Compact and efficient beverage packaging line

Buffalo Rock is the sixth largest bottler of PepsiCo and was named the 2006 bottler by the Beverage Industry. Buffalo Rock's awards are inseparable from the rational arrangement of its production lines and the company’s pursuit of continuous innovation.

Factory Overview

Buffalo Rock's headquarters facility is located in Birmingham, Alabama and has been filling soft drinks since 1966. Today, the factory has a building area of ​​more than 400,000 square feet, and its annual output has reached more than 50 million boxes. Buffalo Rock has realized efficient production by utilizing existing sites and tapping the maximum potential of space and manpower.

Buffalo Rock's Birmingham plant has 8 production lines (3 cans, 4 PET lines and 1 box-in-bag line production) and it produces its own brand (eg Ginger Ale, Grapico, and Dr. Wham) as well as Cadbury Schweppes and Pepsi filled carbonated drinks. In 2006, 90% of the products manufactured by Buffalo Rock were produced by its own factories and the rest were purchased from outside. Not long ago, Buffalo Rock acquired Southeast Canners (Colombia, Georgia) as a necessary addition to its existing facility. The latter three bottling lines can produce 15 million boxes a year, which will significantly reduce the amount of Buffalo Rock's outsourcing.

Over the past 40 years, Buffalo Rock's Birmingham plant has been expanding. Four years ago, it just added a new production line.

Effective use of space and human resources

The Birmingham factory employs a total of 300 employees and is divided into four groups. It operates in two consecutive shifts every day for continuous all-weather production. The working time for each class is 12 hours. Each group of employees works 3 days in the first week and 4 days in the second week.

Wherever possible, the machines in the factory are absolutely placed side by side to improve manpower and space efficiency. George Garrison, general manager of Buffalo Rock's production, was responsible for the production of the two plants. He said: “The factory has a limited area, but we have to put a lot of equipment. We put a lot of effort into the design and layout of the factory, allowing an operator to control Two devices allow employees to achieve maximum efficiency."

For example, Buffalo Rock's No. 4 20 oz. PET line, and No. 5 12 oz./20 oz./24 oz. PET integrated line are in close proximity. Two operators are responsible for controlling the two lines on the two lines. Machine and two packaging machines. Sometimes an operator has to control three devices, such as a separator to separate pallets.

Improve the logistics process

After the product is filled and packaged, the box full of products is delivered to the factory warehouse. This warehouse holds 750,000 boxes of products almost every day, waiting for delivery to Buffalo Rock's 14 distribution centers. Employees in charge of warehouses carry between 90 and 100 trucks a day. In summer, this number will increase to 150 to 180.

Each distribution center has to make forecasts to guide the progress of production. This forecast also includes a dock loading plan that informs the warehouse staff how many pallets are required for each product, so that warehouse staff can purposely load products into trucks.

Nick Ritter, operations manager at Buffalo Rock, said: “The production department sees the distribution center as its own customer.” The operations department can provide special additional supplies to prevent the sales volume of a distribution center from exceeding the expected sales volume. Not happen. Ritter explained: "If a customer needs a product and we don't, the operations department will be able to solve this problem to ensure that when customers want a product, we can provide it."

Warehouses are organized by package size. The trucks are loaded according to the tickets of the distribution center. This order includes the products of the Birmingham factory as well as other locally produced products. The product enters and exits the warehouse in a first-in, first-out order. Two forklift trucks load two pallets on the truck at a time. There is a three-piece ticket on each pallet. The forklift driver tears off one of them and hands it to the dock manager. The supervisor then checks all the tickets to confirm that the order is correct. This tracking system can also tell the company where each product flows into the market for future needs.

Upgrade factory equipment

At the Birmingham plant, a cartoning machine was newly purchased for loading PET bottles into the carton; and a screw conveyor was used to transport the finished product to the palletizer. Scott Parks, vice president of manufacturing and operations at Buffalo Rock, said the company has a budget every year to upgrade packaging, processing, or other equipment. This year, this budget may be 5 million U.S. dollars, which will be used to improve new factories and purchase a new production line.

Buffalo Rock’s continuous improvement goals include all of the company’s departments. The Logistics, Manufacturing, Operations, and Plant divisions of the Birmingham facility received the 2006 Alabama Quality Award, all of which contributed to Buffalo Rock’s excellence and brilliance.

Liu Chao/Translation

Reprinted from: Huayin Media