Personal Care Products Production Efficiency
This consultant was retained by a firm in Boston providing Input-Output studies for a major manufacturer of personal care products. The consultant's role was to provide technical support and conduct studies on the production efficiency of the manufacturer's plants in the United States.
At the time the manufacturer operated four plants in the United States including two plants on the East Coast, one in the Midwest and one on the West Coast. From these plants a large array of personal care products were manufactured, packaged and shipped. These products included home laundry products, oral care products, soaps and detergents. The manufacturer also operated a major research facility on the East Coast and leased corporate offices in New York City. The firm had recently promoted a new CEO and management team and they demanded a complete review of all operations.
This consultant gathered a team of process and mechanical experts with extensive experience in the manufacture of personal care products. They visited the plants and reviewed manufacturing and packaging operations. This consultant personally also visited two of the plants, the research facilities and the corporate offices where interviews of management, research and plant personnel were conducted on many levels. The teams were afforded complete access to company operations and personnel and were even given use the president's helicopter to travel from site to site.
The team provided detailed production data to the Input-Output studies. In addition, they were able to identify a number of manufacturing problems that were causing major inefficiencies in production. One of the major bottlenecks involved short production runs and frequent product changes resulting in down time and extra labor costs. Computer studies showed the effects of current production practices and solutions to these problems.
The Input-Output Studies provided production, transportation and distribution models of the entire United States operations of the client firm and resulted in major reorganization of the United States manufacturing systems, closing of one plant and rearrangement of product manufacturing sites.
As a follow up to the original study, the management of the manufacturing firm hired this consultant directly to recommend best practices for manufacturing of products in plants in the United States. A detailed review of manufacturing and packaging operations was conducted to recommend elimination of production inefficiencies and upgrades to best practice.
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