CASE STUDY #1
Logistics Planning and Material Flow Analysis for H1N1 vaccines- OCI was called upon by a leading contract pharmaceutical company to establish volumetric and capacity baseline measures, material flow and develop a comprehensive internal/external plant logistics business plan in order to successfully incorporate the large increase in the manufacturing and filling of H1N1 vaccines at their facility. These vaccines were to be distributed in the US and in Europe to aid in the fight against the spread of the H1N1 virus.

OCI developed a business plan, which also included an analysis and planning model to quantify the impacts of this additional vaccine business on their resources including cold storage, labor requirements, warehousing and material handling requirements, receiving, shipping processes and intra-plant material dispositions. The model had to be flexible enough to handle the constantly changing forecasts and other production parameters and had to be developed within a short period of time. The results of the model were used to lay down the operating strategy and align the resources required to meet this challenge effectively. As part of the consulting effort, OCI also recommended staffing plans, streamlined material flow diagrams and optimal packaging configurations thereby providing a clear roadmap for the client to integrate the new business into their existing operations. OCI’s comprehensive business plan is being used today to execute the production of H1N1 vaccines and ensure timely and efficient flow of materials in the operation.

CASE STUDY #2
Automated Assembly line design and Process Re-engineering for Energy Efficient Ice Cube Machines- OCI was engaged by the leading Ice Cube Machine manufacturer in US to design an automated assembly line that could meet throughput quantities of 18,000 units/year. This volume represented a 10x increase from the current production levels and warranted an in depth review of the processes in the assembly and sub-assembly departments prior to the detailed design of the assembly line. OCI utilized Value Stream Mapping and other Lean tools to map all the processes and identified non-value added activities. OCI conducted time studies to ‘benchmark’ the Value Added Time for each process from receiving of the raw materials to shipping of the finished goods. OCI recommended ‘Quick Fixes’ to eliminate non-value added activities from the processes. To ensure that all the auxiliary operations, supporting the Assembly Line at the throughput levels of 18,000 units/year, operate uninterruptedly and in an efficient manner, OCI developed scheduling tools, provided lean training to the operators and the management, and established a continuous improvement culture.

To balance the assembly line, OCI conducted a thorough assessment of the assembly build sequence of the different ice machines SKU’s. The goal was to standardize the operations and minimize the duplication of material storage for every station. OCI implemented a build sequence which ensured equal distribution of assembly time under the required TAKT time for all the assembly stations and thus eliminated any idle time. During this process, OCI also identified sub-assemblies which can be fed to the line to reduce the build time by approximately 15%. The result was an optimal assembly line layout with an optimum balance between flexibility, throughput, and ROI.

CASE STUDY #3
Process and Conceptual Facility Design for manufacturing Wind Energy Gearboxes- OCI performed the consulting services in capacity as a Sub Contractor to an Architectural Firm. OCI evaluated the existing gearbox manufacturing process and provided recommendations to improve purchasing, inventory levels, ergonomics, and material handling for short term implementation. The goal was to provide a conceptual facility design to accommodate an exponential increase in the gearboxes during the next five (5) years. OCI analyzed different gearbox models to be manufactured and recommended the optimal number of workstations and assembly lines following a ‘Lean Flexible Production Model’ approach. Due to the weight of the finished gearboxes, that fell in the range of 35,000 lb – 100,000 lb, safe and efficient material handling was quite a challenge to achieve the desired production levels. However, OCI recommended a solution which is one of the best in industry, meet all OSHA regulations, and accommodate the required TAKT time. The recommended solution allowed the client to produce 8x the current production levels with 2x the labor cost.

CASE STUDY #4
Distribution Center Sizing, Interior Layout Design, and Implementation - OCI has been involved with several projects for this client encompassing sites located in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida. Projects have included: totally designing the interior layout for an empty industrial facility, including automated material storage and handling equipment, conveying and sorting; RFDC and related hardware and software for a WMS; upgrade and optimize the flow of material through the facilities; increase storage capacity utilization by implementing VNA configurations; and project management of the relocation and consolidation of all warehousing and material handling functions into new facility.

