Augos Factory / Proof / Packaging manufacturer
Case study · Packaging
Same number of blade stops. A quarter of the time lost.
The blade on a second packaging line still needed attention as often as before. The difference was how fast the crew got it running again.
The problem
A small stop, repeated
On this packaging line, the blade needed adjusting or replacing 152 times in the baseline quarter. Each stop averaged about 26 minutes.
Together they cost 65.2 hours, 5.9% of all stop time on the line. No single stop looked worth chasing.
What the record suggested
The record timed every blade stop from stop to restart, so recovery time could be seen and compared shift to shift. Faster recovery became the target.
The fix
Faster back to running
The crew changed how blade stops are handled at the line.
Three quarters later, the blade still stopped the line just as often: 161 times in the quarter. But the average stop fell to about 6 minutes.
Holding the standard
49 hours a quarter, and holding
Blade downtime fell from 65.2 hours to 16.2, from 5.9% to 3.5% of all stop time on the line.
It held. In the last two months on record, blade stops cost 3.3 and 3.7 hours, over 37 stops each.
A fault that keeps happening looks unchanged in a stop count. Only a record that times each stop shows the recovery getting faster, and what that is worth.
Questions
This case, answered
Did the blade stop less often?
No. It stopped 161 times in quarter 4, against 152 in quarter 1. Each stop was simply much shorter.
Why did a stop count miss it?
A count shows how often a fault happens, not how long it takes to clear. Timing every stop made recovery visible.
What does this case leave out?
A rand value: the plant has not shared its sales values, so the case reports hours. Plant and product names are withheld.
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