The Monday morning meeting
The operations manager asks the shift supervisors how last week went. The night shift supervisor says it was a good week apart from Wednesday, when the screen blocked. The day shift supervisor says they baled plenty of OCC and the film line was slow. Nobody has numbers, or rather everyone has different numbers on different clipboards.
The infeed weight is on the loading shovel's scale, or estimated from the weighbridge. Bales are on the baler operator's sheet. Downtime is in the supervisor's notebook. Residue is known only when the skip is weighed out. Putting them together is a job someone does at month end, if at all.
So the meeting runs on impressions. The night shift feels busier because it is, but nobody can say whether it produces more per hour fed. The film line feels slow, but is that the picking, the screen or the material coming in? Every answer is someone's opinion, and the loudest opinion tends to win.
Why shift data is scattered
A MRF produces data at every stage, but each stage has its own way of recording it.
- Infeed tonnage is estimated from loading shovel buckets or weighbridge totals.
- Bale counts and weights are written at the baler.
- Stoppages and their causes are in a supervisor's notebook.
- Residue and rejects are weighed out days later.
- Nobody combines them per shift, so comparing shifts is impossible.
What scattered records cost
Without shift-level numbers, you cannot tell which shift or crew performs better, which stoppage causes cost the most, or whether a change to the picking line helped. Decisions about staffing, maintenance and equipment are made on feel.
Recovery matters most. If residue is rising, material you could have sold is going out as waste, and you pay to dispose of it. Finding that out a month later means a month of lost value.
Maintenance suffers in the same way. A baler that stops for a few minutes several times a shift never looks like a problem on any one day, and the pattern only shows when someone adds up the notebook entries. By then the part has usually failed properly.
How we build shift production records
What we build puts each shift's inputs, outputs and stoppages in one record.
- Infeed weights come from the loading shovel's scale, a belt weigher, or the weighbridge, depending on what you have, recorded per shift.
- Bale production by grade and weight comes from the baler record, with each bale timestamped to the shift.
- Stoppages are logged on a tablet by the supervisor or operators with start, end and cause from a short list, such as blockage, screen, baler, power, awaiting material.
- Residue and rejects are recorded when weighed, and allocated to shifts by time.
- The supervisor completes a short handover at shift end with anything the numbers do not show.
- A morning report shows each shift's throughput, bales by grade, estimated recovery and stoppage time by cause, with trends over weeks.
| Measure | Source |
|---|---|
| Tonnes fed | Shovel scale, belt weigher or weighbridge |
| Bales by grade | Baler record |
| Stoppages by cause | Tablet log |
| Residue | Weighed out, allocated by time |
| Handover notes | Supervisor at shift end |
The Monday meeting with shift records
The operations manager opens the week's report. Throughput was steady except Wednesday night, when the screen blockage cost several hours, recorded with cause and duration. The film line's output was low on the day shift all week, and the handover notes mention a missing picker. Residue rose slightly on the night shift.
The meeting discusses those three things, with numbers, and decides what to change. Next week's report will show whether it worked.
Is your MRF run on clipboards?
- Shift performance is described in words, not numbers.
- Infeed, bales, stoppages and residue are recorded separately.
- You cannot compare shifts or crews.
- Stoppage causes are not recorded consistently.
- Residue trends are discovered at month end.