Slow Down, You Are Moving Too Fast

PACKAGERS AND OEMs ARE LEARNING THAT THROUGHPUT AND MAXIMUM SPEED ARE NOT ALWAYS THE SAME THING

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan

Dan Finazzo does not work in the automotive industry; his career in the packaging arena has spanned more than three decades. But in conversation he's just as likely to throw out terms like “miles per hour” or “odometer” as “system integration” or “throughput.” For Finazzo, manager of the manufacturing systems group at Lockwood Greene in Cincinnati, the four terms fit together like hand and glove.

“Say you drive to work at 100 miles per hour. See when-or if-you get there,” says Finazzo. “Or, you drive at 25 miles an hour. See how efficient that will be. Some speed between 100 and 25 is a good spot.” Finazzo says the goal on a packaging line is the same as the morning commute: to find the sweet spot where you're getting to your destination as fast as possible without problems and/or penalties.

"MACHINES TEND TO RUN IN A SWEET SPOT. IF YOUR ENTIRE LINE ISN'T FLOWING SMOOTHLY AND AT THE APPROPRIATE SPEED, THE PROBABILITY YOU'RE GOING TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THAT MACHINE IS VERY SLIM. ... WE USED TO LOOK FOR THE PREMIUM A-LEVEL MACHINE, THE CADILLAC. I THINK TODAY WE'RE LOOKING AT IT WITH A DIFFERENT SET OF EYES." -- JAY GOULIARD, GENERAL MILLS

Finazzo, who is known by some around the industry for his quip about the speed of a packaging line, often says: “Look at the odometer, not the speedometer.” He is on a mission to get the word out that decelerating is not only smart, but it's smart for business reasons. Slow, he says again and again, is the way to go. “Speed is not the right answer,” he says. “How far you travel is the right answer. What you put in the warehouse is the right answer. You wouldn't believe the number of people who are focused on the rate and not the reliability.”

In an age when technology is helping us do just about everything more quickly, it's no surprise that many attendees at packaging shows ask vendors how fast a machine can run before they inquire about throughput or efficiency. But perhaps nowhere is the old adage “haste makes waste” more appropriate than the factory floor. When packaging lines speed up, efficiency decreases, and repairs, rejects, downtime and overuse of materials all increase.

The answer isn't as simple as turning the speed to its slowest setting, either. Finazzo says there isn't a hard and fast rule for determining if and when a machine is running in its sweet spot. Rather, he says, “It is dependent on four variables that change minute-to-minute on a packaging line.” He calls these variables “the four Ps”: product, packaging materials, people and packaging machinery. “When the amount of product running through the line is consistent and is meeting the company's needs, the line has achieved its sweet spot.”

For packaging companies that understand the delicate balance between speed and efficiency, it is that elusive happy medium that is the target.

“Machines tend to run in a sweet spot,” says Jay Gouliard, vice president of packaging development at General Mills in Minneapolis. “If your entire line isn't flowing smoothly and at the appropriate speed, the probablity you're going to get the most out of that machine is very slim.”

LOOKING BEYOND THE "CADILLAC"

Gouliard says part of the whole speed equation is directly affected by the needs of today's packaging equipment users, which have changed radically. Today, flexibility is king. Often, a company is packaging for retail, club, dollar and institutional distribution channels on the same machines. Not only does a company need to be able to switch the size of its packaging on a dime, it might also need to completely change a product. So when Gouliard looks at machines, he isn't looking for as much of a long-term investment as he once did.

“We look for the right machine for the right job,” he says. “We used to look for the premium A-level machine, the Cadillac. I think today we're looking at it with a different set of eyes.” He says now he looks for packaging machinery that will most efficiently produce a new product, before even knowing how the product will fare in the marketplace. “You're seeing lifecycles of products much shorter than they've been,” he says. “And that trend is only going to continue.”

Gouliard says flexibility in case packaging is becoming more important and that many companies are pursuing the most efficient lines, not necessarily the fastest. But for each company that has made flexibility and efficiency a top priority, there are plenty of others that still want to own the fastest machine available. And that logic is dubious, according to Patrick Helm, managing partner of Cincinnati-based Manufacturing Systems Group.

“I hear people talk about speed all the time,” Helm says. “A lot of people are still buying equipment based on speed, and that's a problem. In my mind, throughput is everything. Speed is nothing.”

THE NEED FOR REDUCED SPEED

For technicians, operators and those who understand the intricacies of machines, the reasons to search for the sweet spot of packaging equipment productivity are obvious. Gouliard says when he worked at Anheuser-Busch, he found that it was more effective to run lines at lower speeds to reduce breakage and damage. “At the end of the day, you got more cases out of the door,” he says. “Even though there's always a tendency to turn the speed up.”

Tom Gillespie, automated machinery systems/packaging instructor at Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie, Minn., brings up the example of a machine that is designed “to run X parts per hour, but the boss says to speed it up to X plus 10. The reality is, if you push it and it breaks down, you'll need to repair it sooner,” he says. “From a technician's point of view, faster means more downtime and more rejects.”

"OUR MODELS USE REAL-LIFE SIMULATIONS SO YOU            DON'T HAVE TO GO OUT THERE AND EXPERIMENT            WITH MACHINES AND PRODUCTS AND FORKLIFTS.           [PACKAGERS] WANT TO GET THINGS IN AND OUT           MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN THEY DID YESTERDAY. THE           SIMULATION GIVES EVERYONE A PLATFORM TO DO           THAT. IT'S A VIRTUAL-REALITY VIEW THAT YOU CAN           WALK THROUGH. IF I WANT TO SHOW WE HAVE A           CONSTRAINT IN THE SYSTEM WHERE THINGS ARE           ACCUMULATING, I CAN ZOOM OVER TO WHERE THE           PROBLEM IS AND SEE BOXES PILING UP."           -- ROGER HULLINGER,          FLEXISM

Gillespie recalls the case of one packaging engineer who was asked to speed up the production line, even though it meant hiring four additional inspectors to handle the increased volume of rejected parts. He says the philosophy that increasing speed equates to increasing revenue is held by many in management. “But,” he says, “it's not scientifically based. The numbers show that if you slow your line down, you can increase throughput.”

