Blue Yonder Case Studies Improving Factory Planning at BIC

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	Improving Factory Planning at BIC Blue Yonder

Improving Factory Planning at BIC

Blue Yonder

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Applicable Industries	Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions	Discrete Manufacturing Product Research & Development
Use Cases	Advanced Production Planning and Scheduling
Challenge	BIC, a world leader in stationary, lighters, and shaver products, was facing challenges with its manual sequencing process at its Charlotte packaging facility. The process could only look out three days, limiting their ability to take advantage of improved production planning. The three-day rolling schedule resulted in frequent, expensive, and time-consuming changeovers. Moreover, the Charlotte facility was nearing capacity and would require capital investment in a new facility if production throughput could not be increased. Read More
About Customer	BIC is a world leader in stationary, lighters, and shaver products. The company has a global presence with consumers purchasing 32 million BIC products every day. The company was looking to increase the planning horizon and accuracy of their manual sequencing process at their Charlotte packaging facility. The facility was nearing capacity and would require capital investment in a new facility if production throughput could not be increased. Read More
Solution	To overcome these challenges, BIC implemented Blue Yonder’s factory planning capability. This solution enabled BIC to share and collaborate on a single production plan, allowing everyone from floor supervisors to supply planners to see when the production orders would be available to ship to customers. The solution provided an improved and repeatable process, reducing production changeovers by 40% by eliminating one-to-two changeovers per week. It also identified 20 hours of additional packaging capacity per week, negating the need for capital investment in a new packaging facility. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Advanced Production Planning and Scheduling

Challenge

BIC, a world leader in stationary, lighters, and shaver products, was facing challenges with its manual sequencing process at its Charlotte packaging facility. The process could only look out three days, limiting their ability to take advantage of improved production planning. The three-day rolling schedule resulted in frequent, expensive, and time-consuming changeovers. Moreover, the Charlotte facility was nearing capacity and would require capital investment in a new facility if production throughput could not be increased.

About Customer

BIC is a world leader in stationary, lighters, and shaver products. The company has a global presence with consumers purchasing 32 million BIC products every day. The company was looking to increase the planning horizon and accuracy of their manual sequencing process at their Charlotte packaging facility. The facility was nearing capacity and would require capital investment in a new facility if production throughput could not be increased.

Solution

To overcome these challenges, BIC implemented Blue Yonder’s factory planning capability. This solution enabled BIC to share and collaborate on a single production plan, allowing everyone from floor supervisors to supply planners to see when the production orders would be available to ship to customers. The solution provided an improved and repeatable process, reducing production changeovers by 40% by eliminating one-to-two changeovers per week. It also identified 20 hours of additional packaging capacity per week, negating the need for capital investment in a new packaging facility.

Impact #1	The implementation of Blue Yonder’s factory planning capability increased the production planning horizon from three days to two weeks.
Impact #2	The solution reduced production changeovers by 40% and eliminated one-to-two changeovers per week.
Impact #3	The solution identified 20 hours of additional packaging capacity per week, negating the need to invest in a new plant.

Impact #1

The implementation of Blue Yonder’s factory planning capability increased the production planning horizon from three days to two weeks.

Impact #2

The solution reduced production changeovers by 40% and eliminated one-to-two changeovers per week.

Impact #3

The solution identified 20 hours of additional packaging capacity per week, negating the need to invest in a new plant.

Benefit #1	40% reduction in production changeovers.
Benefit #2	20 hours of additional packaging capacity per week.
Benefit #3	Increased the production planning horizon from three days to two weeks.

Benefit #1

40% reduction in production changeovers.

Benefit #2

20 hours of additional packaging capacity per week.

Benefit #3

Increased the production planning horizon from three days to two weeks.

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Overview

Improving Factory Planning at BIC

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit