News Feature | March 19, 2015

Achieving Lean Manufacturing With Packaging Execution Systems

By Isaac Fletcher, contributing writer, Food Online

Lean Food Manufacturing

To get the most out of lean manufacturing initiatives, you need to extend lean efforts to packaging operations. Packaging execution systems can provide the visibility and control tools needed to achieve lean operations.

The adoption of lean manufacturing principles has proven to be an effective solution for companies looking to eliminate waste from their operations and improve supply-chain efficiency. However, lean initiatives often overlook an important operational area: packaging.

Failure to include packaging in your company’s lean efforts can lead to lower levels of optimization and an overall lower level of efficiency. Putting a packaging execution system (PES) in place, and implementing automation into the final stage of manufacturing, can help ensure your company’s lean initiatives are extended to all critical facets of operations.

Packaging operations are essential to ensuring that product delivery is optimal and that inventory fulfillment is rapidly achieved. Using a PES allows your company to access accurate information from its packaging lines to provide end-to-end production visibility — a significant factor in effective, lean manufacturing and improving productivity. PES systems grant complete control over the entire packaging line, including cameras, controllers, and printers, as well as enabling users to manage everything from a single computer interface. By gaining heightened visibility and increased control, you are able to eliminate unnecessary handling of primary or secondary packaging in addition to reducing the need for manual interventions to address problems or discrepancies throughout the packaging line.

Another key benefit afforded through use of a PES is access to reliable metrics and analytical tools that are a necessary part of applying lean initiatives throughout packaging operations. Manual data collection does not provide real-time information, which makes reaching peak performance incredibly difficult. A PES helps make the automation of changeover, inspection, and data collection possible, while granting monitoring and controlling capabilities to the user.

Central control and monitoring allows for all departments within an organization to have access to critical data relating to packaging-identification processes. This helps guarantee that the activities and operations within various departments — such as distribution, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain — fully support achieving lean manufacturing. PES further contribute to lean manufacturing by:

  • Allowing for end-to-end serialization, granting visibility
  • Enabling product traceability
  • Providing accurate data regarding which products are in which packages
  • Eliminating data entry errors that occur with manual data entry
  • Generating accurate packaging and shipping data
  • Streamlining labeling formats