Overview
PGH Bricks & Pavers (owned by ASX-listed CSR) is one of Australia’s largest clay brick manufacturers and offers a broad range of brick products for residential and commercial construction. PGH reaches customers via a number of distributors and selection centres across QLD, NSW, VIC, and SA, and has manufacturing capabilities in each of these states.
Challenge
PGH were mostly reliant on paper-based processes, including paper checklists for quality systems. This resulting inefficiency, inaccuracy, and poor visibility led to:
● Limited (and delayed) insights into processes and data
● Difficulty making decisions quickly
● No real source of truth for the team
● Relying on operators to complete the right checks at the right time
● Double-handling the paperwork before triggering the appropriate corrective actions
● Mistrust in the data
● Difficulty keeping suppliers, teams, and leaders accountable
● Challenges with measuring ROI
To succeed with their goal to make world-class products of their customers, the PGH Bricks & Pavers team needed to make some changes.
Solution
“It took 3 weeks to go from nothing to 100% visibility, which is unbelievable, but OFS made it real!”
Rhys Hutcheon - Production Manager
PGH partnered with OFS to begin rollout at their Cecil Park site in NSW, Australia. Rhys Hutcheon, PGH Cecil Park’s Production Manager, deployed a 30-day obligation-free trial of OFS. The goal was to empower the team with digital solutions that create accurate and real-time insights over quality and productivity.
Using OFS Cloud, PGH quickly transformed site visibility with a real-time production timeline, while using paperless digital factory tools to transform quality processes.
Operators were engaged through Operator Console, where production events are logged. They quickly became excited about the new consoles, which became integrated into production processes in just a few short days. Following short training sessions, Operators were able to share their knowledge and feedback with other teams in real-time via an annotated timeline of events on OFS Timeline, easily accessed on Operator Console while on the production floor.
Outcomes
“We knew wire changes lost us time, but with OFS we can see the real cost the process had on our bottom line”
Rhys Hutcheon - Production Manager
Within 30 days of setting up OFS, PGH were able to use their new reporting capabilities to identify and implement one process change that allowed for 6-8 additional hours per week of production. This opportunity is worth an estimated $120,000 per year.
Other outcomes include:
● Quality optimization – Digitizing and optimizing quality checks gave 10 minutes per hour back to operators
● Reduced waste – Immediate feedback from quality checks led to waste reduction
● Increased visibility – The whole team have 100% visibility in order to make informed decisions, reduce costs, and increase output
● Improved tracking – PGH can now account for production time and output quality by using OFS Timeline as a source of truth in every reporting activity
● Better accuracy – Operators complete the right checks at the right time, notifying the team when corrective action is needed
● Improved OEE – With a substantial increase in operator engagement, PGH made day-on-day OEE gains and a significant improvement in production output
Combined with a driven and determined team, OFS have helped PGH Bricks & Pavers Cecil Park get set up to operate more sustainably into the future.
Looking into the future, PGH Bricks & Pavers are continuing to build on their success. Rhys is eager to empower the entire site and improve their daily decision making with real-time OFS Data.
Plus, with the results they’ve already achieved, Rhys is excited to see the solution expand beyond the Cecil Park site, and provide visibility across the entire business.
Register for a free trial
Interested in finding out what OFS could do for your business? Request a free trial to get our software and hardware at no cost (and no obligation) for 30 days. Or chat to our team to find out more.
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