Improving Factory Planning at BIC
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Blue Yonder’s factory planning capability
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
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
About The 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.
The 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.
The 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.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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