Bayonne Packaging, Inc

The new VP of Operations for Bayonne Packaging, Inc, John Milliken, was tasked with what his predecessor could not answer; why has the company struggled with production cost, product quality, and on-time delivery? From the interviews that Milliken conducted with the different departments in the facility many contributing factors for why cost, quality, and delivery were all having significant issues. In order to reduce costs, improve quality of the product, and deliver when the customer needs the product, a schedule with good communication between all affected parties is key as it will improve machine utilization, create opportunities for scheduled maintenance, reduce partial orders, reduce bottlenecks and distribute work more evenly, assist in improving quality, and create a better reputation with customers to reduce expediting and moving orders.

The VP of operations reviewed the data from the month of October as he had a good sample size and could see the effects of the company operating under stress. From the results, he was able to see why quality, cost, and delivery tanked at the same time. Quality tanked last October due primarily to problems in Fold & Glue and Finishing. Six percent of products were found to be defective due to glue problems, while an additional one percent was rejected by the customer because of glue problems. Finishing also produced quality problems that led to products being reworked or occasionally scrapped. The number of defective products could likely be reduced by implementing preventive maintenance, rather than just waiting for things to be fixed when needed, particularly in Fold & Glue where the majority of problems lie.

Delivery also tanked last October, due partly to quality issues. In October, more than twenty percent of orders were delivered late. Every time that a defective product was found, it had to be reworked or scrapped and reproduced. This resulted in delays. An irregular maintenance schedule also contributed...