Client Success Story
Trivium Packaging Transforms Production, Improves Visibility by 99%
Industry: Manufacturing
Solution: Microsoft Power Platform
Introduction
Trivium Packaging, a $3.3 billion sustainable packaging solutions leader, faced production inefficiencies and waste in their Youngstown, Ohio facility due to limited visibility and delayed reporting. With 60+ locations producing diverse packaging for top global brands, Trivium required timely, accurate data to improve efficiency, detect quality issues, reduce waste, and enable faster, smarter decision-making.
Challenge
Outdated and complex infrastructure
Like many manufacturers, Trivium’s production data was scattered across multiple systems and unstructured spreadsheets, hindering consolidation and analysis. They also relied on paper reports that employees manually completed at the end of their shifts and filed away in cabinets.
Need for streamlined, modern analytics
As a result, production information was two or three days old before business leaders could identify anomalies in throughput, quality, and capacity utilization. With delays stretching up to 72 hours, scrap piled up, machines went down several hours for troubleshooting, and fulfillment fell behind with no way to correct mistakes.
Manual processes and inefficient systems
Trivium was falling short of its overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) goal but couldn’t isolate the cause due to lack of visibility. To improve efficiency and speed up decision-making, they needed a data strategy and modern business intelligence to increase visibility and shorten lead times.
With delays stretching up to 72 hours:
Scrap piled up, machines went down several hours for troubleshooting, and fulfillment fell behind with no way to correct mistakes.
Solution
Optimizing Overall Equipment Effectiveness and Reducing Waste with Modern Business Intelligence
Trivium began working with MCA Connect due to our deep manufacturing expertise and success with similar analytics projects. To provide insights into Trivium’s operations, we first focused on production. Working with Trivium leadership, our team developed a real-time analytics platform for full plant floor visibility pulling data from Trivium’s Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and production scheduling software.
To create visibility across teams, we reorganized the data and displayed it with Microsoft Power BI. A collection of software services, apps, and connectors, Power BI turns unrelated data sources into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights.
After this transition, Trivium went from a handful of tables in Excel to a huge database with more than a thousand metrics touching all areas of their business. These areas include finance, supply chain, operations, service, and customer care.
To provide Trivium’s leaders with near real-time information on machine performance, we created three operational reports.
LINE STATUS
12-hour view of line performance, allowing employees to quickly identify and address potential issues. With dashboards displayed in offices and on the floor, employees can easily see running time, downtime, changeover, short stops, and pauses.
LINE SUMMARY
Detailed information about unexpected downtime events or issues requiring intervention. With data displayed on end caps and monitors stationed throughout the shop, managers can identify problems within minutes and track time to resolution.
SHIFT TRANSFER
Machine performance, production goals, and requests for action. With interactive dashboards at each workstation, operators can easily see current shift production information and a 24-hour history. Before, operators had to manually check paper records filed away in cabinets to uncover recent issues at their workstation.
Results
After Trivium integrated issue documentation into their business intelligence strategy, one operator was able to spot a problem with machine specifications before it hindered production. The machine produced aluminum cans and a previous run had resulted in significant scrap and hours of troubleshooting.
Video Success Story
Watch as Trivium Packaging shares how they overcame limited visibility to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and enable faster, smarter decision-making.
What’s next?
Increased efficiency through daily insights
Building on this success, Trivium plans to increase efficiency through additional daily production insights. They also plan to explore how Microsoft Azure can enable them to seamlessly scale the solution across additional facilities and how they can leverage Power Platform to automate the last mile of their business processes.
About MCA Connect
Through passion and deep industry expertise, MCA Connect® helps manufacturers succeed by unlocking innovation with actionable business insights. Our strategic solution and industry intelligence help manufacturers gain visibility, improve profitability, and achieve a competitive edge. Contact us today to learn how we can help solve your biggest manufacturing challenges.
