Challenge
Kookaburra's Moorabbin manufacturing facility was experiencing growing demand for its flagship Turf Ball range. Leadership believed additional production capacity was required but lacked visibility of the operational constraints limiting performance and the most effective path forward.
Long throughput times, high work-in-progress (WIP) levels, fragmented process flow and equipment bottlenecks were constraining output, increasing complexity and making future capacity planning difficult. An assessment found that it could take approximately over a month for a product to move through parts of the production process despite less than 15 minutes of actual processing time.
Cinc were engaged to assess the end-to-end manufacturing process, identify capacity improvement opportunities and develop a practical roadmap to support future growth.
Approach
The review combined detailed operational analysis with hands-on implementation support, working alongside both Engineering and Production teams to improve flow, reduce constraints and increase capacity.
The work focused on:
End-to-End Process Analysis
Mapping material and information flows to identify throughput constraints, bottlenecks, inventory accumulation and sources of operational waste.
Bottleneck Identification and Line Balancing
Assessing cycle times, equipment utilisation and process dependencies to identify the true constraints limiting factory output. Injection moulding and quilt winding were identified as key bottlenecks.
Manufacturing Cell Design
Redesigning key production areas into flow-oriented manufacturing cells to improve productivity, reduce handling and shorten throughput times.
Inventory and Flow Improvement
Reducing work-in-progress inventory, compressing throughput times and improving visibility of shortages, surpluses and production priorities.
Visual Management and Performance Systems
Implementing visual management, production planning tools and new operating rhythms to improve coordination, accountability and decision-making.
Capital Investment Strategy
Developing business cases and implementation plans for targeted capital investments where operational analysis demonstrated clear capacity constraints.
Team members involved: Peter Campbell and Michael Bell