Client profile
European premium spirits glass producer — 2 furnaces, 6 forming lines, ~280 TPD, premium SKU mix supplying multinational spirits brand owners. Anonymised under NDA.
The problem
Baseline average changeover time of 14h 20min. Cross-shift variance of 38%. First-hour yield (saleable / produced in first 60 minutes after restart) at 62%. Sales had three large-volume SKU contracts up for renegotiation that hinged on lead-time commitments the plant couldn't reliably make. The CEO had received quotes from two OEM-tied consultancies; both proposals included substantial equipment recommendations.
What we found
Three weeks of video study and operator interviews surfaced four root causes. (1) Mould preheat varied from 90 to 240 minutes across crews; the hottest preheat ovens were prioritised by senior crews. (2) Plunger setup standards per SKU were captured on paper checklists in three different formats across shifts. (3) Forehearth setpoints were re-discovered each restart rather than pre-calculated. (4) First-ware quality was tracked anecdotally; no dashboard, no closure of the loop. Equipment was not the constraint; tribal knowledge and execution discipline were.
What we did
Built the SKU Library for the 8 highest-volume SKUs and put it on a tablet at every workstation. Installed Live Execution with role cards for mould changer, IS operator, forehearth, QA. Wired KPI Tracking to the changeover process: changeover time, first-hour yield, percent-pack, defect mix. Drafted the 9-stage Lifecycle standard with the crews. Piloted on Line 2 for 5 weeks; rolled out to the remaining 5 lines over 9 weeks. Internal coaches led the last 3 lines.