Classic Packaging is a family-owned food packaging business that has been operating since 1991.
Engagement
JHMG was first contacted by a third-party software development team hired by Classic Packaging to create a new scheduling system; they were the third team hired to tackle this project.
Like the first two software teams, this third-party team was struggling to finish this project due to its complexity as well as the legacy code and database which the scheduling system would have to interface with.
As this third-party team was aware of JHMG’s experience creating enterprise-level systems, they advised Classic Packaging to work with us.
We successfully built a scheduling system that not only met the client’s needs, but improved their efficiency so much that they engaged us to additionally build custom allocation, production, and reporting systems.
Tech Stack
Laravel
PHP framework
Angular
Typescript framework
MySQL
Project Management Systems
BrainLeaf – System Initial Planning
JIRA – Systems Development Teams Management
Bitbucket – Code Repositories
Confluence – System Documentation
Harvest – Time Tracking
What Problem Does The Scheduler Solve?
In manufacturing, scheduling can be complicated, yet production can’t be compromised by inefficiencies in scheduling or inability to handle an unexpected change of plans. Each piece of equipment performs a specific task. Each packaging job involves multiple steps, each of which varies in duration. These steps may include one or more printing and lamination steps, as well as slitting, bagging or pouching, holding, and shipping. These steps must be scheduled on multiple machines, in a specific order.
Many times, work in progress needs time to cure and cannot be moved onto the next step right away. Often, steps must be split and completed in parts to accommodate other job deadlines and machine availability. Schedules must also accommodate campaign runs, in which similar production steps from differing sales orders are combined and run together on the same machine. On top of that, if a piece of equipment goes down without notice, the schedule for multiple production items and machines needs to be quickly modified in a way that ensures the production of all items gets accomplished on time without compromising quality.
For these reasons, an automated scheduling system for a manufacturing business is imperative.
Continue the case study reading about the Scheduling System »
What Problem Does The Allocation System Solve?
Classic Packaging utilizes over one hundred different films and materials. For example, films that vary in width, gauge, material, and grade. Each job requires a set quantity of specific materials. A system is necessary to keep track of the amount of each material that is required for scheduled jobs so that work staff can determine when and how much of each material to purchase. The complexity is increased by the fact that jobs need to be assigned material that has been ordered and is expected to arrive before the job is scheduled to run, in addition to material that is already on the floor.
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What Problem Does The Production System Solve?
A myriad of data must be tracked in regards to the production processes at Classic Packaging. For example, the specific roll numbers and amounts consumed must be tracked to allow for traceability of issues. Further, the setup and run time on each machine, as well as the amount of scrap produced during a job, must be tracked to fully calculate the cost of that job as well as the efficiency of each machine operator. These are just a few examples of key reporting functionality that requires comprehensive information about production. Without this, knowledge regarding profitability, traceability, and work staff performance is unacceptably limited.
Now came high-level questions that needed to be answered, such as:
Why did a job take longer than usual?
Has our amount of scrapped material gone up or down, and why?
How can we decrease set up time for a particular job?
If we encounter an issue with a material that affects the quality of jobs completed or in progress, how can we quickly identify the jobs that used that material?
The first step in providing accurate answers to questions such as these was to collect and organize the data in a usable way. Therefore, an automated production system was needed to pave the way for a subsequent reporting system that would help the team understand when, how, and why issues arise. It was also crucial in providing pertinent information to aid in top-level decision making and improve overall efficiency and quality control.
Continue the case study reading about the Production System »
What Problem Does The Reporting System Solve?
A manufacturing plant of Classic Packaging’s size and job complexity requires reporting on a wide variety of data, including material availability, open orders, work staff performance, and profitability. Further, their role in the food industry also necessitates advanced traceability reporting capability.
Continue the case study reading about the Reporting System »
What’s Next?
JHMG will continue to work with Classic Packaging for the foreseeable future.
As of the time of this writing, we are working on several additional features for the Production System.
Advanced Visualization Capability
We have also been tasked with an advanced visualization capability for the Traceability Report. As a single roll can be used to produce multiple work in progress rolls or finished goods, it is often important to be able to identify which portion of a feeder roll was consumed to create a given work in progress or finished good.
When a user hovers over such a produced material, a pop-up will display all the consumed rolls that went into it, rotated 90 degrees to show the circular side view. We will visually highlight the portion of the roll (the outer portion of the roll, the core of the roll, somewhere in between) that represents the footage that went into the selected produced roll. The formula for the radius will be complex, as there are many differing film thicknesses, multiple feeder rolls can be spliced together, etc.
Stock Film Swap Feature
For example, we are building a stock film swap function, as it is sometimes not feasible for the material handlers to obtain the allocated stock film rolls for a job, because it would be substantially easier to just grab a nearby roll of that type of stock film.
We will add a supervisor stock film swap override that will change the allocations as appropriate if a machine operator needs to consume an unallocated roll of stock film that is the same kind of film and the same purchase number as an allocated one. We are also building several other features to maintain production data integrity, as this is critical to the interpretability of several existing reports.
Extended Suite of Reports
Regarding the longer-term roadmap, we are slated to develop the next suite of reports; this includes a Stock Film Report. Stock film is comprised of the most common film materials, and one purchase is thus used for many jobs. Classic Packaging needs to know how much stock film of various specifications has been used, allocated, and ordered/recently purchased, so that they can continually monitor how much more they need to order.
There will also be a System Utilization Report to ensure that work staff are using the other systems correctly, a Material Consumption Report to determine whether allocated materials were actually consumed, a Sales Prediction Report, a Downtime Summary Report, and several others.
Legacy Database Replacement
After this, we will embark on the substantial undertaking of replacing the legacy database and its associated applications, which will greatly simplify not only those applications but also the maintainability of all the systems described in this case study.
Continued Collaboration
We are excited to continue the close collaborative relationship we have built with Classic Packaging. At almost every weekly sprint planning meeting, we hear about new ways that the systems we built have made their work lives easier. Our partnership has thus been mutually rewarding, and we look forward to the road ahead.