Optira Systems · Worked example: paint and coatings
Cleandown diagnostic for UK paint and coatings manufacturers
The order your batches run through the letdown vessels decides how many flushes, washes and full strips you do. In a fixed-price diagnostic, Optira costs that decision from your own batch log and tells you plainly whether re-sequencing is worth doing at your site.
- Price
- Fixed, quoted after a free call
- Format
- A few short calls
- From you
- One or two data extracts
One letdown vessel, one week
Sample plant, invented figuresThe vessel needed two strips, one wash and two flushes. WO1036 finished late.
The vessel needs one wash and one flush, and nothing is late. The alkyd batches move to other vessels.
A weekly decision that nobody has priced
Each week someone, usually one planner with a spreadsheet, decides which letdown vessel each batch goes in, and in what order. That sequence decides how many flushes, washes and full strips you do, and so how much solvent, waste uplift and vessel time goes on cleandown.
SAP, or whichever ERP you run, issues the works orders and holds the batch cards. It doesn't sequence them for cleandown. The decision sits between production and IT, so at most mid-size sites it is done well, by experience, and nobody has measured what it costs.
In one week at the sample plant, 4 of 64 changeovers caused 44% of the cleaning cost. The mechanism is real. The plant and its figures are invented, to show what the diagnostic measures.
Why it usually goes unmeasured
The tools that sequence batches properly are built for much larger groups. Below that, it's a person and a spreadsheet.
| How it's done today | Typical cost | What it does about the sequence |
|---|---|---|
| An experienced planner, Excel and a whiteboard | No direct cost | Good campaigns by instinct, a day at a time. No view across the whole week and every vessel at once, and no costing of each changeover. |
| Your ERP | Already paid for | Issues works orders, tracks materials and batch genealogy, and shows conflicts. It doesn't choose the order. |
| Advanced planning and scheduling systems | Tens of thousands of pounds, plus an IT project | Solve it properly, but are priced, scoped and staffed for multinational groups. |
| Optira | A fixed price to find out; a fixed-price build only if it pays | Your cleaning rules, your vessels and your existing Excel export. No system integration and no IT project. |
The diagnostic
You get a clear answer on whether re-sequencing is worth doing at your site, with the numbers behind it. It isn't a promised saving; it's the answer, whichever way it goes. The diagnostic runs as a few short calls spread over a week or so, so your people can fit them around the shift.
This is an example of how an engagement can run. Your site may need different calls or a different focus; that is settled on the scoping call, and the fixed price is agreed in writing before anything starts.
- Agreed in writing before anything starts
- Remote: a few short calls, on different days if that suits, and one or two data extracts
- No access to your systems
- Three-page report and a 45-minute readout call
- Starts with a free scoping call of up to an hour
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Scoping call free
First, I check that the diagnostic is worth your money: how many letdown vessels you run, who sets the sequence and how, whether you have an electronic batch log, and whether you're turning work away. If it isn't for you, I'll say so on the call.
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Data extracts before the calls
You send at least four weeks of batch history from your ERP: works order, material, vessel, start and finish times, quantity and due date. Send the header row first, so I can check the file reads correctly before the first call. You choose what leaves your site, and you can read how your data is handled.
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The calls remote, over about a week
- 60 minwith your production planner, on how next week's run order is decided
- 30 minwith operations, on where the cost really lands
- 30 minwith a shift supervisor, on how you actually clean between batches
Each call can be on a different day, whenever that person is free. I then replay your batch history in the order it actually ran, and cost every changeover with your own cleaning rules and your own solvent and waste prices.
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Report and readout typically within a week of the last call
You get a three-page report, then a 45-minute call to go through it with whoever needs to be there. The open questions and the "what would a fix need?" conversation get proper time here, rather than being squeezed into the earlier calls.
What the three pages say
Page 1 sets out your vessels, your clean types and your rules, in your words. If it doesn't read as though someone on your site wrote it, I correct it.
