Refresco Durham (U.K.):

Dealing with dynamic ‘growing pains’

With a capacity of over 18 million units per day, Refresco is European leader in soft drink and fruit-juice production for the retail private label market, and leading in contract manufacturing for national and international A-brands. While pursuing a highly active “buy-and-build” policy throughout the first decade of this century, the company has seen turnover quadruple and its international work force increase to 2,500 full-time employees.

At Refresco’s site at Durham (U.K.), the pressure of rapidly growing demand had resulted in a call for new production installations, improved waste, OEE and staffing management and further investments in people and systems. On the basis of ARV Group’s earlier successes, Refresco’s Managing Director in the U.K. asked the ARV Group to perform an assessment, ultimately resulting in the fast-track implementation of a program addressing these issues.

Fast-track implementation

The program, entitled “Booster”, was originally set to achieve measureable, structural savings and anchor within the organization a continuous improvement operation capable of increasing productivity. In addition to concrete steps in terms of waste management and process standardization, Booster also included measures for diagnosing the organization, activating and training, improving communication and cooperation on, with and from the working floor.

Consistent and stable steering

Within a nine-month period, ARV Group helped Durham management to create a platform for the consistent and stable steering of results-oriented management. The short period resulted in improvement initiatives on the part of operators, mechanics and team leaders as well as significant overall waste reduction, cost savings and production efficiencies. For example, the OEE of production lines was ultimately boosted by more than 50%, substantially increasing capacity and plan realization.

Robert Tomsa, Operations Manager: "Within a short period, ARV Group helped our team to boost our efficiency and effectiveness to higher levels, additionally helping our team develop their capabilities. And the improvements are ongoing. Bet practice work processes and straightforward communication now let us stay on top of demand and go for further growth."

Ronald Poos, General Manager a.i.: "With its participative approach, ARV Group won the confidence of key players at Durham and allowed us to accomplish a gigantic task. In the process, they also helped to nail the new improvements solidly into place. We couldn’t have done it without them."