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BACKGROUND
In 2012, GAB decided to roll
out the new bottle design for
Heineken in the Malaysian
market. Malaysia was the first
market to roll out the
Heineken new bottle design
in a returnable market in
Asia Pacific.
THE CHALLENGE
The sleek new bottle design
has a higher shoulder. The
existing partitions in the
Heineken crates were too low
to prevent contact between the
bottles during transportation,
which would result in cracks
or breakage.
SAFETY A KEY PRIORITY
To ensure the innovation would work in real life
scenarios, we shipped crates to The Netherlands
for extensive testing by the Heineken International
Supply Chain team. The team ran simulation
exercises, replicating real life transportation
scenarios. The clips solution received a stamp
of approval.
THE SOLUTION
Instead of replacing 165,000 crates, we
developed a simple and elegant innovation –
together with our supplier we modified the
partitions with specially designed clips, as
shown above. By inserting these clips on the
existing partitions, we are able to raise the
partitions to accommodate the shoulder
height of the Heineken new bottle design.
FINANCIAL BENEFIT
We saved RM3.8 million, achieving 90%
cost savings
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT
We avoided approximately 330 tonnes of
plastic waste
TOTAL SAVINGS
We were able to spend less and reduce our
environmental impact from not having to buy
new crates.
A PRACTICAL
INNOVATION
As a workable
solution to the
challenge presented
by the new Heineken
bottle, this innovation
may be considered for
use in other Heineken
breweries across
the region.
BEFORE
AFTER
Big Challenge: Reducing Water and Electricity Usage
Water and electricity usage are production volume related. For example, when
production is high, water, electricity and thermal efficiency is at its optimum;
when production is low, the fixed amount of water, electricity and thermal energy
expended will heavily impact the efficiency targets set.
In FY13, GAB reduced its production volume of certain Stock Keeping Units
(SKUs). Despite the decrease in production volume, with the team’s effort we
were still able to deliver improvements on each of the three KPIs.
Environmental Performance
Big Win:
Thinking out
of the crate
GAB
INNOVATION
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE :
CREATING SUSTAINABLE IMPROVEMENT
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