Page 2 is built from your data. The sequence comes from your log, and the cost of each clean comes from your rules and invoices. Solvent, waste, vessel-hours and late orders are shown separately.
Page 3 gives one of the three outcomes below, with the numbers that support it and what it would cost to act on.
Three possible answers, all useful
The diagnostic is designed to end in a decision. Which one depends on what your data shows.
A clear, measurable saving
The baseline is measured and re-sequencing gives a credible saving.
I recommend a fixed-price build, scoped and priced on page 3.
Something there, not yet provable
The data is thin, the rules are disputed, or the value depends on something still unknown.
I recommend a smaller fixed-price step, such as a replay of your full history, with a decision point after it.
Not worth doing
Your planner already sequences well, or the cost is small.
I recommend you don't build anything. The report shows why, and where the money more likely sits: batch sizing, campaign frequency against stock, or the grind stage.
Why there's no saving quoted hereAcross the plant configurations modelled, the saving varies by a factor of about four, depending on your product range, how tight your due dates are and what a late delivery costs you. Quoting a figure before seeing your batch log would be guesswork. Measuring it is what the diagnostic is for.
If your planner already does this wellIt happens at well-run sites, and the report will say so plainly. You'll know it for a fixed fee rather than assuming it.
See what you'd get
This is a complete three-page diagnostic for Calder Vale Coatings, an invented plant with six letdown vessels. It shows the format and depth of the real thing: the rules in the supervisor's words, the week replayed and costed, the re-sequenced run orders and a priced proposal.
Calder Vale, its people and every figure in the report are invented. The method is the one used on your data.
Download the sample reportIf it's worth building
Most projects start with the diagnostic, and I quote for a build once it's done. Where the problem is already clear, I may quote for a build directly. Either way, each step is a separate decision, made on the evidence from the one before.
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Diagnostic
Fixed price
It runs as described above and ends in a written answer: build, take a smaller next step, or don't build.
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Fixed-price build
Fixed price, quoted to the problem
It's a small tool that fits your planner's existing routine. Open works orders go in as the Excel export you already use, and a proposed run order for each vessel comes out, with the clean before each batch and its cost against the current plan.
- Your planner keeps the decision, and can accept, edit or ignore the run order
- No ERP integration and no IT project
- Proved first on twelve months of your history, then run alongside your planner before you accept it
- Milestone payments. The code and documentation are yours
- The diagnostic fee is credited against the build if you order within 60 days
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Monthly support
Fixed monthly fee
It keeps the tool right as your plant changes.
- Re-tuning when you add a vessel, a resin family or a product range
- A one-page value report each quarter: cleans avoided, solvent saved and hours freed, against your own history
- Email support, with a response within two working days
- Cancel on three months' notice
Who you'll work with
Alex IevinsDirector, Optira Systems Ltd
Optira Systems is a small specialist firm doing production-scheduling and optimisation work for UK process manufacturers. I do the analysis and write the code myself, so the person on your scoping call is the person who costs your cleandowns and, if it comes to it, builds the tool.
That's also why a project usually starts with a short, fixed-price diagnostic rather than a build. You see the work, on your own data, before committing to anything bigger.
PhD Cantab.
20 years in academia, finance and industry
13 years building scheduling and optimisation tools for manufacturing
Book a free scoping call
Email me your site and roughly how many letdown vessels you run, and I'll reply with a couple of times for a call, by phone or Teams. The call is free, lasts up to an hour, and there's no obligation after it.
What the call covers
Five questions that decide whether the diagnostic is worth your money:
- How many letdown vessels you run, and roughly how many products and shades
- Who decides the sequence, and how: spreadsheet, ERP or judgement
- Whether there's an electronic batch log with start and finish times and vessel IDs
- Whether you're turning work away, or the vessels have slack
- Whether cleandown is a known pain, or nobody has looked yet