When the company decided to adopt Orchestrate, from Production Modelling, to automate their production scheduling, they set themselves some ambitious objectives – all of which have been met. In the system’s first twelve months, Work in Progress has been cut by 25 per cent, On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) delivery performance improved, the number of tool changes has been reduced and materials wastage cut. All this with a smaller planning headcount that has managed to significantly improve customer lead-times.
Cope Allman Jaycare are global specialists in the design and manufacturing of rigid plastic packaging and are market leaders in the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sectors. Their pharmaceutical packaging includes containers for prescription only and over the counter medications while, in the medical sector, products include specialist packaging for infection control, diagnostics, hospital supplies, medical devices and so on. A vast range with very different characteristics, colour ranges and configurations. To complicate the process further, many products have to conform to strict regulatory requirements.
Despite being the supplier of choice for many blue chip companies, Cope Allman Jaycare cannot rest on their laurels. Their customers demand a high quality product, good service and competitive pricing. With these points in mind, Cope Allman Jaycare looked to Orchestrate to help them make improvements to their production scheduling that would drive down the cost of manufacture.
The Challenge - Scheduling resources to maximise efficiency and cut wastage
The company employs a J D Edwards ERP solution for their computing needs but, like so many ERP users, found that comprehensive though they may be, they simply cannot cope with highly detailed scheduling requirements. For example, before adopting Orchestrate production scheduling software, planners had used spreadsheets to balance constraints when bringing together resources such as moulding tools, technical support for tool changes and ancillary equipment such as heaters. To reduce clean-down time, they had to accommodate colour sequence, from light to dark, and they had to consolidate different products to minimise tool changes and material wastage. Cap moulding had to be planned in line with the manufacture of containers and subsequent on-body printing, ready for cap mounting and the insertion of wadding.
There had to be a better way to schedule resources, so the company researched the market for a production scheduling software solution that would integrate easily with their other systems.
The Solution
“After researching the market and visiting users of different software solutions, we selected Orchestrate because it ticked all the boxes,” says Peter Teague, IT Director. “In particular, Orchestrate was the only solution that would support multiple planners in multiple locations. We have factories and planners in both Newcastle and Portsmouth and we wanted our planners, each looking after their own set of machines, to be able to use the system at the same time. Just as importantly, the people at Production Modelling impressed us with their understanding of how we worked and what we wanted to achieve.
Master data, such as product information, bill of materials, production routes and stock are all maintained within the JDE system. Orchestrate maintains the more detailed information required for scheduling, such as optimal colour sequencing and tooling information. Customer orders are input to JDE and then transferred automatically into Orchestrate for the more complex planning processes, with works orders automatically fed back to JDE. Both systems working seamlessly together eliminates unnecessary data entry and associated transcription errors. Orchestrate production scheduling software makes it a simple process that results in better sequencing and productivity increases.
According to Peter, the first year’s results were remarkable: “Three of our key performance objectives were to reduce work in progress, cut lead times and reduce wastage. Because we have so much more confidence in our scheduling, we don’t have to run so far ahead with production, which has resulted in a 25% reduction in WIP. Customers are delighted because lead times have now been cut from 6-8 week down to 4-6 weeks; much nearer the four week level and still improving. Wastage has been cut significantly simply because we now have fewer tool changes.”
“Other benefits include improved productivity from our packers, something in the order of 5%, which is quite significant. Our OTIF performance has improved from 92% to 97%. The important thing is, these are all quantifiable benefits.”
“We have also gained from less quantifiable improvements. As well as reducing planning headcount, they now have more time to take on extra responsibilities, such as procurement planning. Communications, both internally and externally have improved. The tool room can see schedules for themselves and can contribute directly – online self service. Being able to make changes directly into Orchestrate production scheduling software means fewer meetings. And pegging orders to purchase orders means we have been able to move more suppliers onto a Kanban approach, where they hold stocks for us and we call off on a daily basis. As to customer communications, we can make much better ‘available to promise’ commitments.”
Peter is confidently expecting more benefits from the system over the next twelve months, particularly in budgeting, partly by using ‘what if’ scenarios. Key Performance Indicators will also begin to play a more prominent role in planning and scheduling, which will help planners to recognise immediately the implications of any planning decision.
Last word from Peter: “ A great system and a marvelous group of people to work with. They really do understand our processes and are keen to help us find new ways to squeeze more out of the system.”