CASE STUDY #5
Materials Handling Review and Recommendations - Client is a food processing company whose primary products are packaged condiments, dressings and oils. OCI reviewed and prepared Baseline Measures reports for client to establish current operating standards while making short term recommendations to obtain a quick return. OCI prepared two conceptual layouts of the client’s manufacturing and distribution facility to optimize the material handling and flow through the facility. Client was experiencing tremendous growth and needed to know if the existing facility could handle the forecasted growth through the next three years. Although considerations were given to moving production and/or distribution into a new facility, the client desired to stay in the existing building. OCI provided the client with a high and low cost concept to completely re-design the interior layout of the existing facility, including automated material storage and handling equipment, automated packaging equipment, RFDC and related hardware and software for a WMS, thereby upgrading and optimizing the flow of material through the facilities, and increasing storage capacity.

CASE STUDY #6
Work Simplification of Warehouse Operations & WMS - Identified non-value-added process steps and manually intense materials handling methods that were the cause of bottlenecks and increased product cycle times. A number of process steps were eliminated and/or modified to allow for the design and implementation of an improved WMS and materials handling system. Areas evaluated included: computer systems, wave methodology, receiving, quality control, replenishment/put-away, ticketing, put system, pick system, shipping, and returns.

CASE STUDY #7
Work Simplification Study Of Blending And Packaging Operations - Developed several conceptual packaging and blending area design alternatives for a four-floor expansion to the existing six-story facility. Eliminated numerous non-value-added steps and reduced material handling by recommending improved packaging equipment and workload scheduling methods. In addition, OCI performed a customer profile analysis and recommended leveling of primary customer orders through better planning of supply chain resources.

CASE STUDY #8
Baseline Measures & Warehouse Methods Improvements - Defined Baseline Measures and critical operational criteria for developing a conceptual DC master plan design that incorporated operational improvements utilizing WMS and RFDC system technologies. The goal was to provide a complete interactive warehouse management system to manage the complex flow of material and provide the client with state-of-the-art warehouse control rather than continue use of their non-interactive, localized computer system to record material movement.

CASE STUDY #9
Site Surveys, RFP Development, and WMS Selection - Provide operations analysis and RFDCS project management services to specify and select one common WMS that will interface and support the functionality of five existing manufacturing/distribution facilities with the possibility of expanding to 8-10 facilities. Although the functionality of each location is not the same, software was not tailored to each facility operation but specifications were created to allow the more complex facility requirements to be met while allowing future flexibility for the less complex facility requirements. Information system considerations included: user workstations, bar code/RF equipment software, client/server environments, required interfaces, host operating systems and hardware configurations, network platforms and configurations, conveyance, AS/RS, sortation/diversion, printers and labels, and reporting options. This project is in the vendor selection stage based on the detailed functionality system specification prepared by OCI.

CASE STUDY #10
Operational Baseline Measures Development and Recommendations for Productivity and Operational Efficiency Improvement - Developed Baseline Measures of existing manufacturing and distribution operations for automotive after-market parts manufacturer. Upon completing onsite studies and development of Baseline Measures, OCI engineers identified a series of non-value-added process steps in packing operations and manually intense materials handling methods throughout all manufacturing and distribution operations that were the cause of bottlenecks, increased overall lead times, increased manning requirements, and growing backlogs. Although these inefficient processes were numerous, OCI concentrated on streamlining and/or automating those that presented the most attractive Return-On-Investment (less than six months), had the biggest positive impact on the most critical operations, and those that were easily and quickly deployed. Areas evaluated included: operation execution system and satellite applications, waving/picking methodology, pre-receiving and receiving procedures and information transfer, replenishment/putaway, material handling equipment and material handling techniques, labor intensive packaging operations and scheduling, and shipping documentation processing.

CASE STUDY #11
Fluid Process Material Loss Study - Developed baseline measures of existing chilled juice production operations by performing onsite studies and observations, as well as several production schedules reviews and analysis. The goal of OCI’s engagement was to reduce a material loss during production processes that accounted for approximately $1,160,000 on a yearly basis. After a total of 12 weeks of onsite efforts, OCI engineers developed Short Term recommendations offering a quick Return-On-Investment equal to 3 months with a less expensive implementation. OCI also developed a Long Term set of recommendations that offered a longer ROI equal to 5 months and a more expensive implementation. On both scenarios the ROI was less than six months without taking into account recommendations that would provide opportunities to recapture retail sales equal to three times the baselined material loss cost.