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Optimize Bottle head cutting process ‘Optimize the operational cost of a plastic bottle head
cutting process’ Background Our client is a leading dairy food manufacturer located in Southern Europe. Their high reputation comes from a combination of top quality raw materials and a maximum traceable and controlled production process, e.g. using clean rooms for bottling. The company’s objectives include a continuous improvement in terms of product quality, cost efficiency and customer service levels.
The challenge Empty bottles are manufactured with blow molding technology. This technology produces 3-‐layer Polyethylene bottles (white/black/white with titanium dioxide for whitening) that are closed with an inert gas inside. Those bottles are sent to the filling process or stored in the warehouse.
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The challenge (cont.) The filling process uses a neck cutting online system type MAER http://www.maer.es/en within a sterile manufacturing environment (using per acetic acid):
• The bottle has a head section of 32 mm. diameter and 1 mm. thickness (attached sketch and pictures when joining the challenge).
• The cutter is made of stainless steel alloy and a length of 175 mm. (see attached sketch and pictures) with an actual cost of 916 € / cutter.
• 1 cutter works well with 2,71 million of bottles. • The cutting process works (see movie at https://youtu.be/Ikr6BEcFt_w )
-‐ Speed of the bottle in respect of the cutter is 33 m/min -‐ The rotation of the bottle at the point of the cutter edge is 180rpm approx., bottle turns around on itself one time.
The operational cost of the cutting process has increased since the acquisition of the technology. Cutting cost depends directly on the cutter replacement frequency and the cutter procurement costs. In addition cutter replacement requires regenerating the sterile manufacturing environment.
The plastic bottle -‐ Before and after
What the client is looking for The company is looking for reducing the operational cost of the cutting process.
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This can be achieved by different approaches ranging from:
• Improving the cutter specification (different material, different thermal treatment, different coating, different dimensions and/or geometries, different supplier…)
• Modifying the cutting process. • …
This is a 3-‐rounds tournament with the following submissions: First round
• Proposed solution with a high-‐level description, e.g. new cutter specification, changes in the cutting process, etc.
• Feasibility evidences (public case studies, your past experience in other cutting processes, cutter supplier documentation, etc.)
Second round
• Detailed solution specification • Cutter / equipment specifications and available suppliers. • Estimated investment and/or operational costs.
If required, additional information will be provided during the course of this round. Third round
• Factory Tests (in charge of the company). This will serve to check the conditions of the proposed solution in machine normal production conditions (normal production machine is 1.53 million bottles per week)
Evaluation criteria
• Lowest operational cost reduction (minimum 30%) • Lowest investment cost for the proposed solution
Timeline This is a 3 rounds tournament with the following timings
• 1st round – 6 weeks+ 2 week for evaluation • 2nd round – 3 weeks + 2 week for evaluation • 3rd round – 8 weeks (dependent solution provided)
The Prize The winner will be awarded with a 10.000 € cash prize
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