The pack-house wakes up to the production plan prepared the previous day. We all have the plan. It is on the computers, on the pack-house screens, and on the supervisors’ and coordinators’ tablets.
The start of the day is usually simple. The first packing runs are often repeats from previous days, destined for the same regular customers. These are the first orders that will be loaded onto the trucks. A good portion of the production was already advanced yesterday.
Generally, first thing in the morning, there are few decisions to make, so I take the opportunity to check if the lines are running at the planned speed. If there are deviations, I try to understand the problem and its root cause. Is it a breakdown, an incident, or a lack of raw material flow for a specific order?
Thanks to real-time information, I have learned that when an order is split across several production lines and there is a lack of raw material flow, it is better to stop one line. This saves energy, and the staff can support grading or manual packing. I once stopped two lines, and we finished at the same estimated time as when all of them were running.
Before, every change was communicated by writing on paper by hand, and we sometimes made mistakes in writing or reading. Now, everything is on the computer, and everyone knows which order they have to pack and which one will be next, so packing materials can be prepared well in advance.
We have a dashboard with information on all the lines in the pack-house, which can be viewed even from outside the facility. It took us a little while to get used to it, but it is very useful. When an order begins to fall behind beyond a certain threshold, it shows up in red, and if it is ahead of schedule, in green.
The noise in the pack-house office has also been reduced, because people no longer have to notify us that they are doing the last pallet of an order, nor come to collect the slip of paper with the next production order. Before, the landline and mobile phones rang non-stop.
We have learned that the best plan is not the one made by the planner, but the one made by the planner when incorporating suggestions from the production supervisors, who know the status of the staff and the machines. Although we have several lines that are “identical,” in reality, they operate with small differences, and sometimes large ones. Even though the supervisors are very busy, they are interested in reviewing the plan because almost every day they propose some small change that increases our productivity.
Around noon, things get complicated because new orders arrive that have to be loaded that same afternoon. I do not understand why they cannot order the day before like other customers do, but it is what it is.
I have planned for some of those orders before receiving them, although I am not always right, and every day I have to tweak a few things. Before, I made immediate decisions when new orders arrived for fear of not finishing them on time. Now that I have all the information and schedule slots for those “unknown” orders, I have realized that I can stop to think and use the planning system to create alternative plans. What bothers me the most is when I have to change the variety plan for the day. It involves a huge group of lines and takes a few more minutes of work.
It is also the time to pull forward orders for the next day, which I can start producing today. This is a huge opportunity to optimize the pack-house’s productivity.
Before finishing the shift, it is time to prepare the plan for the following day. Yes, tomorrow we will start in a similar way.
If your daily life is not like this, and you are deciding which order to produce next while the last pallet of the current order is being packed, you need The Fresh Planner.
