Cost
SavingsThis project was a major contributor in saving the client from losing all business with its largest customer, and also gained sales volume back that had been taken away. The client’s second largest customer was also considering cutting its sales volume, but has maintained their sales volume.
Description of Problem
The product is a laminated, sheeted product that is slit lengthwise into four pieces and cut cross-wise into four consumer units. The resulting unit-to-unit variability upon preparation of the product by the consumer was excessive, meaning that the consumer received a “different” product with each purchase.
The major problem was weight variability across the sheet from side to side. The four units across the belt varied by 26 grams (11% of the component weight). Through the use of the Problem Solving Strategy, five root causes of the weight variability were discovered.
Approach
A cross-functional team was formed to develop and implement countermeasures to the root causes of the weight variability. The countermeasures were prioritized according to effectiveness and cost of implementation. The five countermeasures were implemented in three phases, with data collection and analysis to verify the effectiveness of each implementation.
Results
After the three phases of implementation, the weight variability was reduced from 26 grams (11% of total intermediate component weight) across the sheet, to 4 grams (1.7% of the total weight). With the reduction of variability:
- Customer complaints for weight variability related issues dropped significantly
- Artificially high component target weights can be reduced significantly
- Cost savings are potentially $100,000 annually per line
- Major customers were retained
Submitted by LWI Consultant
Steve Ruegg
