MAINTENANCE MARCH 2020
POP CULTURE
This issue of Manufacturing Management may be our
sustainability special, but at AG Barr’s factory in Milton Keynes,
a di erent type of eco-warrior can be found on the shopfl oor
BY CHRIS BECK
For seven years, the AG Barr plant in Milton
Keynes has been home to production of
some of the UK’s best-known soft drinks,
including Rubicon and Tizer. The site
is forecast to produce some 28 million
cases of product in 2020, and keeping the
factory’s fi ve lines (one can, one plastic bottle and
three Tetra Pak cartons) running is a 24-hour job.
Good maintenance practice is therefore vital.
With a site-wide OEE
target of 64.5%, maintaining
the plant’s assets is the job of a
team of dedicated engineering
staff . However, they had found
themselves becoming inundated
with small, mundane tasks
that meant larger, more critical
jobs had to wait. Working with
consultancy fi rm, MCP, AG Barr
has combatted this by providing
its shopfl oor staff with basic
maintenance skills, enabling
them to undertake tasks ranging
from lubrication to belt and
chain maintenance.
These have been christened
Engineer Competence
Operators – or ECO-Warriors.
Dale Biggs, the plant’s upstream
production manager (pictured,
inset), explains more. “We
want to give our operators
more responsibility, and free up
the engineering team to allow
AG Barr’s
ECO-Warriors
are able to
undertake basic
maintenance
tasks
them to do the bigger project
work,” he says. “We see the
ECO-Warriors as fi rst aiders
– they’re the fi rst responders
who will do the basic steps,
before an engineer can get
involved if necessary.”
At the time of MM’s visit
to the factory, nine operators
were undergoing the weeklong,
MCP-run course. “The
training programme is really
important,” says MCP’s Tony
Winnard, who was delivering
the course. “If a process stops,
it can be as long as half an
hour or 45 minutes before an
engineer gets there, whereas
these people now have the
knowledge to identify the
problem and can have the line
back up and running in under
20 minutes. It’s saving as
much as half an hour, which is
valuable. After all, production
time is profi t time.”
Diversity is key
The group consisted of staff
from across production,
with all levels of seniority
represented. This, says Biggs,
40 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk