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Inside the OpX Leadership Network: benefits and best practices

The second in a two-part series showcases feedback from companies that have used OpX Leadership Network tools, explaining benefits and suggested uses.

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Scott Spencer ran into trouble when he tried to get a new packaging machine installed in a plant whose equipment he oversees in Deerfield Beach, Fla. As vice president of engineering for Nature's Bounty, he was delighted when he found a showroom model of the machine. The vendor told him it would be ready in two months. Unfortunately, two months turned into four months, with no end in sight. “Our relationship went way downhill with this vendor,” Spencer recalls. “They were mad at us. We were mad at them. We had calls and we’d get nowhere.”

There was clearly a miscommunication between the manufacturing team at Nature’s Bounty and the vendor. “We kept giving them new requirements,” Spencer says. “They kept telling us, ‘Well, we’ve got to change the machine to make that requirement.’”

Spencer discovered the hard way that, without a plan to get vendors in alignment with the goals of a manufacturer, time, money and the productivity of an operation are at risk. It’s a situation that’s all too common as manufacturers seek new equipment from vendors, says Greg Flickinger, vice president of manufacturing at HEB, who also serves as chair of the OpX Leadership Network Executive Council. Fortunately, Flickinger says, the OpX Leadership Network—managed by Automation World’s parent organization, PMMI—provides the answers needed to prevent such miscues from occurring. It’s just a matter of knowing where to start.

Getting started
When Flickinger came on board at HEB in 2016, he already had extensive experience developing the tools offered by the OpX Leadership Network. So it was natural to introduce those tools to his new organization. He also asked two of PMMI’s leaders, Tom Egan and Steve Schlegel, to present to the operations and engineering teams at HEB and answer questions from Flickinger’s new colleagues. Seeking help from OpX Leadership Network experts is a step Flickinger recommends to any manufacturer that wants to get started with the OpX Leadership Network tools. “It really helps solidify not only the value of the tools, but it brings in someone else besides the voice within your own organization,” he says.

Initial contact with the OpX Leadership Network begins with the organization’s website, where users can download the tools and ask for expert help free of charge. “PMMI will either support directly, by coming in to facilitate a session with the team, or they can link you to the right industry subject matter expert from the tool development team,” Flickinger explains.

Flickinger further recommends bringing as many stakeholders as possible into the discussion right at the onset of using the OpX Leadership Network tools. In his case, he made sure to include the engineering and technical leaders from his company’s plants, including directors of operations, plant managers and finance. The group then modified the tools as needed to suit the needs of their company with input from everyone involved. “As a result,” Flickinger says, “people use it as opposed to throwing it up on the shelf and saying, ‘I'm just going to do it my way.’ The approach reduces resistance and creates ownership.”

Jim Prunesti, vice president of engineering for Campbell Soup, also recommends getting equipment vendors involved in early discussions about the OpX Leadership Network tools—particularly the total cost of ownership (TCO) checklist. “I encourage vendors all the time to come in and talk to me about total cost of ownership,” he says. “If the equipment supplier is coming in and talking to me about ‘My piece of equipment’s cheaper,’ it doesn't really gain my interest as much as, ‘Let me help you understand what’s the total cost of ownership, and what's the flexibility or capability of the equipment that we're proposing for this solution.’”

Prunesti advises vendors even considering working with the TCO checklist to download it from the OpX Leadership Network website. Whether it’s because a potential customer has asked them to, or because they want to stand out from the competition, having access to the checklist is beneficial. Most vendors will already have a good idea of how to fill in the checklist, he says, based on the ongoing costs they already know their equipment incurs.

Applying the tools
Spencer has found the OpX Leadership Network’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) tools—the OEE starter tool and the OEE benefits calculator—especially valuable. These two tools enable a manufacturer to first calculate a percentage of efficiency—both before and after a proposed capital investment is made—and then translate those percentages into dollar figures. The process helps justify the cost of making new investments.

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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast