Gist has created an interactive simulation model for food manufacturer Birds Eye to help create the most efficient production scenarios for its UK production lines.
The challenge was to reduce current levels of product held in stock following a consolidation of manufacturing across the Birds Eye’s European production sites.
An interactive simulation model of one of Birds Eye’s UK manufacturing plants was built by the Gist team. The model was used to manipulate components of the production process so the team could identify any cost reductions that resulted from different combinations of operational changes.
Changes to the operation such as batch size, shift patterns and safety stock levels were all tested to identify the most efficient combinations. The one element that could not change was that the production volumes must still meet Birds Eye’s established customer service levels.
The modelling created an opportunity for Birds Eye to reduce stock levels, without affecting customer service. These changes support Birds Eye in delivering working capital savings of around 20 per cent and reducing logistics costs by eliminating the need for non-value added transport moves and outside storage.
Jon Strachan, European supply chain director, Birds Eye Iglo Group said: “Gist has helped us identify how we can better manage the key levers and compromises across the business to meet our customers‚ requirements. We have been able to optimise the trade-off decisions around cost, service and stock holding.”