Technicians often agree: Even if a machine is running at high speeds, it is impossible to sustain that for long periods before a failure occurs. If a machine is running 500 packages per minute and it is down 50 percent of the time because of repairs, then throughput is only 250 packages per minute, and the top possible speed matters little. But sometimes determining the best speed means overcoming discrepancies between management (giving orders to speed up) and those on the floor (responding that the machines would work better if they were slowed down).

“The problem is people in management who don't appreciate a machine's capability, whereas people who work directly with the machines want to see them on the slow side to keep them from wearing out,” says Marion Schafer, Ph.D., chairman of the Industrial Mechanical Technology department at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, who spent 19 years at Pillsbury.

ADJUSTING YOUR SPEEDOMETER

Finding the sweet spot isn't a matter of arbitrarily picking a speed and hoping to reach maximum efficiency. It must be based on research, according to Kevin Lipsky, automated packaging systems technician instructor at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in New Richmond, Wisc. He has seen a trend of more companies doing time studies in order to develop a predictive mode for a machine. “Just like studies that are done on the breakdown factors of machines and components,” he explains, speed studies are becoming more common. These studies are also easier to do because user-friendly control systems allow data to be collected more efficiently. It also helps when those operating the machine are well-trained and understand when it is running in an efficient and safe manner.

One increasingly popular method of determining efficient speeds is with simulation software. Flexsim Software Products, Inc., based in Orem, Utah, has developed a PC-based model that helps packagers optimize production rates, along with managing bottlenecks, determining plant capacity, balancing manufacturing lines and testing new scheduling practices. In short, the users of this software, including General Mills, Pfizer, Mattel and Bose, are simply trying to improve throughput, says Flexsim partner Roger Hullinger.

“Our models use real-life simulation so you don't have to get out there and experiment with machines and products and forklifts,” Hullinger says. “[Packagers] want to get things in and out more efficiently than they did yesterday. The simulation gives everyone a platform to do that.”

"THE REALITY IS, IF YOU PUSH [PACKAGING MACHINERY] AND IT  BREAKS DOWN, YOU'LL NEED TO REPAIR IT SOONER, FROM A TECHNICIAN'S POINT OF VIEW, FASTER MEANS MORE DOWNTIME AND MORE REJECTS. ... THE NUMBERS SHOW THAT IF YOU SLOW THE LINE DOWN, YOU CAN INCREASE THOUGHPUT."   --TOM GILLESPIE, HENNEPIN TECHNICAL COLLEGE

The software is particularly helpful for companies with packaging lines that are shut down only a couple weeks a year for maintenance. Testing new scenarios on such lines is neither cost-efficient nor practical. Using the software, however, allows engineers to tweak conveyer speed, number of machines, capacity, labor requirements and a number of other systems, all from their own desks. The modeling is done in 3-D animation, so it looks more like a video game than a spreadsheet. “It's a virtual-reality view that you can walk through or fly through,” Hullinger says. “If I want to show we have a constraint in the system where things are accumulating, I can zoom over to where the problem is and see boxes piling up.”

Hullinger also says the software, which costs $19,500 and includes three-and-a-half days of hands-on training at the packager's facility, can be used to evaluate every area of the line, even if that means speeding up one section and slowing down another.

Although software has become the method of choice for some companies trying to improve efficiencies, experts stress that human involvement is necessary in fine-tuning the operation. “Software can get to an approximation of what that sweet spot is,” says Schafer, “but it's still important to have human input.”

"I DARE ANYONE TO TAKE THEIR PACKAGING LINE AND INCREASE THEIR SPEED AND SEE IF THEY CAN GET MORE OUT OF IT. IF YOUR LINE ISN'T MEETING YOUR EXPECTATIONS, ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS IS TO SLOW IT DOWN AND MEASURE THE IMPROVEMENT. IF COMPANIES DID THAT, I'D SAY THE MAJORITY WOULD SEE AN IMPROVEMENT."   --DAN FINAZZO, LOCKWOOD GREENE

Helm says there are many approaches to determine ideal line speed. “But the best,” he says, “is to run at a speed that optimizes throughput and meets the business need.”

Unfortunately, there is no magic answer to finding the sweet spot for a piece of equipment or a full packaging line. Like many other aspects of business, it is a balancing act. “In general, it's a tradeoff,” explains Lipsky. “How big the breakdowns are versus how fast the machine can go. It's similar in motor sports. The faster you go, the bigger the costs and the higher the costs of repair.”

Which circles back to Finazzo's analogy about packaging machinery and the morning commute: Speed is great fun, but too much is wasteful, impractical and, at times, dangerous. Finazzo, in fact, has a presentation for clients called “Slow down your lines to increase your throughputs,” part of which asserts that about 90 percent of all packaging lines actually could decrease speed and increase production.

“I dare anyone to take their packing line and increase their speed and see if they can get more out of it,” Finazzo says. “If your line isn't meeting your expectations, one of the first things is to slow it down and measure the improvement. If companies did that, I'd say the majority would see an improvement.”

Melanie D.G. Kaplan writes frequently for PMT.