AB INBEV WUHAN ACHIEVES GOALS THROUGH DATA, FOCUS AND ACTION.

Founded in 1995 and operating as a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC., Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company Limited controls and operates a brewery and bottling facility in Wuhan, China that produces Budweiser for sale in China. The company aims to operate as the ‘Best Supply Chain in AB InBev’ by 2020.

Case Study

CHALLENGE

The world’s largest brewer, AB InBev, recommended LineView™ to their Chinese bottling plant based in Wuhan to remedy the company’s struggles with efficiencies. Replacing manually recording of plant events, Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company Limited began reviewing the LineView™ offering and as of September 2016, their exploration into True Causal Loss with LineView™ was underway.

The world’s largest brewer, AB InBev, recommended LineView™ to their Chinese bottling plant based in Wuhan to remedy the company’s struggles with efficiencies. Replacing manually recording of plant events, Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company Limited began reviewing the LineView™ offering and as of September 2016, their exploration into True Causal Loss with LineView™ was underway.

The key areas that the company were focused on to achieve better results include the following

  • Increase line efficiencies and reduce downtime.
  • Optimise management time: rapid and consistent decision making.
  • Reduce machine operator interventions: increase productivity, reduce labour requirement.
  • More effective use of maintenance and capital spending.

SOLUTION

LineView™ is an automated data gathering and visualisation system, monitoring the whole production line performance all day, every day, providing Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company Limited with analysis of their causal losses and a timeline illustrating precisely when the loss occurred.

As LineView™ is a web based application, users can view the information from anywhere, anytime.

Digitization of data enables us to be aware of the line performance anywhere, anytime. This is awesome for group management.
Tao Zhuang,
ZBS Packaging Director

Built-in Meeting Modules

LineView™ has a built-in meeting module that supports AB InBev China’s management process. For example, the team now carries out a Short Interval Control (SIC) review every four hours with the system providing all the information required on a single page. The team then creates an action plan based on the opportunities.

Quick and Effective Shift Handovers

LineView™ provides both operators and management the information necessary to carry out a quick and effective shift handover. In addition, the system is used to escalate issues that have not been resolved in the last twenty-four hours to the daily meeting.

In addition to actionable data leveraged through operational management routines, LineView™ offers the team an extensive reporting system which supports their strategic plans. For example, they can carry out a SIC review every four hours and the system provides all the information they need on one page to create an action plan based on the opportunities.

  • LineView™ is an extremely flexible tool that delivers long term sustainable results. All done automatically with a click of a button."

    Shiming Tu
    Maintenance Supervisor AB InBev, Wuhan

Sustained Change through the IFA Methodology

Through improved routines such as the implementation of LineView’s IFA Methodology (Information x Focus x Action), the team at the Wuhan operation have achieved sustained changes and surpassed their original improvement goals across production departments.

For instance, the maintenance team accomplished their goal of a more effective use of maintenance and capital spending.

“LineView™ enables us to make our maintenance and PM plan more targeted, greatly improving the equipment reliability,” comments Shiming Tu, Maintenance Supervisor. “LineView™ is an extremely flexible tool that delivers long term sustainable results. All done automatically with a click of a button.”

IFA is LineView’s core manufacturing improvement methodology, proven to work and has helped numerous clients achieve World Class OEE.

  • information

    INFORMATION

    Accurate
    Consistent
    Visual

    Do we have the right data?

  • focus

    FOCUS

    Management routines
    Leadership buy-in
    effective decision-making

    Are we using data in the best way possible?

  • action

    ACTION

    Targeted activity
    Pro-active improvement
    Forward-focused

    Are the actions we are taking effective?

  • results

    RESULTS

    Step change
    Continuous improvement
    Sustainable benefits

RESULTS

LineView™ is now being used to exactly quantify the productivity loss, and identify the pattern of when the issues occur.

The Wuhan site is benefitting from accurate data, clear focus and improved results.

Since realising the results that LineView™ has brought to the company thus far, the team created the following ambitious goals for their operation:

  • Best Supply Chain in ABI
  • Top Three in Global Efficiency

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