Operating system transformation in consumer goods manufacturing

In today’s highly competitive consumer goods industry, manufacturers operate in an environment defined by intense cost pressure, increasing product complexity, and rising customer expectations. Success is no longer driven solely by scale, but by the ability to execute operations with precision, flexibility, and efficiency.

To remain competitive, organizations must continuously optimize their manufacturing systems—improving asset utilization, reducing waste, and ensuring reliable, high-quality output at scale. This requires more than isolated improvements; it demands a structured, end-to-end approach to operational excellence.

This case study explores how a leading European manufacturer of private-label household and professional cleaning products transformed its operating system to address inefficiencies, unlock capacity, and deliver sustainable performance improvements across its production and supply chain operations.

The company and its position in the consumer goods market

The company is a leading European manufacturer and supplier of private-label and contract-manufactured products for the household and professional cleaning and hygiene markets. With over 15 factories and 5 offices, the company serves a broad customer base across Europe and Asia Pacific, partnering with more than 90% of Europe’s leading retailers.

Operating in a highly competitive and commoditized consumer goods environment, it focuses on delivering high-quality products at competitive prices while ensuring reliable service, consistent supply, and on-time delivery. Its extensive manufacturing network provides unmatched production capacity and flexibility, supported by a 100-strong product development team dedicated to innovation and sustainability.

With more than 350 trucks dispatched daily, logistics efficiency and operational excellence are critical to maintaining performance and customer satisfaction.

Driving operational excellence across multiple fronts

To address increasing complexity and performance challenges, the company deployed a series of focused transformation initiatives across its operations. These initiatives targeted key areas, including production systems, equipment efficiency, product launches, and planning processes.

Planning & diagnostic phase

During the diagnostic phase, several structural inefficiencies were identified across the plant. Many operational procedures were not standardized, particularly in areas such as mixing, packaging, and warehousing.

The high number of product references added complexity to operations, while inefficiencies in internal transport and packaging processes generated significant material waste. In addition, filling equipment was not operating at optimal capacity due to gaps in maintenance and a lack of standardization.

These challenges were further explored through a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) exercise, which provided visibility over end-to-end processes and highlighted key sources of variability, waste, and inefficiencies across the operation.

Figure 1 – Value Stream Mapping (VSM) example

The path to improvement

To address these challenges, Standard Work was implemented across key production areas, improving consistency and operational control. Maintenance improvements were also introduced on critical lines to enhance equipment performance.

Building on these initiatives, a new planning model was developed, alongside actions to reduce product complexity and non-quality costs. In addition, Kobetsu Kaizen methodologies were applied to improve OEE on key lines.

Alongside these efforts, work focused on evaluating packaging alternatives, such as cardboard versus plastic trays, and introducing Daily Kaizen routines to embed continuous improvement into daily operations.

The impact of the transformation

This initiative delivered over €1M in savings over one year. In addition to the financial impact, the project improved work organization, optimized the use of space and resources, enhanced operator capabilities in Kaizen methodologies, and reduced waste generation.

Operating system redesign at a home care plant

At one of the company’s home care production plants, operations were highly fragmented, with no consistent standards across mixing, packaging, and warehouse activities. This lack of standardization, combined with a high number of product references, introduced significant variability into daily operations.

In addition, inefficiencies in internal transport and packaging processes were generating material waste, while filling equipment was not operating at full capacity due to maintenance gaps and inconsistent routines. These issues were further exacerbated by frequent production stops caused by misalignment and handling inefficiencies.

Structured approach to transformation

To address these challenges, an end-to-end value stream diagnosis was conducted across both processing and packaging operations, identifying key inefficiencies and improvement opportunities.

Standard Work was implemented across critical areas, including mixing and warehouse operations, ensuring greater consistency and control. At the same time, a new planning model was introduced alongside initiatives to reduce product complexity.

To further drive performance improvements, structured problem-solving methodologies were applied to improve OEE on critical lines, supported by daily management routines and autonomous maintenance practices to sustain performance over time.

From inefficiency to impact

This transformation delivered a total annual impact of around €1M, combining €550k in cost reductions through operational efficiency improvements and €500k in growth enabled by increased production capacity.

Kobetsu Kaizen on autopalletiser

The autopalletising process was characterized by a lack of standardization and operational control. Pallet patterns were unclear, leading to confusion and overloading of the pallet magazine. Additionally, the equipment had suffered physical misalignment, and downtime data was not being accurately captured.

Figure 2 – Pallet stack height not defined

There was also no structured way to identify, track, or escalate issues to engineering teams, and no autonomous maintenance routines were in place. Visual management was limited, making it difficult for operators to understand operating conditions and constraints.

Key initiatives implemented

A Kobetsu Kaizen initiative was launched to stabilize and optimize the autopalletising process. Clear standards were introduced for pallet patterns, ensuring consistency and ease of execution.

The pallet magazine was realigned and reinforced, while visual management tools were implemented to define stacking parameters and improve operator guidance. SIC (Short Interval Control) boards were introduced to improve downtime tracking and visibility.

As part of these improvements, critical machine components were identified and labelled to support faster issue identification, and autonomous maintenance plans were implemented to increase equipment reliability. Additional improvements, including the installation of a box turner, further enhanced process stability.

Results that matter

Following the implementation, downtime performance improved significantly. While downtime had only been below 1.3% for 2 weeks in the previous 8-week period, it achieved this level 6 times in the 8 weeks after implementation.

Figure 3 – Visual management for pallet height

These improvements increased process stability and created the conditions for sustained performance going forward.

Product launch transformation (VSA)

The product launch process was highly inefficient and lacked structure. Launch reliability was low, and lead times were long and inconsistently managed. There were no clear KPIs in place, and roles and responsibilities were not aligned across regions and divisions.

The absence of a standardized process led to multiple loops between stakeholders, while frequent replanning resulted in inefficient procurement and the need to reorder components in small quantities.

The approach taken

To address these issues, a new structured product launch process was designed, incorporating defined milestones and decision gates. The approach was tailored depending on project complexity, ensuring flexibility while maintaining control.

To ensure consistent execution across projects, roles and responsibilities were standardized across regions and divisions, and standard lead times were defined for each task. Critical paths were established based on project complexity to improve planning reliability.

Finally, to translate these standards into day-to-day execution, Daily Kaizen routines were introduced within teams to improve prioritization and execution, and a portfolio tracking tool was developed to monitor progress. Additionally, pre-press processes were optimized to reduce artwork lead times.

Unlocking measurable impact

The transformation resulted in €3.5M in anticipated annual sales, along with €0.5M in savings through improved planning and reduced reordering. These improvements were achieved with an investment of approximately €100k.

In addition, significant improvements were observed in both lead time and launch reliability:

• Lead time reduced by 30%, from 34 weeks to 24 weeks.
• Launch date reliability increased from 15% to 50%, representing a +230% improvement.

Figure 4 – Graphs illustrating results achieved

This transformation not only delivered immediate financial impact but also strengthened cross-functional collaboration and embedded a more predictable, data-driven approach to product launches.

Overall impact and sustainable performance

Through a combination of system redesign, targeted Kaizen initiatives, and process standardization, the company successfully improved operational efficiency, increased capacity, and reduced costs across multiple areas of its operations.

Beyond financial impact, the transformation strengthened operational discipline, improved performance visibility and control, and embedded a culture of continuous improvement across teams.

This multi-faceted approach enabled this company to better respond to the challenges of a highly competitive consumer goods market while building a strong foundation for sustained operational excellence.

We respect our clients’ confidentiality agreements. While names have been changed or omitted, the results are real.