffered from poor routing and productivity
  • Maintenance responsiveness and effectiveness were also poor

Stage 2: Implementation

  • Based on the assessment findings, several changes were made:
  • Production: Machine operations were standardised and SOPs implemented
  • Labour cost: A change from an hourly to “per-piece” contract for outsourced labour reduced 3rd party costs
  • Material: A structured improvement process was introduced to identify causes and reduce waste
  • Maintenance: To better manage machine problems, an escalation process was developed in co-operation with the maintenance department
  • Logistics: Improved cycle times for fork-lifts in order to improve staffing; Freight costs were reduced by optimising routes and by cleaning up the supplier’s portfolio
Results
400k€ p.a. savings from increased production performance
200k€ p.a. labour efficiency effects internal
150k€ p.a. labour efficiency effects external
175k€ p.a. freight cost reduction
125k€ p.a. waste reduction
Methodologies
  • LEAN
  • Machine Studies
  • Manning Optimisation
  • Layout Optimisation
  • PDCA/CI