page 1 of 2Forester Business Consulting Ltd. FBC &Change: Enabl i ng Suppor t i ng Sust ai nabl e 1.1.Introduction For Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) manufacturers, in particular within the food & beverages,beauty,pharmaceuticalandindustrialsectors,marginscontinuetobeunder increasing pressure. Continued price increases in raw materials, energy and personnel cost canonlypartiallybepassedon,asconsumersarebecomingmorecostconscious.The supplies of low cost, discounted or cheaper trade products make it more difficult for brand manufacturers to survive under the current market conditions. Hence, in order to maintain orgrowprofitabilityandfulfilshareholdervalueexpectations,thebiggerportionofthese increases has to be absorbed internally and counterbalanced by efficiency improvements. This is, however, only possible through plant and process optimisation, which aims to let the business react fast to fluctuating demands, flexibly adjust the output and release hidden capacities. This case study describes the benefits of a strategic implementation of software packages likeManufacturingExecutionSystems(MES)toeffectivelyreducecost,andspecifically minimise production losses in downtimes, quality and speed. One of those MES products on the market is Factory MES, formerlyknownasCDCFactoryMOM,createdbytheUS company APTEAN. It is designed to transform manufacturing performance by empowering people to make real-time actionable decisions. By standardizing the best practices of lean manufacturing,OEE(OverallEquipmentEffectiveness)andContinuousImprovement, Factory MES provides a real-time framework that integrates scheduling, operations, quality andmaintenance.Asthesystemisanout-of-the-boxsystem,whichistailoredand configured to each customers need FBC was engaged to implement CDCFactory for the German headquartered Intersnack Group in their 15 plants across Europe. 1.2.Clients BriefIn 2010, Intersnack Group had announced plans to implement CDCFactory at 15 additional plants across Europe based on the initial successes of its CDCFactory implementation at thecompanysNetherlandsplanttheyearbefore.FormerCDCSoftware,nowknownas Aptean,suppliedthesoft-andhardwareandourtaskwastoimplementthesystem, develop the training material and train the personnel in the various organisations how to usethesystemand-moreimportantly-howtointerpretthedata.Thisincludedthe management of organisational change, the identification of benefits and the realisation of showcase savings projects.1.3.Implementation Support during the Realisation Phase Dependingonthesizeoftheplant,timerequiredforthesetup,configurationand customisation takes about 6 weeks in total. Training is done in groups of 8-15 employees Case studyMES - Manufacturing Execution Systems supportLEAN Manufacturing empowering shop floor personnel to take real-time decisions. page 2 of 2Forester Business Consulting Ltd. FBC &Change: Enabl i ng Suppor t i ng Sust ai nabl e per session across shifts, very often in parallel with the last weeks of customisation. After that 1 week each is needed for system commissioning and the Go-Live phase.Thesystemmonitorslinestatus, quantitiesandtimeelapsingbetween any events, such as stops, speed losses or quality defects; it also triggers quality checksorregularreviewsaccordingto the plant requirements. It helps focusing onthemanufacturinglosses(fig.1) throughdisplayingtherealtimeresults in a user-friendly way. The main task for the operators is to monitor the essential manufacturingperformanceKPIOEE (OverallEquipmentEfficiency),andits componentsUtilisation, YieldandRate. Asthesystemcapturestheir developmentinrealtimeanddisplays any deviations from the plan using traffic lightcolours(fig.2),itmakesoperator interactionwiththesystemunavoidable requiring a timely improvement re-action to the yellow or red line status. figure 1: OEE- loss visualisation (source: CDCFactory) figure 2: performance home page(source: CDCFactory)1.4.LEAN & Continuous Improvement Strategies CDCFactory offers a variety of tools to interpret data that have been collected over time and stored in a database. Using reports and evaluations it allows operators and management to concentrate on areas of production losses, follow critical product, quality, line and machine developments, drill down to asset level for detailed information, document required quality andcompliancechecks,evaluatetrendsforshiftandteamperformance,manageand control improvement activities and visualise cost savings potential within all manufacturing processes.1.5.ResultsUsually, after 6-8 weeks after Go-Live the database provides enough usable data to start looking for the firstcostsavingopportunitiesandbenefitsof thesystem.Applyingadrill downanalysisapproachandusing6SigmaandLeantools,combinedwithfacilitated Paretoand/orCEDACexercises,themostimpactfulimprovementarenaisdowntimeor utilisation loss reduction. 6 weeks representative data can easily be extrapolated to reflect annual losses, in particular when there are repetitive stop times that happen several times pershift,inallshiftsandeveryweek.Assumingaminutedowntimeinthepackaging departmentscoststheenterpriseatleast1.00EUReach,thishasleadtoasignificant savingspotential.FBCLtdwasabletohelpidentifysavingsopportunitiesbetweenEUR 30k and 80k per plant during 1 weeks analysis. Across the 15 plants this alone represented savings in excess of EUR 600k. We have witnessed significant OEE improvements and the workforceembracingownershipoftheirperformance.Thesesuccessfulimplementations haveestablishedastandardOEEplatformacrossthevarioussitesonwhichfurther decisions to move towards Operational Excellence can be based. FBC Ltd. can also assist you on your route to sustainable Operational Excellence ! OEE 13% Rate to plan 23% Yield 70% Utilisation 78%