EYE ON INNOVATION
LEAN INITIATIVES PROMOTE BETTER BUSINESS
PACK EXPO showcases new products and technology for efficiency and productivity.
Many products and services have been introduced in recent years to help consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies create and sustain a lean manufacturing environment, especially in their packaging operations. From software tools to measure overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to increased machine automation and quick changeovers, CPGs have a variety of means available to choose their own route to lean. Many of these technologies will be featured at PACK EXPO 2009 (Oct. 5–7; Las Vegas Convention Center).
“Lean manufacturing in its truest form is the elimination of waste along the production process—anything from quality losses and productivity losses, all the way to losses due to the use of excess human resources,” confirms Paul Mancini, software evangelist at Zarpac Performance Index (ZPI), a subsidiary of Zarpac Inc., Oakville, Ont., (Booth C-202). “Being lean is primarily concerned with producing as many outputs as possible with the least amount of inputs. Very simply, it is making more with less.”
ZPI has produced software to measure and validate plant performance since 1999. ZPI software connects to machinery’s programmable logic controller (PLC), polls the machines for production data and then populates a database with this information. Data is collected 24/7, 365 days a year.
“The data we collect drives the lean decision-making process by identifying specific areas of improvement, such as quality, availability or downtime, sustainability or excess energy usage, or even excess labor,” explains Mancini. “In a recent success with a client, we saw productivity improve by 25 percent using the ZPI software. Reducing the amount of time it takes to make a product, or reducing the barriers to production, is what lean is all about.”
The ZPI system includes overall equipment effectiveness reporting as one of its many tools. “OEE in its truest form is a retrospective metric—that is to say, it tells you how well you did, not how to do better,” he explains. “OEE was conceived as a way of tracking and comparing performance, but was not intended as a metric for improvement.”
ZPI’s iOEE (intelligent OEE) software takes the OEE metric basis (availability, performance and quality) and gives detailed reasons why a company is not reaching its desired OEE targets. “Say, for argument’s sake, my availability is 75 percent, my performance is 90 percent and my quality is 95 percent. I can get details as to why each of those measurement factors is not 100 percent. Essentially, we’ve made iOEE into a bottleneck identification and elimination tool—one of the core elements of a lean manufacturing system,” Mancini says.
At PACK EXPO, ZPI will demonstrate its “Stealth” self-contained portable data collection and analysis unit. Stealth can benchmark machine utilization and interrogate assets to quickly pinpoint areas for focused improvement, all from a non-intrusive, highly mobile unit. A three-sensor setup can obtain information from any discrete asset anywhere on the plant floor; a PLC is not required. The Stealth can be ordered with an optional integrated event analysis video camera.
Automation Upgrades Machinery
Increasing packaging machinery efficiency, while decreasing operator involvement, is a lean-thinking goal for automation. Schneider Electric’s ELAU Packaging Solutions, Schaumburg, Ill., (Booth S-5254) will address lean initiatives at PACK EXPO with the new P4 delta 3 robot arm mechanics. The P4 robot is designed for high-speed pick-and-place packaging machines with payloads of up to 1.5 kg. An optional rotary axis increases freedom of movement. The drive housing, arms and end effector mounting plate are all constructed of stainless steel, and P4s model is IP 65 rated for washdown duty. The P4i replaces conventional servo drives with Intelligent Servo Modules that save cabinet space and simplify cabling for non-washdown applications. With the addition of vision, the P4 can be utilized for pick-and-place applications with random and/or mixed product infeed; the robot is compatible with all standard vision systems.
Schneider Electric’s ELAU Packaging Solutions is credited with being the first automation supplier to enable mechatronics in packaging machine design and, more recently, with introducing modularity to machine automation. The Intelligent Servo Modules mentioned above are the most recent advance in modularity. The PacDrive™ iSH Series of Intelligent Servo Modules goes beyond the limits of conventional servo motors, drives and actuators by increasing machine performance and flexibility. With the product, Schneider Electric’s ELAU Packaging Solutions enables machinery designers to more effectively address lean manufacturing strategies. Instead of mounting servo drives in a cabinet or mounting power supplies on the motors, the iSH Series provides a centralized power supply and a single hybrid cable and interconnect.
