Client profile
Latin American beer glass producer — 1 furnace, 5 forming lines, ~420 TPD, supplying domestic beer market plus regional export. Anonymised under NDA.
The problem
Baseline OEE of 72%. Cross-shift variance on Line 3 (the highest-volume line) of 18 percentage points between best and worst shift. Pack-to-melt at 81%. Persistent settle-wave defect mode that the forming team had been chasing for 9 months without resolution. The plant had been told by an OEM-tied consultancy that the path forward was a $4.2M mould-cooling capex programme.
What we found
The settle-wave defect was a forehearth issue, not a forming issue — riser air imbalance at zones 3 and 5 on Line 3 was the root cause. The cross-shift variance traced to absent Leader Standard Work: no daily KPI huddle, no documented escalation paths, defect closure rate at 27%. The mould-cooling capex was unnecessary; the operational findings would deliver more.
What we did
Hot end audit week 1–2; findings workshop week 3. Re-tuned forehearth riser air across all 5 lines (zero capex, 4 days of work). Installed daily T1/T2/T3 huddle cadence and Leader Standard Work for shift leader, supervisor, hot-end superintendent and plant manager. Built KPI ownership matrix and escalation register. Coached for 8 weeks; internal coaches led the final 4 weeks.