The Challenge
A healthcare manufacturer wanted more out of its toothpaste tube filling and packing line. There was a commercial case for putting higher-margin products on it, and around £1M available to spend on making room for them.
What nobody could say with any confidence was where the line was actually losing output. Filling and packing each have their own limits, and it was not clear which of them was setting the ceiling. Committing £1M without knowing that is guesswork.
The Solution
We modelled the toothpaste tube filling and packing operation and used it to look for growth and for efficiency at the same time. The model followed product along the line on real cycle times, changeovers and downtime rather than averages.
Constraint Identification
The model showed where capacity was being lost along the line, and what dealing with each constraint would be worth. Taken together they came to 30% more production output.
Room for New Products
The point of the exercise was commercial. Once the capacity ceiling was understood, the business could say what additional capacity was available, and whether the higher-margin range would fit without pushing something else off.
Efficiency Improvements
The same model was used to find efficiency, not just capacity. Running the model under realistic conditions showed how much output was being lost to changeovers and short stops rather than to any hard limit on the equipment.
Investment Validation
The £1M was tested against the model before it was committed. That showed what the spend would buy in output, and confirmed the new capacity would not simply move the constraint further down the line.
The Results
What came out of it:
30% more production output, from identifying and dealing with the real capacity constraints on the line.
A £1M investment validated against modelled performance before it was committed.
Room for higher-margin products, with the line’s capacity ceiling established rather than assumed.
Efficiency opportunities identified alongside the capacity work, out of the same model.
The manufacturer could test the line capability before spending anything on it.