Food & Drinks Case Study

A major UK brewer

Major capacity increase

with no capital expenditure

A major UK brewery

A new product line was highly successful in the marketplace, leading to demand outstripping supply.
Reliance by the client on contract packing eroded product margin and created severe supply chain issues.

Formed a joint project team to examine capacity, line balancing and speed profiles across the entire process from brewing through to packaging
Both speed and availability opportunities were identified and structured problem solving was used to resolve availability and speed issues
Issues with the line control logic were also identified, leading to more effective use of line accumulation, increased bottleneck availability and overall increase in line OEE.

The overall capacity of the line was increased through a step change, from 59% OEE to 78% OEE
Reduced the requirement for contract packing by 50%