Collaboration Leads to Cost Savings and Increased Productivity for Small Packaging Metals Plants

Michelle MachenMauser News, Small Packaging

The Mauser Packaging Solutions Small Packaging business unit is working with customers to reduce the frequency of production runs for 708 paint cans. As a result of collaboration among sales and operations, this project allows for the needs of our customers to be met while optimizing manpower and equipment uptime.

The 708 can is a gallon paint can historically used in the paint industry for standard colors. It wasn’t until more recently that the industry required a taller can, the 710.5, to allow for the mixing of colorant and creation of more striking colors. Facilities producing both can models incur significant downtime from the frequent changeover required to switch production from one model to the other. To reduce this downtime, Mauser Packaging Solutions has identified customers who can convert to the 710.5 model and is transitioning remaining demand for 708 cans to a bulk production schedule. By converting to bulk orders for remaining 708 cans, facilities manufacturing this model are able to produce the 708 can less frequently and on a more predictable schedule. Additionally, less equipment downtime for change overs will result in more uptime for production.

By reducing the demand for 708 cans and converting the remaining demand to bulk shipments, the Metals facilities in Chicago, Illinois, Garland, Texas and Homerville, Georgia are also able to divert significant manpower to other value-added tasks. The saved manhours will allow maintenance personnel to invest more time in other tasks such as preventative maintenance, repairs, equipment upgrades and new equipment installation. Additionally, less equipment downtime for change overs will result in more uptime for production.

This project is one of the several Sales Improvement Plan (SIP) suggestions from Small Packaging that is currently in progress and demonstrates how collaboration across multiple facilities and functional units can result in significant improvement for the company. Collaboration began with sales teams identifying accounts that could be converted to 710.5 cans or to 708 bulk shipments. The plants assisted by suggesting alternative packing options and code assignments as well as working together to create a production plan to continue meeting customer needs. The finance teams assisted by estimating the financial benefits for the project to justify the initial effort and cost associated with making the changes and the pricing team contributed by managing the pricing changes required for customers transitioning to a new model or delivery schedule.

“Beyond the direct financial and productivity benefits of this project, the cooperation between the plants and our sales teams opens the door to other potential savings opportunities that can be realized through these teams working together. Great job to everyone who has been a part of this project,” comments Gary Alstott, President of Small Packaging.