Regulars / Continuous improvement | 29Equipment investment for continuous improvement strategiesLabel converters should start with a simple investment before looking for larger, more complex equipment, writes continuous improvement columnist Paul Braussll organizations with a continuous parts that were so specialized that many “A much more improvement conviction have future of the competitors could not step up to equipment investment planning as the ability.Apalatable low-risk part of its strategy. Nothing is more exciting Our sales team was excited about the equipment investment to a production operation than bringing in added competitive differentiation, our a new piece of equipment. The operational manufacturing group was excited about strategy begins with a employees see this as a commitment to new equipment, and as a project engineer, the company and their futures. The sales I could not have been more excited to have detailed evaluation of force considers this an opportunity to the responsibility of making this happen. remain competitive or become even more As with highly specialized equipment, the current capacity competitive with the offering. I understood the lengthy lead time for Selecting the equipment in concert with delivery. I began to worry a little about the that can improve with the overall company strategy is essential. larger footprint of the new equipment and Is the equipment required to provide the long lead time for installation. I started more straightforward better productivity, enhanced capability, to panic when the operators were not equipment”solve old equipment cost of maintenance, catching on to the operational training for or automate operations that free up the equipment.people and open capacity hours? These The complexity added ‘time to materials and process fow so that the are essential questions as they drive the market,’ and running late on the project machine only worked on extremely long decision process. commitments drove extreme pressure on runs. In the end, we increased the uptime In many companies, the opportunity everyone. I began to believe I could not with output levels meeting fnancial to acquire new equipment does not meet the objective and the project would projections—something I could have come very often. The justifcation not be successful. quickly done with a much less complicated process is arduous, and the selection We marshaled through the and costly piece of equipment.process brings out opinions from every commissioning and began producing good I speak of this now because many facet of the organization. When this parts, relieving much of the pressure a converters went through a capital spending happens, there is often a debate about start-up of new equipment receives. After cycle a few years ago. They acquired new revenue generation commitments, commissioning, I spent time with the equipment with increased decorating as these added capabilities drive up the machine in operation without watchful capability because of perceived higher cost of the equipment. eyes. I worked with scheduling, designed margin opportunities of high value-added run speeds, developed setup sheets, and labels. Many of these added equipment Speaking from experience studied the device’s success. It took me features have now been in place for over a Early in my career, I was often involved in about six months to realize that we had year without being used. Adding complex this seesaw battle as a project engineer, and made a wrong purchasing decision. equipment to an operation demands that looking to gain consensus, I helped design Our desire to add the capability for the equipment be run and utilized. This confgurations that answered the need for the future overshadowed our focus on constant need impacts operational focus.today but with the capability to address the simplifcation and improvement in the Further study outlines the sales future based on sales projections. present. Instead of decreasing the setup organizations of these companies could not I’ll never forget the opportunity to time, the complexity added to the setup sell the perceived value. Many converters replace machine center fabrication time. The machining center went from 58 struggle to maintain existing margins, let equipment used in our manufacturing percent uptime to 38 percent uptime. Worse alone increase margins against larger foes process. After months of review, capital yet, the new capability did not bring in willing to leverage size and reduce prices. justifcation scenarios, and a drive to gain added sales because the sales strategy did Gaps in technical capability surfaced in the consensus, we selected and acquired a not align with the manufacturing strategy. shops looking to operate the new complex machine with fve-axis capabilities to cut I spent six months realigning the bill of equipment uncovering new resource Oct - Dec 2022