IMEG was hired by an industry leading manufacturer of finishing products to assist with the standardization of cut material that flows through their production processes.
THE PROBLEM
Sheets of raw material cut in sizes based on what was needed
Scraps of material leftover in unusable sizes
Scraped material estimated to be 33% of all purchased raw material
Raw material jumbo sheets came in a variety of widths
Cut materials feed multiple work centers with various machine width tolerances
Cut materials feed various finished good products with a variety of widths
THE PLAN
Identify usage and demand of each raw material
Map material flow for each finished good through its work process machines
Commonize raw material widths
Identify standard cut material size for each work center
Analyze inventory cost changes due to reduction of scrapped and unusable material
Identify material storage and material handling for new standard cut material
THE RESULTS
Standardize raw material jumbo sheets to a 54" roll as 60% of current demand to the raw material raw material are 54" rolls
Standardized cut material rolls to 18" as it is easily divisible into 54, and covers a wide range of additional cuts into smaller finished good material sizes
Planned cutting process for unique sized cut products with large demand
Reduced raw material scrap to 3.15%
Identified new supermarket storage plan and location for the standard cut rolls using current racking
Designed a mock-up cart for material handling of the cut rolls
Plan to assist with implementation of the new standard material across the facility