VIP Steel Invests in Technology to Drive Efficiency Gains

Australian and Asia-Pacific manufacturers seeking a low-cost approach to commencing a dialogue on continuous improvement with their operators should examine OFS.

The OFS vision is for all manufactured products to be better made, with less effort and less waste. OFS software is widely used across dozens of different industries to increase manufacturing efficiencies and manufacturing profits.  

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, 31 AUG 2015 - Operations Feedback Systems (OFS) a leading provider of real time productivity improvement software, announced today that VIP Steel is deploying the OFS Software Suite to its state of the art Drum and Pail manufacturing facility in Truganina.

The VIP Steel Drum and Pail making operation at Truganina is on track to doubling output, with no additional capital expenditure. The timing of an OFS project was critical, with new business  creating a need to increase capacity through direct efficiency gains.

“Our objective is to benchmark ourselves against the best in the world and then beat the benchmark”, says Mr. Ben Andrews, Operations Manager at Truganina. “This means having the courage to challenge ourselves every day, because it’s the only way we can plot a path to where we need to be."

Australian manufacturers poor record of embracing technology to drive efficiency is costing the nation billions of dollars in lost opportunity. According to a recent report by McKinsey & Co, manufacturers actually discard up to 99% of their data before decision makers ever have a chance to use it.

There are numerous opportunities for Australian manufacturers to become more efficient in very simple, inexpensive ways. For example, reviewing operating procedures, reducing changeover times, or identifying and improving under-performing assets can all yield tremendous returns with little or no capital requirements.

“In some ways, we had to be a little brave to get OFS installed,”, says Mr. Andrews. “Manufacturing businesses like to approve capex for items that have direct, hard returns, such as a robot that directly reduces labour or a new piece of tooling to improve yield. The thing is, justifying OFS as a tool to help us know where to look needed us to take a bit of a leap of faith.”

“To date, the efficiency projects we’ve identified and implemented have earned us many more times the investment in the system and counting, so the returns are excellent”, continued Mr. Andrews, “it’s only with a tool like OFS that we have any chance to pinpoint the right opportunities and sustain this level of improvement.”

About OFS: (www.ofsystems.com)OFS is an Australasian company specialising in productivity and efficiency improvement software (OEE software) for global manufacturing industries. Tens of thousands of operators are using OFS technologies in dozens of industries. Customers of OFS include: Kraft/Cadbury, Coca-Cola Amatil, Electrolux, AstraZeneca, Asahi Beverages, Schweppes, Heinz, Orora, Dulux Group, Unilever, Food Plastics Co, PACT Group, Labelmakers, Visy Industries, Murray Goulburn, Tatura, Sanitarium, Standard Can, Thai Beverage Can and NCI.

About VIP Steel: (www.vippackaging.com.au)

As a leader in packaging solutions, VIP Steel offers a variety of modern and innovative steel packaging products for major FMCG and niche consumer food and beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, household and surface coatings applications through to the industrially based chemical, agricultural, petroleum and building industries. VIP Steel is a division of the PACT group.