What does it take to bring a new protein bar production line from trial runs to full-scale output?
About the client
An international protein bar manufacturer in North America producing chocolate-coated bars for major brands, currently starting up a new production plant as part of a wider expansion of its manufacturing network.
Problem statement
The new plant had already produced bars of good quality and could occasionally run a full eight-hour shift. However, it was still operating in a kind of trial mode: there were small operational and structural issues causing inconsistent production across several consecutive shifts. Before the various improvements could take effect, the plant needed a clear, prioritized view of what to fix first.
With a second line planned before year-end, this also brought a related question to the surface: at all lines worth of output, are all the auxiliaries still sufficient. We looked at logistics, utilities and equipment bottlenecks that would impede nominal output.
Our Solution
PX Consulting carried out an on-site engineering review of the new plant during live production, walking the line day by day from raw material preparation through to packaging and the warehouse. Every observation was logged as a numbered improvement point, then translated into a structured, prioritized action plan grouped by workshop area so the client’s team could see exactly what to address first, what could wait, and what required no investment at all.
The action plan distinguished quick wins the client’s own maintenance & engineering team could execute immediately. For larger structural investments, we flagged explicitly that cost and urgency don’t move together: the most expensive fixes are not always the most pressing, and several of the most urgent issues cost little to resolve.
Because the client operates comparable production lines elsewhere in its network, we benchmarked several recommendations directly against equipment and layouts already running successfully on those other lines, rather than proposing solutions in the abstract. The result is a single reference document the plant can work through systematically as it moves from trial production toward the sustained, multi-line output the new site is being built for.
