The Packaging Line Performance Workshop course will be held Sept. 16-17, 2008 at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick, NJ. The workshop aims to give packagers the skills, tools, and knowledge they require to improve the efficiency-and profitability--of their packaging lines. The workshop will be taught by Paul J. Zepf, M. Eng. P. Eng., CPP of Zarpac Inc., the event's co-producer, along with Packaging World magazine.
Zepf is the author of 10 books on packaging production systems, and has researched and developed new concepts for calculating and designing packaging processes, machinery, and effective operations.
Pharmaceutical packaging lines carry the lowest Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of any industry, according to Zepf. Low efficiencies rob packaging line performance of their potential profitability.
In Packaging Line Performance Workshops held earlier this year in different U.S. locations, Zepf has identified several sources of OEE losses at packaging operations. He attributed the top four sources of losses to lunch, breaks, meetings, and shift changes, not just during these events, but also in production run downtime before each of these events and then during line run-ups following them.
Losses, he pointed out, are also attributable to major and minor changeouts, purging at the end of production runs, differences between actual production line speed versus the speed the line was designed and tested to run at, losses in downtime from individual machines on the line, and losses due to waste, which include materials, labor, and ergonomic costs, among others.
Attendees will be provided with a spreadsheet tool to calculate OEE on their packaging lines, and will be trained in its use. Attendees are also taught a variety of strategies for increasing manufacturing profitability by boosting line efficiency.
