Change part engineering enable bottling manufacturers to capitalise on production efficiencies

Case Study: Alternative Engineering

The continued accuracy of Alternative Engineering’s engineering services including machined change parts enable bottling manufacturing companies to gain higher production efficiencies through increased output, reduced cost and OH&S improvements.

“When we first decided to try the process I was skeptical. However I must admit our usage throughout the factory of engineering plastics has moved from 100% OEM to 85% supplied by Alternative Engineering. The freedom to have locally manufactured parts is great.” David Gladwin, Inspection & Packaging Operations Manager, O-I Asia Pacific

“During my three year contract in China, there has not been a single quality or delivery related problem with Alternative Engineering products. I would be more than happy to recommend the services of Alternative Engineering to anybody looking for a reliable, high quality supplier.” Nigel Dart, ACI Guangdong Glass Company, China

Executive Summary

Continuous improvement and product innovation are the hallmarks of a forward-thinking manufacturing company. For the engineering teams, like Alternative Engineering, that implement large-scale production changes to support product innovation, speed, accuracy and performance are the factors that separate the mediocre from the best.

Once such project that illustrates Alternative Engineering’s accuracy and reliability is Treasury Wine Estate’s implementation of a new Lean & Green bottling technology. In this project, two things were paramount:

1. Implement the change with minimal interruption to output
2. Achieve production efficiencies without compromising quality, safety or output

Alternative Engineering designed and manufactured high quality change parts that allowed the new implementation to be promptly executed. Not only was the implementation seamless, Alternative’s extensive expertise in change part engineering has been instrumental in the resulting 10% increase in production line performance TWE now enjoys.

Why accuracy matters to high capacity production environments

Within a manufacturing facility that produces tens of thousands of bottles per hour, a breakdown in machinery or even the routine work of replacing parts can mean production downtime that can in turn lead to tens of thousands of dollars in potential losses.

Implementing large-scale changes to production requires whole production lines to be re-configured to accommodate the new packaging and what’s more, work without a hitch the minute the changes have been implemented.

Engineering precision is critical to these outcomes. The design of a new production process simply has to work and newly manufactured parts simply have to fit. Simple? Not quite. A single flaw in either of these steps can mean production is disrupted and significant losses incurred. Lack of accuracy in design concept, drawings, manufacture, materials and time estimates can all incur a hefty impact.

The importance of reliability and speed of delivery in change part engineering

Commonly understood, the wear and tear of machine components can cause interruption to production as suppliers often require long lead times to replace these and the costs of acquiring replacement components are high. Similarly too, reconfiguring machinery to support product innovation also requires new components and, sometimes, with a need for custom design.

The critical factors in both scenarios are engineering accuracy and speed of delivery. These are reliant on professional processes including engineering design, detailed documentation, quality control and responsive project management.

Alternative Engineering’s expertise in bottling and container handling production environments means they are able to manufacture and replace change parts in a short amount of time, within reasonable costs and with dependable technical accuracy.

For bottling manufacturers, this capability ensures minimal interruptions to output and increasing efficiencies through ongoing capacity and cost improvements.

Significantly minimized downtime and cost-effective, quality engineering outcomes, arms manufacturing companies, not only in bottling but also across a diverse range of industries, with engineering solutions that support their efforts toward continuous improvement and innovation that can ultimately benefit us all.

Alternative Engineering: Expertise and service you can rely on

Alternative Engineering is a leading Melbourne based engineering and manufacturing company that specialises in highcapacity production environments with particular expertise in the Food & Beverage sector.

With an impressive and growing client list, Alternative Engineering has built a reputation for exceptional customer-service, technical expertise, reliability and quality engineering outcomes.