Brewing improved efficiency

An Oregon-based craft brewer, Ninkasi Brewing Company, has boosted its on-time-in-full (OTIF) orders from 40 to 94% by adopting technology from OFS.

The brewery makes around 150,000 barrels of beer a year but expanded its operations recently to contract out its production lines to new brewers and producers of canned cocktails, hard seltzers and other drink lines.

As it reconsidered its approach to data capture and efficiency improvement initativies, Ninkasi deployed OFS’s line performance software system, OFS-X, on its packaging line.

This meant it was able to utilise accurate, real-time overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) data and detailed insights into length of production, length of changeover, how well lines were performing, and how different shifts and crews were performing.

These data allowed the brewery to adjust its operations to improve their efficiency. The increase in OTIF orders has led to better outcomes for customers and other brewers using its lines.

“Our team on the floor compared all the systems available to us — OFS was the clear, undisputed winner. It was simple to use, made our lives easier, and it supported our drive to grow and diversify while improving our uptime,” said Daniel Sharp, Director of Brewing Process Development.

“Prior to OFS, we often had three or four changes to our production schedule a day, an issue OFS identified was usually caused by a packaging delay. It was wreaking havoc on our entire team and our ability to do what we love — make great beer.

“Now, we’re down to about five schedule changes per week. We’re using data to assign uptime and run rates for different packages on a crew-by-crew basis, leading to new best practices being discovered.”

Image credit: Ninkasi Brewing Company