Systems Analysis Speeds Up Chipita's Food-Processing Line

George Liberopoulos () and Panagiotis Tsarouhas ()
Additional contact information
George Liberopoulos: University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, GR-38334 Volos, Greece
Panagiotis Tsarouhas: Chipita International, Inc., Lamia Industrial Park, GR-35100 Lamia, Greece

Interfaces, 2002, vol. 32, issue 3, 62-76

Abstract: Chipita International, Inc., one of Greece's largest manufacturers of bakery products and snacks, makes croissants on seven specialized processing lines in Lamia, Greece. A rise in the demand for croissants over the past years called for an increase in output. We undertook a project to determine cost-effective ways of speeding up the croissant-processing lines. We found that the efficiency of a typical line (the ratio of the effective processing rate to the nominal processing rate) was 86 percent because of equipment failures. To reduce the impact of failures and increase the efficiency of the line, we proposed to modify the line by inserting an in-process buffer-refrigerator having a capacity of 40,000 croissants in the middle of the line and by speeding up the part of the line upstream of the buffer. We found that the efficiency of the modified line would rise to just under 98 percent at a cost of a minor increase in in-process inventory. We estimated that the modified design of the line would bring in extra earnings and savings of $19,150 per week because of the resulting increase in output, the elimination of the first shift of the week, and the reduction of scrapped material during long failures.

Keywords: Industries:; agriculture–food.; Manufacturing:; automated; systems.; Reliability:; failure; models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.32.3.62.43 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:32:y:2002:i:3:p:62-76

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Interfaces from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().