Royal Containers Taking Care of What’s Inside … Our Plant
As leaders in the corrugated industry, we are constantly evolving and adapting to stay ahead and competitive in our market. Recently, Royal Containers’ made the decision to implement an improved lean manufacturing system, which we call our Continuous Improvement (CI) plan. Always keeping an eye on our core values; We Respond, We Care, We Perform, We Lead, the new CI Program aligns well with these and will allow us to develop actions that directly support each core value. Which in turn, supports our commitment to providing continued quality service to our customers.
What is Lean Manufacturing?
Lean manufacturing is a manufacturing strategy that companies implement to reduce costs, increase productivity, quality and gain a competitive advantage. Even though lean manufacturing principles have always been a part of our environment, we recognized our manufacturing efficiencies needed to step up to the next level. We decided to engage Quadrant 5 Consulting (Q5), a highly regarded specialist in the packaging industry, to help us bring our CI vision into action. Their program is modelled after other highly efficient systems prevalent in the aerospace and auto industry.
Along with Q5, our own employees have stepped up to the plate and are taking responsibility and ownership of this exciting revamp. Dan Rudnicki, a long time Royal employee, is leading the internal team to ensure targets are met and will continuously assess the success of our new system.
How Does the CI Program work?
In a nutshell, we continuously monitor our environment and PLAN for improvements, DO what is necessary to improve the workspace/workflow, CHECK on the status of the action and ACT to fine-tune or change the action. Then start again! And it all starts with the environment.
1) Creating an environment for success
It’s no question that our actions are influenced by our environment. If your house was fitted with a new carpet, would you allow drinks into the living room? Do you clean the sink in the bathroom as you do in a bathroom on an airplane? Remember the decal on the mirror asking you to be courteous to the next person using the sink? The same is true in our plant. With the help of Q5, we have set up designated zones with a specific purpose. Whether it be the design station or waste wagons, all surfaces are clearly labelled as well as ergonomically designed to make the space as easy to navigate as possible. “The goal of re-designing each work environment,” says Leslie Pickering of Q5, “is so it’s easy to do right and difficult to do wrong!”
2) Let’s Get Visual
Isn’t it always the case that you realize something is missing once you need it? By creating visual workspaces, the employees can easily detect if a tool is not returned. Not only is this more efficient for finding equipment, but allows for safer work habits as well. As Les puts it, “industrial environments are focused on products, visual workplaces are focused on processes“.
The production environment follows a new process mantra known as the 4 P’s – the only items that should make contact with the floor are:
- People
- Pallets
- Physical Posts
- Pivots (wheels)
3) Investing in Success
With our CI plan, we will be establishing performance benchmarks to measure improvement, as well as determine where to focus our efforts for future growth. For example, in the past 18 months, we have invested over $10,000,000 into our equipment. We opted for machines such as the new state of the art FFG’s (Flexo Folder Gluers) from Bobst, which came complete with indeed and outfield enhancements standard. State of the art equipment and standardized processes allow for improved efficiencies and increased output in the production process. By creating solutions in a standardized format, we are, as Mark Zeilinger of Q5 says, “implementing a more sophisticated process to help you guys move faster”
How will this help our customers?
Consumers care about 3 things: quality, cost and time. In our fast-paced world, companies are constantly striving to be better, faster and less costly than their competitors. With our increased focus on Continuous Improvement, Royal Containers will be able to deliver:
Better Quality:
The enhanced technology in our equipment allows for design calibration specific to each client. This means that the customer’s order today and one year from now will look the exact same because their requirements are uploaded and stored into our machine’s memory.
Cost Savings:
Automated and efficient systems cut down on operating costs. We will be able to produce the same amount of output in less time due to automated procedures.
Faster Turnaround:
The implementation of streamlined processes allows our employees to work more efficiently with less downtime.
We are well underway with the 2019 CI Plan in our Brampton location – with our London plant soon to follow. Although the process is not yet complete, our entire Royal Containers’ team is very optimistic for the positive impact these changes will have on the daily production schedule and of course, the quality products we continue to deliver to our customers.
We continue to be leaders in the corrugated industry and with the newly implemented CI Program, are solidifying many years of longevity within the industry and future successes for our employees and our customers.
“The focus for 2019 became driving efficiency & achieving operational excellence. We embarked on a plan to change the entire plant environment. So far we are right on track and loving every minute of it.” ~ Kim Nelson, President of Royal Containers
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