The top can making trends of 2020

There are four key trends set to hit the industry in 2020:

1. Increasing demand for small batch sizes and frequent changeovers

Can filling companies are becoming more and more creative with branding and marketing.  They are changing the designs on their cans more frequently (think personalised Coke cans or a video game advertisement on a Mountain Dew can).

To facilitate this, can manufacturers are beginning to replace their conventional lines that produce batch sizes of 300,000 cans with lines that are built for smaller batch sizes.

Additionally, can manufacturers are beginning to service an increasing variety of customers. Therefore, conventional lines are becoming a thing of the past, and lines that produce smaller batches are becoming more practical.  All of this leads to an increase in changeover.  Manufacturing facilities must be able to changeover more frequently and more quickly.

Unfortunately, changeover can negatively impact quality.  But there is hope!  Manufacturing business intelligence solutions allow can makers to track their changeover times in order to improve their operational efficiency.  Not only are changeover times tracked, but quality is monitored before and after a changeover.

Our Advice:

Use a business intelligence solution that can track changeover times and monitor quality before and after changeovers. This allows manufacturers to quickly identify problem areas and provides the insight to correct it.

2. Machine vendors and integrators look to the Internet of Things (IoT)

The big topic lately seems to be smart devices and machines (IoT). The majority of IoT solutions are point solutions that create silos of information.

Plant-wide strategies are becoming increasingly important, even with the increase of connected machines. As machine vendors develop their own distinct IoT solutions, efficient data collection can become more and more difficult.

Our Advice:

Use an IoT solution that has complete plant-wide visibility, rather than separate silos of data. Selecting a manufacturing business intelligence solution with a contextual view of the entire plant is much more valuable than having separate IoT solutions implemented on machines across the plant.

3. Continued Interest in Global Fulfilment

It’s much easier to manage a global network of plants when they implement consistent strategies. Having the same solution across all plants in an enterprise yields increased efficiency and more effective decision making. Consistency aids in training opportunities, management, data analysis and efficiency.

Our Advice:

Deploy your chosen solution across all plants to get a common view of your data, or one version of the truth.

4. Material costs continue to weigh on manufacturers

Materials are typically the largest expense in a manufacturing enterprise. You cannot get rid of this cost; however, you can control it with the right business intelligence solution. A solution that can track consumables, reduce scrap, and reduce opportunity cost is worth the investment.

Our Advice:

Use a solution that is able to track consumables.  If the solution indicates that you have defects or incorrect lengths of consumables, use this data to work with your supplier. Look for a solution that will highlight problem areas and reveal opportunities to reduce scrap and opportunity cost.

  • This week’s blog comes courtesy of market research specialists acumence: acumence.com

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