intelligent

USTRALIAN MANUFACTURING

PERFORMANCE software company , OFS , has signed a deal with Oregon-based craft brewer Ninkasi Brewing Company , removing manual processes for its manufacturing team and helping it to increase on-time-in-full ( OTIF ) orders from 40 % to 94 % as the brewery expands its product portfolio .

Founded in 2005 and famous for its Total Domination IPA , Ninkasi makes approximately 150,000 barrels of beer every year . The craft brewery has also recently expanded its operations to contract out its production lines to budding brewers and producers of canned cocktails , hard seltzers and other popular drink lines .

The new production model led Ninkasi to rethink its approach to data capture and efficiency improvement initiatives and seek a provider that could help it reduce downtime , speed up product changeovers and improve its production scheduling .

“ When we were small , it was easier to keep up with production demand , but we reached a point of growth and diversity where we needed a new approach ,” said Daniel Sharp , Director of Brewing Process Development , Ninkasi . “ We were intrigued by the overall equipment effectiveness ( OEE ) standard and carefully evaluated providers that could help us understand how we measured up .”

Ninkasi deployed OFS ’ line performance software system , OFS-X , on its packaging line to provide accurate , real-time OEE data and detailed insights into the length of production , length of changeover , how well lines were performing and how different shifts and crews were performing . This gave the