Term Project 2
Juice-Perfect’ Manufacturing Strategy & Operations:
Unplanned Downtime Reduction
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Company Background
Juice-Perfect, a California-based juice manufacturing company, has 6 manufacturing plants around the
US that produce various sizes and flavor of juices and smoothies. In recent years, management noticed
that Juice-Perfect’s market share has been decreasing due to its inability to sustain the level of
expectations and market demands. A group of internal analysts conducted a thorough investigation of
the root causes of the performance decline and published a report that identified problems in Juice-
Perfect’s manufacturing and supply chain operations as the critical factors. In response, leadership at
the company decided to contract a team to help identify improvement areas in their supply chain and
propose a plan to reform the manufacturing processes across all plants. Management has decided to
pilot the changes on the packaging lines only at one of the plants. Using internal performance metrics
(Exhibit A) Juice-Perfect want to identify the worst performing plant in their network. With an aim to
boost the day-to-day operations of this plant, Juice-Perfect is asking us to uncover pain points within the
plant’s filling/packaging line and recommend improvement strategies that they would be able to
implement nationwide.
Juice-Perfect’ Manufacturing Supply Chain Operations
Juice-Perfect employs industry-regulated manufacturing strategies uniformly across all locations. The
manufacturing process, employed by Juice-Perfect, is based on a standard beverage manufacturing
procedure. The complex manufacturing process can be broken down into two main areas: Upstream
Production (which will be called, “production”) and Filling/Packaging. The three manufacturing
capabilities that govern the performance of the Filling/Packaging operations are: raw material
management, asset management and factory efficiency. To ensure the efficient plant operations, the
three main interconnected manufacturing capabilities will have to be managed practically and
economically.
Raw Material Management
The manufacturing process consists of several main steps leading to juices being filled in bottles/cartons
and packed. The first step is “Raw Material Processing” in which raw materials are procured, sorted and
processed, to prepare them for production. The processed materials (products) are then staged at the
packaging lines based on order requirements and other raw material availability. The produced juices
are then filled into the assigned containers and sealed. Once this is complete, the finished products are
packaged in different configurations depending on order requirements.
Since the Filling/Packaging lines operate independently from the production processes, Juice-Perfect has
separate teams in charge of operations and packaging material procurement, inventory management,
production planning/forecasting, personnel training, assets maintenance and shipments oversight. Due
to the complexity and the fast-pace of the manufacturing process, Juice-Perfect needs to optimize the
acquisition of packaging raw materials from the vendor. Juice-Perfect acquires a variety of packaging
products (different sizes of bottles/cartons, caps and label wrappers) to provide its current offerings to
its customers which include three different sizes of bottles or cartons: large, medium, and small that
would hold 2 different products: pure fruit juice and smoothies. Of those variations, there are 10
different flavors of fruit juices and 7 combinations of smoothies. It is also imperative that the
communication between functional teams, operating in the upstream processes and the packaging lines,
must be seamless to effectively manage, forecast and maintain inventory levels of packaging containers
and perishable produced goods.
Asset Management
Production not only relies heavily on sales forecasting, market demand, and a thorough analysis of the
historical performance data but also on well-predicted and executed asset maintenance. These aspects,
and personnel involved, must work together synchronously. An efficient asset maintenance plan must
be created and executed around production plans and take into consideration the level of technical
expertise and the time it takes to perform the best-standard practices. Mismanagement in these areas
could result in devastating results. For an instance, during one of the peak demand periods, predictive
maintenance by the asset maintenance team failed because spare parts were not stocked in inventory.
This led to inaccurate equipment repair history, material costs, wasted product and varying degrees of
downtime. Lost production time was not the only repercussion of this oversight; significant orders were
cancelled. As a preventative measure to mitigate unexpected downtime, Juice-Perfect needs to develop
a robust strategy for the asset management program. Production and maintenance operators need to
be assigned to each process line effectively, responsible for prioritizing work according to the production
plan and manage the transfer of workstream.
As described, Juice-Perfect’ manufacturing processes are very complicated. There may be various issues
and aberrations that may detract from the performance of the network of manufacturing plants. Juice-
Perfect wants the consulting team to identify key operational improvement opportunities based on the
data given and a thorough research of industry trends/standards as well as provide strategic
recommendations to be nationally implemented and elevate the company’s overall performance.
DRAFT DATA EXHIBITS
- Yearly Performance Overview
- Inventory Delays
- Maintenance Schedule
- Process Flow Chart
- Facility Layout
- Maintenance Day Planning and Execution
Report Submission Format
- Each team must submit a report containing no more than eleven total slides that are developed as if the team is presenting their proposal to the instructor. The eleven slides may be developed in any presentation software (e.g. PowerPoint), but must be converted into PDF format (4 slides in each page). Original presentation files are not eligible, only the PDF version. The judges scoring sheet identifies that the first required slide is a title slide, and the second required slide is an executive summary overview to start the presentation. Similarly, the presentation will finish with an 11th slide for results and conclusions. There is no need for a thank you or questions slide at the end.
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