22% → 54% OEE in the first nine months

$350,000 reduction in annual maintenance spend

Reduced reliance on 3rd party support for breakdowns

12 → 16 railcars packaged per day. The operation subsequently reached new production records of 20 railcars in a single day.

95% reduction in overtime. The operation moved from three shifts, six days per week to two shifts, 4.5 days per week while maintaining the same weekly production volume.

$850,000 annual labor cost savings from eliminating 3rd shift.

Industry: Logistics Packaging/Transloading
Environment: Single-site operation | 2 automated packaging lines | 6-7 day, 3-shift operating schedule
Situation: Two state-of-the-art bulk packaging lines that were poorly maintained and requiring $700k+ per year to maintain.

THE CHALLENGE.

The operation had invested in two state-of-the-art automated bulk packaging lines, but years of inconsistent maintenance practices had significantly reduced their performance.

Downtime had become routine. Maintenance costs exceeded $700,000 annually, third-party technicians were regularly called in to resolve breakdowns, and weekend overtime was required simply to recover lost production.

The equipment had the capability. The organization wasn't getting it from the equipment.

Maintenance and production were also increasingly frustrated with one another. Downtime triggered finger-pointing instead of structured problem solving, and neither team had reliable performance data to identify where capacity was actually being lost.

The result was an expensive cycle:

Breakdown → Temporary Fix → Lost Production → Overtime → Outside Support → Repeat

WHAT WE FOUND.

The problem wasn't one catastrophic equipment issue. It was a combination of capability gaps, weak maintenance systems, limited performance visibility, and strained teamwork.

The maintenance team had limited industrial maintenance experience and little formal training on the packaging equipment. Troubleshooting was largely reactive, leading to unnecessary parts replacement, band-aids, and recurring failures.

Basic preventive maintenance activities were inconsistent, allowing smaller issues to develop into larger and more expensive breakdowns.

At the same time, production measured success almost entirely by the number of railcars packaged. There was no meaningful measurement of equipment availability, performance, quality, or the causes of downtime.

Without that visibility, the organization could see what it produced but not what was preventing it from producing more.

When internal troubleshooting reached its limits, OEMs and third-party providers were called. Individual visits could cost $10,000 or more, and outside technicians had effectively become an extension of the maintenance department.

WHAT WE DID.

1. Built the right maintenance capacity - Recruited an experienced maintenance engineer to lead the function, strengthen technical capability, and develop the internal team.

2. Made OEE the OPERATING SCORECARD - Introduced Overall Equipment Effectiveness to establish expected run rates, quantify losses, identify sources of downtime, and create a common measure of performance. The measurement process was eventually automated.

3. Turned breakdowns into knowledge - Developed practical troubleshooting guides for operators and maintenance technicians. As new failures were diagnosed and solved, the lessons were captured so the organization didn't have to solve the same problem twice.

4. Strengthened preventive maintenance - Established greater discipline around routine equipment care and preventive maintenance, shifting the organization from responding to failures toward preventing them.

5. Put Production and Maintenance on the same team - Created shared troubleshooting practices and expectations that required both groups to solve problems together. Downtime became a business problem to solve not an opportunity to assign blame.

THE RESULT.

22% → 54% OEE in the first nine months

$350,000 reduction in annual maintenance spend

Reduced reliance on 3rd party support for breakdowns

12 → 16 railcars packaged per day. The operation subsequently reached new production records of 20 railcars in a single day.

95% reduction in overtime. The operation moved from three shifts, six days per week to two shifts, 4.5 days per week while maintaining the same weekly production volume.

$850,000 annual labor cost savings from eliminating 3rd shift.

Reliance on OEM and third-party breakdown support also declined substantially as internal capability improved.

THE BUSINESS IMPACT.

The transformation went beyond maintenance.

Higher equipment reliability and better performance visibility allowed the operation to produce the same weekly volume in significantly fewer operating hours. Maintenance spending declined, overtime was nearly eliminated, and an entire production shift was removed.

Together, the changes generated approximately:

$1.2M IN RECURRING ANNUAL SAVINGS

Those savings flowed directly to operating profitability while simultaneously increasing the productive capability of the facility.

Just as importantly, the culture changed.

Equipment was better maintained. Work areas became cleaner and more orderly. Production and maintenance began solving problems together. And employees shifted from simply getting through the shift to challenging themselves to set new production records.

THE TAKEAWAY.

THE EQUIPMENT DIDN'T CHANGE. THE SYSTEM AROUND IT DID.

World-class equipment alone doesn't create world-class performance.

By building internal capability, creating visibility through OEE, strengthening preventive maintenance, and aligning production and maintenance around shared outcomes, the organization transformed both the performance of its equipment and the performance of its people.

They stopped managing breakdowns and started managing performance.