According to John Kowal, global marketing manager, Schneider Electric’s ELAU Packaging Solutions, packaging machinery has long been overlooked compared with manufacturing operations when it comes to lean implementation. “Packaging operations are an overlooked asset,” he believes. “But it takes a holistic approach to get the most out of existing and new investments in packaging lines.” He says packaging machinery should achieve two goals: consistency, with no necessary tweaking or unwanted surprises and short downtimes.
Changeovers Conform to Lean Principles
Consistent outcomes and short downtimes for customers are the driving forces at Septimatech Group Inc., Waterloo, Ont., (Booth C-3031). The company is recognized for its world class manufacturing change parts and accessories. The RXNT (Rapid Exchange No Tool) change parts consist of nucleus parts, which are timed only once at installation on the machine, and satellite parts which can be installed on only one nucleus, virtually eliminating the possibility of mistakes.
According to Jim O’Keefe, vice president marketing & sales, the parts are also lightweight, reducing the possibility of strains and injuries. He says RXNT benefits a company financially by reducing overtime hours caused by excessive downtime. Since any person can perform the changeover without tools, mechanics are freed to perform routine preventive maintenance and troubleshoot problems elsewhere in the plant.
Septimatech’s Custom Storage Concepts, movable carts that hold the change parts, epitomize the 5S goals of Sort, Simplify, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. “The operator can readily see if a part is missing from the cart,” O’Keefe says.
O’Keefe understands the financial gains that can be realized from minimizing necessary downtime on the packaging line. As he explains, just 10 minutes of lost production time on one eight-hour shift per day, running 300 containers per minute, five days a week equates to 15,000 containers each week—780,000 containers per year.
Of all the machines on a packaging line, O’Keefe points out, guide rails are probably the most difficult to change over. In response, Septimatech also offers the Unison Guide Rail Adjustment Solution. The Unison facilitates rapid line changeover with consistent, accurate and repeatable set-up. The guide rails adjust in seconds and can be retrofitted to existing conveyor systems. Up to 80 feet of guide rails can be changed from a single position without pneumatics, including S bends, crossovers and corners.
Because sustainability and lean manufacturing both emphasize the elimination of waste and maximization of efficiency, the two initiatives tend to blur together. Yet each is a valid and vital business strategy on its own, especially in packaging operations, as a recent report illustrates.
Looking across a broad spectrum of the packaging landscape is a brief issued by the ARC Advisory Group, Dedham, Mass., in November 2008. A research and advisory firm for the manufacturing and supply chain industry sectors, ARC frequently focuses on the packaging function. Its November 2008 report, “Packaging Automation: Centerpiece for CPG Business Strategies,” recommends OEE measurements, such as those done by ZPI products, as a way to monetize Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of any machinery investment.
“Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a quality initiative that monitors feedback to help packagers understand how efficient their packaging lines are and to maximize the time making good product,” the report states. “It’s a time-proven manufacturing process that’s finally catching on in packaging. There’s a sustainability message here, too: less downtime equals greater energy efficiency, while making good product equals wasting fewer resources.”
The report’s authors also laud Schneider Electric’s ELAU Packaging Solutions for its pioneering efforts on mechatronics. Lamenting the fact that so few OEMs have embraced servo drives and controls systems, the brief singles out a few packaging equipment manufacturers who have succeeded with mechatronic systems.
For example, Pro Pack Systems, Salinas, Calif., (Booth S-5226) uses delta robots to replace fixed automation for its case packers. IMA North America, Bristol, Pa., (Booth C-1819) relies upon robotic algorithms for its case packers to optimize the servo motion of the pusher while automating setup of the pusher, flap tucker and lug chain. The Modu C capsule filler from Harro Hofliger Packaging Systems, Doylestown, Pa., (Booth S-5033) allows plug-and-play installation of servo-driven dosing units. Also cited for its use of mechatronics is Optima Machinery Corp., Green Bay, Wis., (Booth C-3807).
“Mechatronic machine designs continue to offer the lowest TCO, as their streamlined mechanics are the most energy-efficient, highest reliability machinery on the market,” the ARC brief states. “By reducing intermediate conveyance and accumulation stages, the overall footprint of the machinery has been reduced significantly.”
The report concludes with a recommendation that CPGs investigate machinery introductions made at the U.S.’s major packaging machinery shows, such as PACK EXPO, for innovations in materials and package design as well as increased equipment performance to sustain a lean enterprise.
