A new website and e-book have launched to address those issues and more. PMMI's OpX Leadership Network consists of end users, OEMs, and automation suppliers that come together to solve operational and engineering problems by creating peer-reviewed guidelines and best practices. Other areas of focus include sanitary equipment design and validating pathogen reduction for low-moisture foods, and how to develop and engage the manufacturing workforce.
Crowd-sourced from thought leaders at General Mills, Campbell's, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and many more, the OpX Leadership Network features best practices and virtual toolkits for TCO, OEE, sustainable manufacturing, workforce engagement, Factory Acceptance Tests, and other issues that manufacturing, engineering, and operations professionals are facing today.
OpX Leadership Network assigns vetted topics to a curated group of subject matter experts. If there is not an existing group that specializes in a particular topic, the OpX Leadership Network will create one. These solutions come from CPG representatives tasked with defining and addressing the problem, as well as invited OEMs or other suppliers who can provide insight on a specific topic.
The solutions groups meet online and in person to develop and devise guidelines and toolkits that are tested and then subjected to a thorough peer review. Upon completion of the peer review, the work product is finalized and made available as a free download at OpXLeadershipNetwork.org.
The website welcomes all packaging and processing professionals to join topic-specific user groups as a way to come together and share experiences and challenges they are facing while encouraging implementation of solutions.
In addition to user and solution groups, the website also features additional resources such as e-books and other downloads. The OpX Leadership Network’s inaugural e-book—Total Cost of Ownership—is an invaluable resource for evaluating each piece of processing and packaging machinery in a plant. The accompanying checklists provided in this e-book are a powerful tool to calculate what the total cost of ownership is for an operation’s processing and packaging machinery.
