Australian label printer Insignia says it has increased its productivity by 20% since installing a real-time shopfloor data collection system from Kingston Data Systems (KDS).
The flexo-based operation was looking for better production data that would enable it to maximise productivity and reduce waste. It implemented numerous manual improvement plans to better manage its processes but while these yielded “modest improvements”, they failed to address the fundamental issue: the lack of real-time visibility.
“It became obvious to us that we needed real-time data from the shop floor,” said Evan Powell, head of operations at the company, which has sites in Melbourne and Brisbane.
Insignia looked at software options to solve the problem, and after a review it chose the KDS Quantum system, installing “Efficiency Management Unit” (EMU) hardware on its flexo presses and finishing equipment. It was important the system could interface with the company’s MIS system, enabling comparison of actual manufacturing performance with the planning estimates on each individual job.
The EMUs track critical manufacturing metrics including machine speed, material consumption, and other machine activity, while providing real-time visibility of job progress to managers around the plants. Job estimates and operating parameters are downloaded from Insignia’s MIS system into the units, allowing job performance to be continually tracked.
Mr Powell emphasised the critical role of staff engagement in the successful implementation of the system. “We focused the conversation with operators and production managers around the increased visibility that we would be getting from Quantum so all involved staff could assist with increasing uptime and supporting the operators complete the job efficiently. We also made sure we were working with the operators correctly recording production issues and downtime. This way we had far better insights into what was causing these problems and how the floor as a whole could support and help the machine operators.”
Within six weeks of operation, Insignia saw a 20% increase in productivity across the two manufacturing sites.
“The immediate changes we saw were around increased press speed, with operators more focused on the press running speed and job time and material targets. As a business, we run a lineal metres per hour KPI for the team and we saw an immediate jump in this through increased up time and press speeds. Ensuring production managers then followed up with staff and had meaningful conversations around good days, bad days, down time and support meant that there was sufficient focus and tension within the team to continue performing at this improved level of efficiency,” said Mr Powell.
Management at Insignia has also focused on driving conversations around the manufacturing data collected and the insights this provides. “This is where the real value is realised,” he added.
