A ~$10B global business unit for a Fortune 200 company producing and selling productivity and protective equipment was unable to meet demand (backlog up 750%, mostly in North America) during COVID-19. The processes for manufacturing masks were very manual and costly. Hiring new operators was difficult, with a high turnover.
Services Provided
Working collaboratively with the client, the team:
- Enabled the business strategy using capacity planning and cost analysis.
- Optimized the manual processes to reduce costs by increasing capacity.
- Designed and implemented three automated sites that increased capacity and reduced the number of required resources.
- Closed two manual facilities and reallocated work to automated sites.
- Designed and launched a semi-automated site for surgical masks.
Results
The client realized a 400% efficiency gain and doubled capacity.
- The automated sites required three FTEs to run a manufacturing cell versus the manual cell needing 20+ FTEs.
- Semi-automated site went from 0 to 4 million masks produced daily in less than six months.
- Reduced the number of late orders to zero.
- Realized 40% sales growth.
- The sites were set up in an accelerated timeline to support the demand during COVID.
