CASE STUDIES
Plastique Ltd
Leading plastic packaging company, Plastique Ltd is experiencing substantially improved thru-put, more economic running costs and easier, more efficient task scheduling since installing an Intouch production monitoring system at its Nottingham-based manufacturing plant.
‘As a result of installing the system, last year we increased our efficiency by 2,000 hours, which in turn has reduced the need for overtime and has allowed us to take on more work in the same time frame.’
Trevor Drew, Operations Manager
How do Plastique LTD benefit from using intouch?
One of the UK’s leading providers of thermoformed packaging, displays and components using state-of-the-art pressure vacuum forming and punch and die technology, Plastique runs a 24/7 operation producing innovative plastic packaging solutions to a wide range of blue chip companies operating in the cosmetics, stationery, pharmaceutical, electronics and drinks industries.
As the plastic packaging industry is continually introducing new product designs the company currently has 2,500 tools in stock and produces at least a further 250 new tools each year. Plastique LTD uses the system to monitor activity on eight thermoforming machines of different sizes and capability which currently handle a thru-put of approximately 90 tonnes of material per week.
Trevor Drew, Operations Manager at Plastique comments:
We liked intouch because they were able to provide us with a bespoke system which addressed our specific requirements. The system has been connected to each thermoforming machine and using specially designed keypads, relays up to date production status information to our database, which can then be viewed in a simple, easy to understand format on any PC in the company.
“Our cycle times are extremely fast and therefore tool changing is very frequent. The system greatly improves visibility which helps us to keep tabs well in advance of tool change requirements which greatly reduces downtime and improves productivity.”
In addition to providing improved planning and scheduling, the intouch system eliminates the need for time consuming manual data recording. It enables Plastique to run off reports at any time by shift, day, week, month, job, machine or tool and highlights problem areas that need fast remedial attention.
The reporting mechanism also provides valuable information on efficiency, utilisation, scrap and downtime. “We found the installation of the system surprisingly straightforward and it caused little disruption to our day to day activities” he continues.
“As a result of installing the system, last year we increased our efficiency by 2,000 hours, which in turn has reduced the need for overtime and has allowed us to take on more work in the same time frame. Intouch is such an important and integral part of our operation and makes things so much easier and more manageable it is hard to imagine what it was like before we had it installed.”
Trevor Drew
Operations Manager
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