Manufacturing Intelligence / Ignition Testimonial – Michael Riches, Bega Dairy & Drinks

'Ignition was introduced into our site by Tim 5 years ago, and in that time it has totally changed the way we do business. To start with Ignition served as an OEE and downtime recording tool. It saved our shift leaders an hour every day from running around and collecting bottle counts and root causes which in the end would be inaccurate. Our OEE each week would never correlate to our pallet output. But from that starting point Tim has supported us to make Ignition part of everything we do on our site.'

‘Ignition links into our TUN & SSCC labelling databases; as a result we know exactly what product we are running without the need for user entry and as the source of truth for how much stock was sent out the door our OEEs are never wrong. This has allowed ignition to automate much of the downtime assigning as it knows when we finish the plan for the week, when it’s a size change or a product change and also when we have scheduled meetings. It sends daily email reports to our leaders, and alerts over text messages if a critical parameter is out of spec such as a tank getting too hot.

Depending on the integration of other machines on the line; causes of downtime are primarily assigned automatically. However, when downtime entry by our operators is needed it’s done so in three button clicks; no scrolling through large list of downtime options. Rather we have it broken down into Type, Machine and simple root causes.

Because it had all the OEE records, ignition naturally become a platform for us to build our stand-up meetings into. It connects our three shifts and three tiers together allowing information to be entered in one meeting and displayed across many; safety & quality metrics, actions and escalations.

When COVID hit It allowed our leaders to be totally connected as daily stand up meetings seamlessly transitioned to online meetings. In the last year, we have continued our journey with ignition to remove paper from the site. Ignition now handles entry of quality checks, reminding operators when they are required (not allowing them to do the checks ahead of time) and cross-checking their inputs to the specification to ensure that any issues are immediately raised.

It’s empowered all our team members to look at how technology can improve their work-life. Driven by the team members we now have near miss reporting, recognition, change control, project works sign off, rosters, site comms, induction, onboarding, standard work, purchase order requests, warehouse stock control, despatch truck management, innovation tracking, work orders (recipe), AGV management, and many more!

As Ignition has become an integral part of our site; Tim has been there to support us through server upgrades, a cyber attack and a business acquisition. Without him our site would not be leading the network in innovation and engagement.’

Michael Riches
Site Leader – Smithfield Juice, Bega Dairy & Drinks

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