The Glass Industry is extremely diverse, both in the products made and the manufacturing techniques employed. Products range from intricate hand-made lead crystal goblets to the huge volumes of float glass produced for the construction and automotive industries. Manufacturing techniques vary from the small electrically heated furnaces in the Ceramic Fibre Sector to the cross-fired regenerative furnaces in the Flat Glass Sector, producing up to 700 tonnes per day. The wider Glass Industry also includes many smaller installations that fall below the 20 tonnes per day threshold. However, for some of the statistical data given in this chapter it has not been possible to separate out the contribution from the smaller plants, but this is not considered significant since they account for less than 5 % of the total industry output.

The Glass Industry is essentially a commodity industry, although many ways of adding value to high volume products have been developed to ensure the industry remains competitive. Over 80 % of the industry output is sold to other industries, and the Glass Industry as a whole is very dependent on the building, and the food and beverage industries. However, this general picture is not true for all of its components, as some of the smaller volume sectors produce high value technical or consumer products.

Glass manufacturing is one of the most demanding processes around, combining very high temperatures and top quality requirement in every stage. The glass industry has four major segments. The container glass segment produces glass packaging products, such as bottles and jars. The flat glass (or float glass) segment produces windows for residential and commercial construction, automobile windshields, mirrors, instrumentation gauges, and furniture, such as tabletops and cabinet doors. The fibreglass segment is composed of two distinct sub industries: building insulation (glass wool); and textile fibres used to reinforce plastics and other materials for the transportation, marine, and construction industries. The specialty glass segment produces handmade glass, tableware and oven-ware, flat panel display glass, light bulbs, television tubes, fibre optics, and scientific and medical equipment. Much of this segment relies on high technology research to create new and profitable materials.

MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED BY GLASS MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

• Decline in growth and demand rate in global Market
• Competitive pricing
• High pressure from inventories
• Higher fuel and delivery cost
• Lower yield
• Higher Labour Cost
• Utilizing Maximum plant efficiency
• Higher Energy Consumption
• Consistency in final product
• Lower delivery Lead time

HOW ARRELIC WILL HELP GLASS MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

• At Arrelic we look beyond cost management and focus on maximizing the income- generating potential of employment capital. Our Consultants have deep experience helping clients achieve and accelerate growth in their core business and beyond. Combining creativity and analytical insight with client engagement, our approach helps clients overcome both external and internal barriers to growth.
• Increasing Profitability and Cash Flow

  Arrelic strategies, tools and techniques and out methodologies designed for improving business performance, improve equipment uptime (OEE), reduce scrap, Improve yield, improve quality & productivity, accelerate set-up/change-over times, reduce lead times, optimize inventory.

• Focus on Maintenance: Key for enhancing Profitability:

  Proper maintenance of plant equipment can significantly reduce the overall operating cost, while boosting the productivity of the plant. Hence another perspective of looking at maintenance function is not only to maintain but also to enhance the process or the plant operations system as a result of turnaround planning.

• Beyond the Basics:

  Many manufacturing organizations need to expand continuous improvement throughout the enterprise and seek training to expand capabilities into marketing, customer service, engineering, new product development and quality control.

• Supporting Growth Initiatives and New product development:

  We will share best practices for applying process excellence to new product development and commercialization, efficient product development processes closely integrated with the operational processes. You will gain important advantages, such as reduced lead time to market, improved quality and increased development capacity.

• Driving Culture Change:

  Companies who successfully leverage operational excellence as part of a strategic platform for growth often achieve market performance well beyond their nearest competitors. We can help you how to expand continuous improvement into non-manufacturing areas, how to enhance sales force productivity, how to optimize the maintenance activities and enforcing the employees in all level.

• Supply Chain Management: The Real Improvement

  The complex and often costly internal supply chain processes is one area that many businesses seek to improve. By “killing complexity” in the overall supply chain system, companies will experience better, faster delivery with lower costs.

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