Tetra Pak programme cuts Bright Dairy’s costs by 10 per cent
Following the initial set up of Tetra Pak’s Operational Cost Reduction (OCR)programme at Bright Dairy’s Chinese-based Fengxian factory, the service has been rolled out to other Bright plants in the region and other departments within in the company, according to the firm.
“With the OCR programme, Bright Dairy has harvested not just money, but more importantly, successful management concepts and methods. It is unique in ensuring our long-term sustainability,” said Mr Zhang Fuhua, vice president of Bright Dairy.
As part of the OCR programme, Tetra Pak China said it provided a cost reduction methodology and coaching to Bright employees so that they can carry on implementing the programme independently.
Employees engaged directly in group activities, said Tetra Pak, involving an analysis of cost and loss, how to reduce costs, and setting cost reduction goals for the company’s filling operation.
“Bright Dairy is now driving the OCR throughout its operations, establishing a factory-wide ability to increase productivity, and improve employee performance and ownership with regard to the operation and maintenance of equipment,” said Tetra Pak.
Second stage
After the successful implementation of the first stage of the scheme ‘Focused Improvement’ (OCR-FI), Tetra Pak and Bright Dairy then moved onto the next phase of the programme: ‘Continuous Improvement’ (OCR-CI) which was set up at Bright’s Fengxian factory between 2009 and 2010.
The aim of OCR-CI was to explore how to further improve long-term operational costs, enhance cooperation within the company and to ensure that OCR delivered lasting and positive change, said Tetra Pak.
To achieve this, the programme team collected data and analysis to indentify areas to reduce operational cost, such as extending production time, cutting overfilling and unrecorded waste.
Waste reduction actions included water flush control for pasteurisation, more accurate raw milk reception, optimised milk recycling procedures, air push devices for UHT processing and overfilling reduction —which Tetra Pak claims led to a reduction of product waste of more than 24 per cent.
