Louisiana Fish Fry Saw 12% OEE Improvement in First 9 Months

Louisiana Fish Fry outgrew two other manufacturing productivity solutions before seeing results with Mingo Smart Factory.

OEE Improvement  contextualized data  maximizing roi

Louisiana Fish Fry only truly began to see results in their OEE after addressing the needs on the factory floor with Mingo Smart Factory’s dashboard. They wanted to focus on two areas to improve their efficiency:

  1. A more visual factory with scoreboards that could encourage employees to monitor their progress and make real-time adjustments if they were having a bad day.
  2. A better understanding of the volume and causes for their frequent downtime. This functioned as both a motivational tool for employees, as well as a focal point to help maintenance crews prioritize their efforts to improve uptime.

Louisiana Fish Fry saw a 12% increase in their OEE in the first 9 months of implementation with Mingo Smart Factory using these improvements.

Louisiana Fish Fry

Outgrowing Vorne & Worximity

Louisiana Fish Fry’s partnership was not their first foray into production monitoring software. Or their second.

Their first attempt at manufacturing analytics was Vorne. The digital board was the first time someone other than the line operator could see what was going on. However, coding the downtime causes was time consuming and needed an IT professional who was familiar with the manual coding process. It was also wasn’t easy to export data.

The next stop on their journey was Worximity. Worximity had a more flexible cloud hosted system, but the rigid dashboard meant that Louisiana Fish Fry had to reconfigure their data to fit into it. 

They read case studies of how Mingo Smart Factory helped other companies in the consumer packaging sector. Improving their OEE in the first nine months was only the first sign that they had made the right choice.

One of the main draws for Chris Mericas, Sr. Operations Analyst at Louisiana Fish Fry, was the ability to modify the dashboard to make it fit what they were already doing. “The software we were using before was very rigid and it took a lot of manipulation to get exactly what we needed. But with Mingo it’s changed my day to day because I can tell it, ‘Send me the data in XYZ Format,’ and it does it every day right to my inbox. I get what I need, and that part of my day is done.”

What is a Good Day vs. a Bad Day?

Mr. Mericas needed to know when his plant was having a good day. “The obvious goal is to improve your efficiency. You want to get more throughput with the same amount of time or same amount of money.”

His two needs to address this were:

  • Visual representation tied into the job schedule to help workers self-motivate their progress
  • Analytics to address why there was excessive downtime

The scoreboards set up on television screens around the plant helped workers see when they were doing well (green light) and when there was room for improvement (red light). Self-motivating the staff was a key management strategy for high quality products.

The analytical functions within the Mingo Smart Factory dashboard helped Louisiana Fish Fry identify downtime causes and where they needed to focus their maintenance efforts. Not just how often a machine was down, but why. Data determines where to add automation and where it can help to improve existing processes. Real-time data with context can stop problems as they happen.

“Real time data with no context has no value.” Bryan Sapot, CEO, Mingo Smart Factory

One example of downtime that Mingo Smart Factory helped identify was a hyper vigilant operator that wanted to make sure that each bag was perfect coming out of the machine. “There are established tolerances so we were able to coach them away from these short stops to correct minor defects that were perfectly allowable within our quality policy and eliminate those short interruptions.”

H&T Waterbury reduced their microstops by 71% using data collected through Mingo Smart Factory.

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Maximizing ROI Decisions

“We had to know the availability of a spare part as opposed to a refurbished one. That allowed us to quickly do an ROI on new equipment or spare parts. To say - we need this, it's costing us X amount of money, and it'll pay for itself in a week. Let's go ahead and do it.”
Chris Mericas
Chris Mericas
Louisiana Fish Fry

The Mingo Smart Factory dashboard helped identify large stop causes such as equipment breakdowns. When budgeting for capital planning, Louisiana Fish Fry can analyze historical data to see:

  • What has been the biggest hindrance to us?
  • Where have we seen the largest source of downtime?
  • Can we spend money to address that?

Most customers see a return on investment within the first three months of working with Mingo Smart Factory. Contextualized data helps our partners maximize efficiency, manage availability and take the guesswork out of their next expansion.

Check out our Cycle Time Calculator to get an idea of how productive your current set-up is.

Who Is Using Mingo at Louisiana Fish Fry? Everyone!

Mericas may be Mingo Smart Factory’s biggest fan, but his VP of Operations is a close second. “From the Operators all the way up to the VP of Operations, people are looking at Mingo either in the dashboard, on the computer, or through the visual factory screens daily.”

Scoreboards are set up like virtual white stacks with green, red, and yellow indicators. Operators are using the boards to self-motivate themselves. Instead of overseeing the progress of each line while physically on the floor, the supervision team can shift their priorities to maximize capacity.

Chris Mericas

Mingo is different than the other software packages that we tried, in that you can start with something and then manipulate it as you learn, and as you grow with it. Don’t worry about getting something wrong initially. Get started and have confidence that you’ll be able to correct it as you get deeper into the implementation.

Chris Mericas

Louisiana Fish Fry Sr. Operations Analyst

Top Case Study Takeaways

  1. Improved Efficiency: The implementation of Mingo Smart Factory’s solutions led to significant improvements in efficiency for Louisiana Fish Fry. This included reducing downtime, optimizing production processes, and enhancing overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

  2. Enhanced Visibility: By leveraging real-time data and analytics provided by Mingo Smart Factory’s platform, Louisiana Fish Fry gained enhanced visibility into their manufacturing operations. This allowed them to make informed decisions, identify areas for improvement, and proactively address issues on the factory floor.

  3. Increased Profitability: The adoption of Mingo Smart Factory’s solutions resulted in increased profitability for Louisiana Fish Fry. Through improved efficiency, reduced downtime, and better resource utilization, the company was able to lower costs, boost productivity, and ultimately drive greater profitability in their manufacturing operations.

Louisiana Fish Fry