At a seasonal fresh fruit operation, there had been an industry wide drop in demand for canned fruits over many years. This eroded capacity utilization and significantly affected financial performance.
Due to a 50-day pack with almost exclusively temporary workers, the operation had difficulties implementing changes in any current year.
An assessment uncovered three key themes of opportunity:
- There was no standard operating model in factories to effectively plan, measure and solve variances
- Productivity was low and difficult to manage due to the seasonality and nature of fresh produce
- The capacity of the network was excessive and overhead costs reflected the business design from years before, when volumes were significantly higher
Over a six-month period, Carpedia created a model factory. In addition, the supply chain was analyzed to identify opportunities to improve the network design and pull-out unneeded capacity.
Key implementations included:
- Created a planning system to predict volumes and quality
- Improved management communication and problem solving through Carpedia College and on-the-job coaching
- Created a flow analysis to maximize throughput
- Created a playbook to ensure sustainability and provide an
opportunity for roll-out
Additional identified opportunities included:
- Designed a standard organizational structure to define metrics, accountability, and communications across the network
- Created an S&OP process to minimize schedule changes, improve forecast accuracy and reduce waste
- Consolidated shared services to reduce unnecessary duplication of roles between factories
The Results
The model factory will be used in future pack seasons to maximize productivity and throughput across their network.
Specific results included:
- 10% improvement in labor cost per case
- 3% improvement in yield
- 4.1:1 ROI
