Partner with QUEST

The Client: Tronox is a vertically integrated producer of titanium dioxide and inorganic chemicals, which add brightness and durability to paints, plastics, paper, and other everyday products.

The Challenge: Tronox’s Hamilton, Mississippi plant aims to always carry a variety of process chemicals in inventory to assist in pigment operations as needed. The initial process for tracking this inventory included a series of spreadsheets through which one person was manually inputting when a new delivery was expected and when each chemical would theoretically be consumed. This process made the plant susceptible to stockouts when inventory became unavailable due to the lack of warning that a chemical was running low. The QUEST team was tasked with developing a visible system or dashboard to assist with inventory planning and allow Tronox to avoid chemical stockouts.

The Deliverables: Using a design thinking approach, the team gained a deep understanding of the operations at the Hamilton plant through a fishbone diagram and root cause analysis. For additional background, the team facilitated a series of benchmarking interviews with other Tronox sites. Leveraging insights from these interviews and findings from secondary research, the team constructed its main deliverable: a PowerBI dashboard visualization tool. Created with the ultimate goal of reducing stockouts through increased transparency and decision-making support, the dashboard includes a consolidated view of inventory, projected weekly usage, and a suggested reorder date calculator. To further cut down on manual processes, the team streamlined over fifteen individual Excel tabs into a single sheet for easier data input and storage.

Impacts:

• $100,000 saved per hour
• 2 hours saved per day
• Expanded job flexibility
• Improved knowledge management

“Talking with the team has been the highlight of these past few weeks. Having a fresh perspective coming into our facility saying, ‘Hey, have you thought about this?’ is the most beneficial thing we could have.” — Juanita Meyer, Regional Supply Chain Manager

The Client: McCormick manufactures, markets, and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other flavorful products to the entire food industry—retail outlets, food manufacturers, and food service businesses.

The Challenge: Engineers at McCormick’s Hunt Valley plant suspected that high humidities and temperatures were impacting line performance. Certain products became stickier at higher temperatures and humidities, causing lines to shut down for cleaning. This practice was causing increased downtime, lowering the efficiency and profitability of lines. McCormick tasked the QUEST team with analyzing spice properties and data from plant sensors to understand how plant conditions relate to line performance and estimate how much money could be saved by implementing more climate control measures at the plant.

The Deliverables: The team conducted on-site interviews with various stakeholders at the Hunt Valley plant, such as line technicians and various levels of management. The team then synthesized the data provided by the client in order to quantify the magnitude of the humidity problem and justify the purchase of an improved climate control system. The team recommended that McCormick allocate up to $2,200,000 for a climate control system, maintain plant conditions to ensure a maximum absolute humidity of 12 grams of water/m3, and use a diagnostic tool developed by the team for future analysis.

Impacts:

• $765,000 saved per year
• 520,000 lbs of product saved per year
• Increased safety and employee satisfaction

“Through intense data analysis and hands-on testing, the students were able to identify and extract considerable financial savings for our site. This has allowed us to cost-justify improvements for the HVAC system at the Hunt Valley Plant, which will both save our site money and raise the morale of our employees.” — Jonathan Kalman, Continuous Improvement Manager

The Client: Capital i, LLC is a Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) Solutions company founded in 2018 that specializes in serving hospitals by managing and maintaining their inventory of medical devices while supporting and meeting compliance requirements.

The Challenge: At the time the project was scoped, Capital i’s CEO manually priced each request for proposal (RFP) submitted to the company by manipulating data in Excel sheets and relying on his expertise. To streamline this process and reduce risk while freeing up time, Capital i tasked the QUEST team with creating a more systematic approach to pricing their client contracts.

The Deliverables: The team undertook extensive research to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current pricing system and its significance within the company. These interviews yielded insights into the crucial variables influencing the pricing process and the key considerations involved in determining the final price. Following this qualitative research phase, the team utilized quantitative and categorical datasets pertaining to equipment maintenance and previous transactions provided by Capital i. Data analysis was conducted to create several models that can be used to translate previously human factors to automated ones that can predict and eventually recommend contract prices. The development of an automated pricing tool aims to assist the CEO in pricing by providing a systematic, data-driven approach, saving time and money.

Impacts:

• $120,000 saved annually
• 600 hours saved annually
• 30% annual capacity growth

“I cannot say enough good things about the professionalism, creativity, and work ethic of all the students we worked with. Capital i has come to rely on the QUEST team projects to give us a bump in productivity and provide a higher level of support to our clients in the healthcare delivery space.” — Tony Danko, CEO