The challenge
Competition in today’s manufacturing environment is fierce. The price of raw and auxiliary materials continues to rise, gross profit margins of standard products are shrinking, consumer demand for quality products is increasing, and government regulations around environmental sustainability are becoming ever stricter. Against this backdrop, Zhejiang O.R.G. Packaging struggled to maintain product quality, preventive maintenance was lacking due to skills shortages, team leaders lacked problem-solving skills, and there was a lack of communication and collaboration between functions.
In addition, demand often exceeded supply – resulting in teams regularly working overtime. These factors contributed to excessively high manufacturing costs.
Industry
Packaging
Established in 2012, Zhejiang O.R.G. Packaging Co., Ltd. is a two-piece can make enterprise affiliated to O.R.G. Group based in the Shangyu District, Shaozing City, China. Products mainly include 330ml and 500ml two-piece aluminium cans and sleek cans. It is the first two- piece can factory in the O.R.G Group, with annual output of around 10 billion cans.
The solution
- Implementing a rapid deployment approach
Zheng O.R.G. Packaging adopted TRACC to commence its world-class journey. The facility implemented seven TRACC best practices to address the prevailing challenges. These included:
o Leading & Managing Change
o Teamwork
o 5S
o Visual Management
o Focused Improvement
o Asset Care
o Operations Alignment.
In quick succession, the leadership team – together with TRACC advisors – implemented a series of projects, training and practices along with the establishment of a project ‘war room’ to track the progress of the various best practices and PIPs, and to eliminate risks as they are identified along the way. - Loss and waste analysis
The loss and waste analysis data began monthly updates to identify the main loss points and improvement opportunities. With output PIPs a priority, the team identified 11 improvement projects in production efficiency, scrap and isolation rates, and unit and energy consumption. - Structured problem-solving
The team appointed PIP leaders who were assigned one or more improvement projects each. Financial savings have been estimated at more than three million yuan once each project achieves its target.
So far, five projects have reached their objectives with combined savings worth 615 000 yuan.
They include:
1. Reducing the isolation rate
2. Electricity consumption
3. Cleaning unit consumption
4. Tank breaking rate
5. A shorter transfer time - Daily operations review meeting
This meeting replaced the multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs) to make it more productive. The first thing the TRACC implementation team did was standardise equipment fault names and establish MDT KPIs. This included equipment exception lists to review the performance and status of the equipment at the start of each day and generate action plans to continuously improve performance through the DMAIC structured problem-solving tool. - 5S
Zhejiang plant selected the worst orderly colour printing room as the 5S pilot site. Within a few weeks and with everyone’s efforts, they managed to halt oil leakages, eliminate ground pollution, and discard unnecessary items.
The results
7.6% increase in production volume
Within six months, Zhejiang O.R.G steadied the ship by increasing their production rate and eliminating unnecessary waste.
7.6% increase in production volume
24.68% reduction in scrap rate for 500ml aluminium cans
5.08% reduction in scrap rate for 330ml aluminium cans
0.93% decrease in the million-consumption rate
Zero quality compensation
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