Hydration Product Manufacturer
Improved manufacturing performance and stability.
Case Studies
Business Issue
A specialized international premium manufacturer of hydration products was experiencing significant growth and struggling to keep pace with demand.
Approach Used
Flow Consulting conducted a one-day assessment, which identified major opportunities for capacity gains and waste reduction with no investment. This “snapshot” demonstrated to the client the value of an “outside look” and a new approach to manufacturing operations. Flow was originally asked to implement the recommendations but the client expanded the assignment to “temporarily replace” the Production Manager, who was leaving without a backfill. The Flow consultant became the new production manager (for a 12-week period) and concurrently implemented the initial recommendations.
Results
The key results are vastly improved manufacturing performance and stability, the establishment of key manufacturing metrics (for the first time) and the adjustment of the manufacturing plan to reduce operating time and cost:
Weekly Production Plan completion from <20% to >98% within 1 month.
52% improvement in “first line” capacity and 28% improvement in the “second line” within 3 months.
22% reduction in direct labor employed and a reduction in the work week to 4 days while “in-sourcing” $100K/year of special work.
33% reduction in scrap within 3 months, 67% within 5 months with the follow up work.
Annual cost reduction equaled $1.3M with a consultant cost of $0.13M — a 10:1 ratio.