Food Facility Operations Improvement Study

Our food client sought out CRB’s operations improvement services to increase production throughput and determine the impact that would have on warehouse sizing. We evaluated two separate manufacturing buildings and three warehouses to create a strategic plan that would allow the client to meet increased demands while limiting capital spending.

Our team shadowed activities and operations at the site to develop block flow diagrams (BFDs) and a discrete event simulation model. This model was validated and used to run ‘what-if’ scenarios.

Key recommendations included:

• Install inline grinder to reduce the number of sugar types used, which would reduce the on-hand inventory and warehouse space by 200 pallet locations
• New semi-automated bag dumping operations
• New production line to reduce cleaning/start-up time on the main production lines

Results:

• $9.8 million increase in revenue
• Capital investment of less than $ 1.8 million to achieve this increase
• More than $150K in headcount cost avoidance annually by repurposing staff
• More than 70 different improvement opportunities were provided
• More than 700 SKUs were modeled