Client Success Case Study

Food & Beverage Manufacturer Eliminates Persistent Downtime Through Strategic Partnership

Food & Beverage Manufacturer Eliminates Persistent Downtime Through Strategic Partnership

The Company

An international food and beverage manufacturer was losing money due to unscheduled maintenance on their adhesive dispensing equipment. Their main supplier for service, parts and equipment was not responding to their production needs.

Since APPLIED was already established as a trusted adhesive solution partner for several years, the plant manager reached out to our team for a solution to their persistent problems.

The Dilemma

Like many manufacturers, the customer didn’t have enough in-house technical support to properly maintain equipment, so they did not implement a preventive maintenance program.

They had to rely on individual suppliers for support when things went wrong (and they regularly did). At the time of inspection, their adhesive lines had many malfunctioning dispensing units, clogged nozzles and leaking applicators. As a result of the lack of maintenance, the customer encountered significant downtime and rework due to improper carton sealing.

Soon after working with their manager overseeing maintenance and engineering, APPLIED made two major changes to their parts and equipment strategy:

  • Solution: Part 1
  • Solution: Part 2
Solution: Part 1

Solution: Part 1

An equipment service technician walked their production lines and helped spec out new equipment for their process.

APPLIED installed and fine-tuned this equipment to their process, virtually eliminating their equipment downtime. APPLIED also took the time to train their maintenance staff on the equipment. This almost immediate improvement in uptime and savings helped establish APPLIED’s rapport with the customer on their dispense equipment and gained their trust.

Solution: Part 2

Solution: Part 2

To help augment their understaffed maintenance staff, the client took advantage of our Vantage Service Plan, allowing APPLIED to be an extension of their team.

The plan includes regularly scheduled preventive maintenance (PM), preferred support from APPLIED’s equipment service technicians, and a discount on additional service, equipment and parts.

“Our partnership with APPLIED Adhesives has reduced downtime: With the new set up, we aren’t over-spraying our BIB Lidder, which was causing glue build-up, resulting in lid jams and unscheduled maintenance.”

Results

Why It Worked…and Keeps Working

APPLIED is a custom adhesive solution provider: we know which equipment and parts will best serve each customer’s purpose. Most parts and equipment suppliers only know how to repair their own equipment. APPLIED’s technicians are factory trained on multiple brands of equipment so we can do it all. We have multiple technicians around the country that improve our responsiveness.

With two annual PM check-ups on covered equipment in the facility, our technicians are able to thoroughly go through the equipment, changing out anything else that shows signs of wear and that could cause downtime or damage other parts in the system. APPLIED’s Vantage Service Plan saved this manufacturer – and all its customers – time, money and headaches by improving overall equipment effectiveness.

And if there is an emergency, one of APPLIED’s technicians can be there within hours.

  • 26% reduction in adhesive usage with the installation of new equipment
  • 500-hour reduction in downtime per year

The Bottom Line: Since our involvement, the customer has seen success with their new hot-melt systems and loves finally getting the attention and care they deserve!