Kiwiplan, Inc.

January 28, 2021

On behalf of Kiwiplan Global, we welcome our fellow AICC members to 2021! I think we would all agree that 2020, one way or the other, was an extraordinary year. While we all continue to battle the pandemic, our industry is properly placed to directly contribute to the essential operations that drive the nation’s supply chain. Our discussions with you, our valued partners, reveal an inspirational story of change and resiliency. We salute and support you.

Flexibility and cost reduction are the order of the day. Kiwiplan’s successful 24/7 global network model has been further enhanced to extend our remote workforce structured to complement our customers’ daily business operations and their strategic objectives. Together, we are tackling every barrier to success with commitment and focus. Kiwiplan’s seamless project management, training, implementations, and technical support are available online, including a new suite of web courses tailored for our remote customers.

Current conditions emphasize the need for cost reductions throughout your enterprise. Kiwiplan tools are built explicitly for this purpose.

David Mitchell, Kiwiplan’s Director of Global Consulting, cites the following key areas:

Drive cost reductions throughout your business with Kiwiplan

Reduce material cost and waste by automating your roll-stock ordering process, aligning your on-hand inventory for each season’s demand and your plant’s current performance—order the correct rollstock to minimize inventories and schedule for the lowest cost solution daily.
Reduce converting waste and downtime on the factory floor through the advanced, automated sequencing of your complex order mix tailored to exploit your complement of high speed and conventional machinery and adaptable to ever changing productivity rates and order entry.
Reduce labor and overtime costs with real-time views of load, lateness and machine hour utilization, designed to enhance your ability to make proactive, timely decisions in the scheduling of every machine hour.
Reduce shipping costs through the automated dispatch planning for all orders to warehouses and customers with live views of 3D trailer loading solutions, route maps and order statuses with the ability to drive a total plant, pull scheduling solution with visibility for all departments.

Our software development emphasizes increased alignment of financial status and exposure, cost estimating, pricing management and automated customer service workflows. Manufacturing integration enhances plant automation and user interaction in key areas for seamless connectivity to machines to automate the collection of machine setup, production, quality, downtime and waste data with accuracy.

Dashboards allow management to replace laborious data collection with dynamic business intelligence that highlights requisite focus areas and priorities through actionable and timely information. And as always, historical data is available for the calculation of calculating post-production costing in the business system which can be consolidated for single and multi-facility enterprise level analyses.

Additional cost reduction strategic development areas include:

Comprehensive Business Intelligence data warehouse
Customer and sales force portal
Connectivity with industry design systems
Administration of solid fibre top sheet ordering, roll sheeter and laminator scheduling, and sheet/roll consumption
Inline system connectivity for quality control and measurement systems with SPC performance statistics
Tactical dashboards for Consolidated Waste, Overall and Total Equipment Effectiveness
Key electronic links with digital printer equipment to support advanced automation, scheduling solutions and costing impact required for digital lines and operations

AICC leaders remain committed to significant CapEx and OpEx investments. New plants, new machines, infrastructure improvements and the evaluation of current ERP and Manufacturing Execution Software capabilities to enhance these investments are being made throughout our industry. As our current and prospective partners perform their due diligence, we appreciate the opportunity to share both a common vision for our future and a sustained partnership.

Please contact us to explore a solution for your business.

Dana is a 38-year IT veteran with 25 years in the corrugated packaging industry at Kiwiplan Inc.