Supply Chain Consultants Develops Scheduling Solution for Mother Parkers' Fort Worth Plant
Unique scheduling algorithms allow coffee and tea manufacturer to improve schedule attainment and reduce costly overtime
WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 7 - Supply Chain Consultants (supplychain.com), designer and supplier of the Zemeter suite of supply chain management (SCM) software products, announced today that Mother Parkers, a leading coffee and tea manufacturer, has implemented a new scheduling solution at its Fort Worth, Texas manufacturing facility. Supply Chain Consultants (SCC) developed the unique scheduling algorithms for Mother Parkers, with the goal of improving schedule attainment, customer service, and reducing overtime.
"The production of coffee is an extremely complex process with success dependent upon a tightly coupled schedule," said Dennis Paynter, vice president of coffee operations for Mother Parkers. "SCC was able to understand our business and manufacturing challenges to develop a solution that is unique to Mother Parkers and helps us continue to improve our scheduling functions by totally synchronizing manufacturing in a way that ensures our ability to deliver quality products to our customers on time."
Following a successful scheduling implementation at Mother Parkers' Canadian facility located in Mississauga, Ontario, the company again turned to SCC for a solution in its Fort Worth plant. Because the Fort Worth facility is much newer than the facility in Mississauga, the manufacturing process already had much greater flexibility with how the product transitions from roasting to packaging. The first phase of the project involved SCC working with the Fort Worth facility to minimize transition times on the packaging lines, then stage the production at the roaster and grinder levels.
The second phase of the implementation provides Mother Parkers with enhancements specific to the requirements of the newer Fort Worth facility. This phase of the scheduling solution provides a more efficient use of existing equipment to address the critical timing of moving coffee from roasting to a tempering environment, thus providing Mother Parkers with additional capacity. SCC project managers also developed a linear programming model that allows schedulers to analyze crewing requirements on the packaging lines. This faster, more accurate analysis enables plant managers to ensure there are an adequate number of operators and utility technicians available to run the processing schedule, creating a better utilization of personnel and ultimately reducing costly overtime.
"Mother Parkers is known for providing quality coffee and tea to its customers, while also using the best technology to efficiently manage production," said Sujit Singh, Supply Chain Consultants' chief operating officer. "By providing a unique scheduling solution that specifically addresses Mother Parkers' manufacturing challenges, SCC is helping the company continue to build on this reputation of quality and service."
About Mother Parkers
Established in 1912, Mother Parkers has grown into one of the largest private label coffee and tea manufacturers in North America, with facilities in Ontario (Mississauga and Ajax), Quebec (Montreal) and Texas (Fort Worth). As marketers of esteemed brands including Higgins & Burke Gourmet, Mother Parkers, Brown Gold, Martinson and Beech Nut, Mother Parkers is an expert in mainstream and specialty coffee, tea and complimentary beverages. Firmly rooted in tradition, family-owned Mother Parkers skillfully combines technology and new product innovation with its values of integrity, trust and honesty.
About Supply Chain Consultants
Supply Chain Consultants, founded in 1993, is a supply chain management software and services company with headquarters in Wilmington, Del., and European operations located in Antwerp, Belgium. SCC's Zemeter software and related services help manufacturers better plan demand, manage inventories, plan production and replenishment and schedule operations. Zemeter enhances productivity and reduces operating costs at a wide variety of companies including Hexion Chemicals, Terra Industries, INEOS, Sunsweet Growers and ANADIGICS.
For more information, see supplychain.com.
Source: Supply Chain Consultants
CONTACT: David Wonderling of Supply Chain Consultants, +1-302-738-9215, ext. 245, dwonderling@supplychain.com;
or Michelle Perkins for Supply Chain Consultants, +1-919-678-9200, mperkins@dprgroup.com
Web site: http://supplychain.com/
