Category: Food & Drink

A large commercial bakery needed to improve its ability to deliver complete orders on time to its retail customers in order to avoid performance penalties and/or lost business. The client had built-up additional finished goods inventories in an effort to improve on-time performance but slow moving items went out of date and performance did not improve.

CornerStone Approach

Following a thorough assessment, CornerStone determined that the Scheduling team was not planning the correct stockkeeping units (SKUs) and volumes to meet customer demand. Additionally, customer requirements were not well understood. Management needed to gain better control of schedules and manufacturing execution. There was no easy solution. Success could only be achieved through rigorous application of basic fundamentals: understanding customer requirements; identifying order patterns and volumes; minimising schedule variance and, therefore, SKUs.

Actions Taken

CornerStone partnered with client teams to develop and install new processes and systems that were focused on the timely manufacture of the correct product through:

• Installing an MABD (Must Arrive By Date) audit to insure that goods met the criteria in customers’ SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and correcting 75% of the destination criteria to match SLAs.
• Issuing production schedules 48 hours in advance instead of seven days. This allowed for adjustments to the schedule while keeping the changes ‘invisible’ to Manufacturing and reducing the likelihood of incorrect sales circulating.
• Categorising and managing the inventory based on: Make to Stock, Make to Order or min/max.
• Implementing a daily review of the schedule status, this facilitated timely adjustment to maintain customer requirements.

One of North America’s leading ice cream manufacturers sought to create a more demand-driven and efficient operation in the face of rising competition. CornerStone was recruited to develop a reliable demand forecasting model, analyse the client’s product portfolio and pricing, and implement production, resource, inventory and planning systems.

CornerStone Approach

CornerStone analytical professionals conducted a Discovery and Design process that identified and detailed the key issues, the specific approach required to achieve the desired results and the projected benefits. Teams were assigned to prioritised projects and redesigned critical processes.

Actions Taken

• Developed and implemented an enhanced production planning inventory control process that supported more accurate demand forecasting.
• Developed and implemented a project rationalisation and prioritisation process focused on critical projects, including those related to the enterprise resource planning system, production planning, capacity optimisation and scheduling.
• Reengineered the equipment utilisation, maintenance, changeover/set-up, sanitation and scheduling processes.
• Developed labour efficiency models for direct and indirect labour.
• Redesigned the distribution model to optimise inventory positioning, movement efficiency and transportation channels.
• Conducted a SKU (stock-keeping unit) rationalisation determining profit contribution, consumer demand, pricing, channel and portfolio breadth and content.