1. Tobey Strauch
Navarro Systems
Increasing Economy of Scope by
Increasing Throughput-
Running Your Plant Efficiently

2. Motivation:
 Most industrial plants are not running at capacity
due to the following:
 Waste
 Manpower
 Outdated Equipment

3. What if?
 Instead of having to hire outside
integrators/contractors to put in new equipment
and new lines, companies use their inside talent
to make changes in process and automation to
get their lines up to par?
 Results:
 Improved throughput
 Better process
 Improved training and response to downtime

4. How it works:
 Evaluate the current system
 Gather data:
 Current throughput
 Current waste
 Current cycle times
 Current maintenance issues
 What is repeatable?
 Tag the activities that are repeatedly causing
downtime that can be fixed. Most of the time, the
in-house maintenance will know what needs to be
done. They have not gotten the go ahead or had
the down time allowed to do so.

5. Controlled Down Time:
 No one in production wants down time, but
controlled down time is your friend.
 Uncontrolled down time is what causes profit
declines.

6. Give Them the Tools:
 If maintenance is capable, then give them the
tools
 Software
 HMI data on the screen to decrease having to get
online with controllers
 Up to date drawings
 10 minute stand ups to share information between
shifts
 Shift overlap and information flow.

7. Shift Overlap and Information
Flow
 Maintenance teams need to talk. ITS NOT A
COMPETITION.
 If the widgets don’t get out, everyone in the plant
is in jeopardy.
 There should be overlap between maintenance
and operations, and between maintenance and
engineering.

8. Case Study:
 Cereal Plant was installed expecting 4000
pounds throughput per hour based on physical
capacity.
 Actual Capacity: 2300 to 3300 pounds/hour
 Limitation:
 Bulk of material
 Change overs
 Equipment issues
 Static electricity
 Moisture
 Size of Grain Particle

9. Main Problem:
 Bulks of 340 mg/liter and above have decrease
“flow-ability”
 Production wanted to increase throughput of bulk
density products measuring 340 mg/liter, plus or
minus. Primarily this is mixed oats and multigrain
oatmeal products at a micro-flake size for instant
cereal.

10. Solution:
 Without adding equipment or having contractor
costs
 Retune the weigh belt to guarantee that the weight
we see is what we are getting.
 Look at the blower speeds for the vacuum flow
 Look at the variable frequency drives on the
conveyors to maximize
 Evaluate the material level fill switches

11. Actions:
 Found error on the fill levels: The intermediate
silo was not getting filled to the top. Changed
PLC code to allow the max level in that silo to be
used so that the system had more product to use
before having to play catchup.
 Retuned the weigh belt and adjust the PID loop
so that the weigh belt speed would change with
set point.
 Adjusted intermediate air locks so that the VFD
speeds would increase for more material flow.
 Adjusted shut down cycle to make sure the levels
were full before the next call for product.

12. Benefits:
 The box filler can now run at 77 cartons per
minute, and the system keeps up.
 This is a 20 % increase in throughput.
 How does it increase economy of scale?
 Less man hours needed to run for the same demand.
 If less man hours needed, then more room to advertise for
co-packing.
 Co-packing brings a higher return than packing our own
product.
 Can’t co-pack without being consistent due to meeting
demands of partner’s supply chain schedule/requirements.
 Only way to guarantee consistency is to spend the time and
money on the automation and the skillset required to run
your plant efficiently.

13. Confidence in Selling:
 When the plant runs efficiently, we can sell.
Morale increases. There is a helping attitude
instead of “point the finger” attitude.
 Difference is in management, not production
workers. Attitude toward efficiency is a top down
change.
 This includes management of technology.

14. Real Time Benefit:
 62 Cartons/Minute
 Yields 3720 Cartons per hour.
 Cartons are 8 ounces of product.
 3720/2 =1860 lbs per hour
 44640 Cartons a day with two shifts running 8 hours, but
6 hours production
 77 Cartons/Minute
 Yields 4620 Cartons per hour.
 4620/2 = 2310 lbs per hour
 55440 Cartons a day with two shifts running 8 hours, but 6
hours production.

15. Real Time Benefit:
 Reduction in number of shifts required to meet
orders.
 Increase in availability for co-packing.

16. Engineering Contract Costs:
0

17. Contact:
 Tobey Strauch
 Navarro Industrial Systems
 515-451-0656