F&B Manufacturing Flaws: 9 Signs You Might Be Missing

Any food and beverage operations executive worth their salt monitors production throughput, efficiency, yield, downtime, and a host of other metrics. But there are sneaky indicators that something might be going wrong with production that we don’t typically watch for.

Here are nine not-so-obvious signs that your production processes may not be working as well as they should, based on the experience of Integrated Project Management Company’s manufacturing experts.

1. An Unexpected Decline in Waste

While less waste is typically a positive sign, a sudden decline in waste could actually indicate a problem. For example, if inspectors aren’t sampling often enough or pulling defective products off the line—due to overwork, inexperience, distractions, or the lack of well-defined specs—out-of-spec product might reach customers. Also, if demand decreases and/or production slows down for any reason, waste naturally goes down.

2. Consistent Overtime

If you’re scheduling overtime consistently, something is systemically off or wrong in your plant. Unexpected demand that requires overtime can sometimes be a blip on the radar. But consistent overtime could indicate staff are overworked, underexperienced, or becoming apathetic. It could also signal issues like poor production scheduling or skipped preventative maintenance.

3. Lower Maintenance Spending

A trending decrease in maintenance spending might seem like a cost-saving win. But it could also mean that the plant is neglecting routine preventive maintenance. Fewer technicians, less-frequent maintenance, and stretching the life of grease, belts, motors, and other components may not cause issues right away. But they will lead to greater downtime and slower speeds, and thus reduced output.

4. Minor Equipment Adjustments

If equipment needs constant tweaking or small adjustments during production, even if it just means short stops that don’t show up in downtime reports, it indicates a problem. Perhaps something gets misaligned or jammed and it only needs a nudge or a few seconds of attention. These minor issues, when you add them up, can significantly decrease throughput. If an operator says they’re having to tweak something all day, there is a calibration problem. (And it’s frustrating for the person who has to keep on top of it.)

5. Product Variations Within Control Limits

Even when products fall within the acceptable upper and lower quality control specs, the magnitude of the variations can be a warning sign that the production process is not truly under control. Variations, while still “acceptable,” can impact customer satisfaction and increase material waste over time, even if the product is still technically sellable.

6. Declining Employee Ideas

If the number of improvement suggestions from frontline workers drops, it could mean your continuous improvement programs are going well. But it could indicate that employees feel disengaged or discouraged from recommending ideas. This can also hide operational inefficiencies, as workers often notice issues before management does.

7. Requests for More Storage Space

If your company suddenly needs more storage, especially without an uptick in demand, it could mean there’s an imbalance in production. This might be due to producing the wrong products or overproducing certain items, which points to problems with demand forecasting or production planning.

Similarly, a company might produce safety stock to hedge against demand fluctuations. But if safety stock is increasing, it could indicate decreasing confidence in production or supply chain reliability.

8. Changing Utility Bills

Any unexpected change in utility consumption could be a signal that production processes aren’t in control. Excessive wastewater fees from the city can indicate that materials are being washed down the drain instead of being used effectively in production. Compare water use to yield metrics. More water, and water that requires more treatment, may mean the plant is dumping tanks of product due to quality problems or is more frequently flushing process piping and equipment due to inefficiently planned changeovers. If a plant has a water-cooled compressed-air system, higher water use can mean the system is overheating, which is a risk to equipment precision and product quality, and a sign of a likely future breakdown.

Likewise, a spike in electric bills can suggest trouble with the pneumatic system, such as poor calibration, leaks, or the system working harder to maintain pressure. Higher energy use can also indicate the overuse or neglected maintenance of line equipment.

9. Repeated Redesign of Organizational Tools

If a plant has to frequently redesign organizational tools like shadow boards or 5S boards, it suggests poor change management, ineffective implementation, and overall lack of leadership. When tools are introduced but not regularly reinforced, workers perceive those tools aren’t important. This doesn’t point to any one production problem, but it does indicate the plant won’t get the benefit of the principles and tools.

Assessing processes and analyzing data can help identify improvements and find untapped value in your production processes. Download the article to start mining for manufacturing gold.