Integrating a new plant or process into an existing site and supply chain allows a new asset to operate efficiently and indeed may be expected to deliver operational improvements and savings to the business wider than the specific bottom line benefit of the new plant.

Through our sister organisation HFL-CI, an Operational Excellence consultancy, we are able to think beyond the box when it comes to designing a new plant. By considering the Operational Design or Philosophy (such as campaign or batch sizes, production planning philosophy, changeover times, frequency of deliveries, single piece flow) at the design stage there may be significant opportunities to:

• Reduce production lead time
• Increase capacity
• Cut inventory
• Increase On Time In Full (OTIF) deliveries
• Reduce plant footprint
• Increase production flexibility
• Make new plant more resilient.

Operational Design is the natural evolution of many aspects of Lean tools and techniques. This can be applied at any point in a plant’s life cycle, but doing so at the beginning increases the number and size of opportunities at a much lower cost.

Capacity Modelling can help inform design decisions and assess the impact of different Operational Philosophies and other variables such as reliability, change overtimes and Overall Equipment Performance (OEE).

By way of examples:

• Operational Design and modelling for a drinks manufacturer leading to significant capital cost reductions (7 figure saving) and increased operational flexibility giving reduced work in progress and less waste
• Operational Design and inventory holding analysis for a petrochemicals site leading to an improved new plant specification which ensured customer demands and supply would be met
• A plant layout design and review for a component manufacturer leading to a fundamental change to their Operational Design significantly reducing WIP and lead times
• A mapping activity in an FMCG supply chain to assess current Operational Design which started initiatives and capital projects that reduced inventory and improved the supply chain leading to multi million pound savings annually
• A Value Stream Mapping activity for a gas packing site leading to a change in Operational Design and stock holding approach which delivered increases in OTIF deliveries and reduced customer delivery times with reduced production disruption and overtime.