Dairy Producer Increases OEE and Throughput with Real-Time Performance Management

Glanbia Food Ingredients’ facility in Ireland processes about 1.4 billion liters of milk annually into butter, cheese, milk proteins, and whey derivatives. Anticipated increases in milk supply meant that the plant would not meet processing demand in the near future, so Glanbia sought ways to improve production throughput in order to meet new expectations. Management decisions were based primarily on anecdotal information. Whenever a problem arose, managers would dig through log sheets and spreadsheets and talk to operators and engineers in an effort to determine the root cause of the problem. Each area had its own way of capturing the data and calculating and presenting performance metrics, which led to inconsistent and unreliable information. This lack of credible information resulted in less-than-optimal operating decisions. Improvement opportunities went unnoticed or were never acted upon because no one could determine the root cause of the problem.

Headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland, Glanbia plc is a global ingredients and nutrition group. Glanbia Food Ingredients’ facility in Ireland processes about 1.4 billion liters of milk annually into butter, cheese, milk proteins, and whey derivatives. The company's management team challenged the Ballyragget, Ireland, facility to capture more of the available market opportunity without new capital expenditures. To do so, they needed to transform themselves into a high-performance facility to achieve “predictable excellence.”