Berner Foods Drives Performance Improvement with New RPM System
09/26/05
Berner Foods drives performance improvement with new RPM system
With increased demand pushing Berner Foods to the point of capacity, the Illinois-based manufacturer is implementing mvi technology’s eventsengine® real-time performance management (RPM) system to help it exploit efficiency opportunities through improved rate, yield and utilization.
Berner Foods specializes in serving the US national market with a variety of processed cheese and snack dip food products manufactured at its state-of-the-art facilities in Dakota Illinois.
With entrepreneurial beginnings as a Swiss cheese maker dating back 60 years, the company now employs over 200 staff and turns over $75 million. Its customers range from supermarkets and mass merchandisers to dollar stores and specialty food distributors.
Increased demand and plans for innovative new product launches meant Berner was faced with an increasingly complex SKU mix. The company, which has an ambitious five-year growth plan, wanted to improve throughput efficiencies and reduce performance variances - cutting changeover times, unplanned downtime and minor stoppages, as well as reducing re-work and waste. However, with no efficient or reliable system for collecting data, the company was unable to identify the specific areas for performance opportunities.
Berner Foods’ president, Steve Kneubuehl, says, “Our manual systems meant supervisors had to spend time collecting data and managing paperwork when they could have been interpreting and acting on the information instead. Inevitably that led to a plateau in our performance improvement”
After an extensive evaluation of system suppliers, Berner selected the eventsengine RPM system from Miami-based mvi technology - the company, which packs its product in jars, cups, bowls and aerosol containers, is installing the system across the entire process division.
Troy Grove (business IT director) who led the evaluation: “mvi emerged very quickly as the front-runner - the software was ‘out-of-the-box’, so we considered it to be the most robust solution and the one that offered the least risk. They also had a very methodical implementation model, which not only educated and trained the workforce but got the ‘buy-in’ of everybody involved - that was essential if the project was to be a real success.”
The eventsengine system allows performance data (including information on operator behavior) captured at the shopfloor level to be instantly visible via a KPI dashboard, alerting the operators to take any necessary remedial action, as well as feeding back real-time measurements against performance targets. It allows organizations to adopt a visual management approach - the information is accessible via a web browser elsewhere in the company and is role based to ensure information is deployed in the right manner to the right people at the right time. From a strategic perspective the information is modeled in a way that enables organizations to identify specific opportunities for improvement through ‘slice and dice’ and ‘what if’ analysis on a continuous basis.
Kneubuehl believes the system will deliver significant benefits, not only in the additional capacity it will generate, but through improvements in gross margin, on-time delivery and more competitive pricing, driving further sales: “The eventsengine system provides a granularity of information that allows us to drive real improvement in the business. We’ve already identified the potential for a 20 percent improvement in efficiency in the first year - that’s equivalent to four million extra jars of product. What’s more, with eventsengine, the changes are sustainable - we see it facilitating a step change in our company culture and it is already contributing positively to the morale and motivation of the workforce.”
mvi technology
Established in 1991, mvi technology is based in Miami FL, with offices in the UK. The company specializes in IT based solutions for the automotive, food and drink, packaged consumer goods, pharmaceutical and forest product sectors. Customers include Toyota, Gillette, Marsan Foods, Northern Foods, Kerry Foods, Corus Automotive, Associated British Foods, Calypso Foods, Manor Bakeries, Allied Bakeries, Amtico Flooring, Kimberly Clark, Mondi Paper and Genentech.
Through its real-time performance management (RPM) system, eventsengine®, mvi technology helps organizations improve the effectiveness of their business processes within the production, operations and maintenance functions.
Unlike conventional data collection systems, eventsengine® is built around what people actually do in the workplace, collecting data around their normal mode of working and providing managers with absolute visibility, rather than basic performance measurement – it is a real management system that allows users to act on the information they capture (rather than just capturing the information) and to do so in real time.
eventsengine® is designed to support manufacturing best practice and lean manufacturing processes, allowing users to concentrate on sustainable business improvement rather than worrying about the supporting information technology.
The system is simple to implement and to use, and by employing results-driven measurement and analysis tools, mvi’s prime focus is to deliver customers a return way beyond the original investment – typically inside three months.
Steve Lipscombe Tel : +44 (0) 20 8249 6023
RONIN Marketing Limited e-mail : stevel@roninmarketing.co.uk
mvi technology e-mail : marks@mvi.co.uk
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