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Chartwell Consulting

Case Studies



The Easy-Pack has been the gluing team's biggest achievement. I used the Easy-Pack to increase the speed by more than 50% I was easily doing that. Arek Wojtowicz, Gluing Assitant


What was limiting the speed of the gluing lines?

The gluing lines require an assistant to pack the finished cartons into boxes. The gluing team wanted a way to run these lines faster, without causing any extra work for the assistants.

  • Studies and profile analysis showed that 70% of the jobs were limited by the speed of the manual packer at the end of the line
  • The fully manual packing process is intense and requires frequent staff rotation to maintain line speed
How can people work faster without working harder?

Firstly, the team needed to challenge the current way of working:

    Why can't we pack more in one go?
  • There are physical limitations on how much the assistant can pick and pack at a time.
    • Why do we have to pick them up?
  • The machine configuration requires the packs to be lifted.
    • Can we improve the machine configuration to make it easier to transfer the cartons?
  • That could work. But if the box slipped cartons would go everywhere – it would be a disaster.

Well then let's make a jig which holds these boxes in place!

After a few trials, the team designed a piece of kit with improvements for the assistants. Not wanting to wait ten weeks for the new kit to arrive, a prototype Easy-Pack was made.

I like it, it's a lot easier. I now have time to carry out other tasks. Gluing Assistant during trial

What were the results?

Trials performed by the team showed a 20-30% speed increase.

Even with a temporary prototype the gluing lines have seen a 26% increase in speeds.