Our client is a large international snacks and confectionery business with a global footprint of more than 120 factories and turnover of $30 billion. It has significantly reduced the cost of operations year-on-year, but this trend is slowing down as the ‘easy to find’ things have been done. It faces the digital paradox – today the employees are more digital at home than they are at work; this is a barrier to productivity and employee satisfaction.
Business Challenge
The client has recognized that Operational Excellence (OpEx) efforts in the plants have plateaued due to poor data quality. People can see opportunities for improvement but cannot capture them manually due to scale of the equipment and required granularity. Some plants have invested in digital data collection systems, but these have not given an effective return in KPI results and productivity improvements.
Through these two influences the client has realized the need for a dramatic improvement in data quality, granularity and visibility. Furthermore they understand that any such effort must be supported by a robust program to ensure adoption.
Approach
EFESO’s unique blend of expertise in OpEx, Human Dynamics and Digital has provided us with the insights needed to drive adoption of the new data visibility applications, alongside achieving business results.
We drive adoption by making a very clear connection between business targets, OpEx approach, visibility of losses through data and the daily activities of the operators, shop floor leaders and business leaders. In practice, this involves driving measurable improvements in the application of OpEx on the shop floor, bringing to life the connection between data, loss eradication activities, the Performance Control System and people’s behaviors.
Variations in OpEx and Digital Maturity are managed within the program through customized support. The full digitalization of the OpEx approach is underway with adaptations to support digital work methods. This process is supported through strong cooperation between EFESO and Solvace to drive the adoption of the client’s Connected Worker platform.
Main Results
- An initial investment of $15 million is planned for the development of shop floor data visibility applications and line sensorization/connectivity. This investment will be recovered within 18 months through cost reductions resulting from increased visibility of losses. The aim of this investment is to build the applications and implement them in 4 pilot sites.
- Over a period of 6 months, the Line OEE at a key site has improved by an average of 25 percentage points
- There has been a strong adoption of the digital tools by both operators and process leaders
