Tetra Pak takes axe to customer operational costs

Filling and packaging operations are just one area of total costs which can be addressed. But the company says it is making this a special focus in the current economic climate.

Explaining the process, cluster OCR manager John Mitchell said: "The OCR is broken down into three core stages: the cost mapping phase, opportunity analysis and then implementation. The process is specific to individual customers' operations, in order to make it as bespoke as possible."

Typically, operational costs account for between 5% and 15% of total system costs for food manufacturers, according to Tetra Pak. In many cases, OCR is built into customers' contracts.

As the result of its OCR programme, over 60 companies worldwide are said to have already cut operational costs by an average of 12%. The Saudia Dairy & Foodstuff Company, for instance, succeeded in improving lost time in filling by 27%.