Feb 07, 2025 by Mark Dingley
Easter is just around the corner, and if you’re a plant manager, you know what that means: peak season chaos. While families are planning Easter egg hunts and chocolate feasts, you’re dealing with skyrocketing demand, tight deadlines and the constant fear of equipment breakdowns bringing your factory to a grinding halt.
But it doesn’t have to be a stressful scramble. With the right preparation, you can navigate the Easter rush seamlessly, avoid costly downtime, and maximise productivity.
In this article, we’ll show you how to get your factory ready for Easter and other seasonal peaks.
Seasonal peaks, whether triggered by holidays such as Easter and Christmas or by broader industry trends, come with a unique mix of challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, they offer the chance to ramp up production, introduce profitable seasonal varieties and boost profits. On the other hand, they test every part of your operation, from resource management to logistics and equipment reliability.
For plant managers, preparing for these peaks isn’t just about increasing output – it’s a careful balancing act. You need to meet customer expectations without overextending your equipment or team. A lack of preparation can lead to missed opportunities, dissatisfied customers, and strained relationships with suppliers.
The key to thriving during these busy periods? Proactive strategic planning. When you take the time to prepare your factory, you will avoid costly disruptions and set your factory up for long-term success.
Start by evaluating your factory’s current capacity. Review production output, demand forecasts and any capacity constraints. You need to be confident your equipment can cope with the increased demand of Easter – audit equipment and processes to identify bottlenecks, outdated equipment and inefficiencies.
Understanding the process and having the right data at your fingertips helps you know what’s happening on your production line and how efficient your equipment and lines are. You can automate your data collection using a software solution such as iDSnet Enterprise. Sensors on the production line will collect data and automatically feed it into live dashboards and reports to measure your OEE, giving you instant visibility and insights to improve your machine health and productivity.
The last thing you want during peak season is for your equipment to break down and for everything to come to a grinding halt. Every minute of downtime waiting for equipment to be fixed means lost production and profits. To avoid this, schedule preventative maintenance in plenty of time before the Easter rush. Preventative maintenance is much cheaper than a breakdown and the resulting loss of productivity, saving you the added cost and stress of an emergency repair call-out. It is also the most cost-effective way of reducing the long-term cost of equipment operation, helping you improve your bottom line. You should also look to optimise maintenance schedules during the peak period to minimise downtime.
There are some preventative maintenance tasks your operational staff can do before peak season hits to ensure that equipment runs at its optimum. Other tasks can be completed by your equipment or maintenance provider. When you book preventative maintenance services with Matthews, our skilled technicians will thoroughly conduct the routine service procedures and inspect your coding, labelling and inspection equipment. We will replace the consumable parts where required, clean the equipment and advise you of any areas of concern, which will ultimately help you avoid the potential problems of poorly maintained equipment.
Even with the best-laid plans, things can still go wrong. So, when equipment breaks down, 'who you gonna call'? You need a dedicated team available on the other ends of the phone to ensure that lengthy downtime doesn't impact your bottom line.
A good recovery plan will ensure that expert technicians are on hand to diagnose and fix the problem, providing a sense of security and reducing the time it is out of service. Matthews provides unrivalled support online, onsite and over the phone. Our Care 24/7 programs provide unlimited 24/7 remote access support and diagnostics so you can get back up and running fast.
Consider a technical support program, like PrinterNet. The PrinterNet platform provides real-time remote access to your printers from a web browser on any desktop or mobile device – anytime, anywhere. This means Matthews’ technical support team can remotely access a device to check and monitor its condition and vital signs when powered and connected. They can remotely interact with your machine to optimise printer performance related to set up, assist operators remotely with troubleshooting, and view historical logged data for further analytics and support functions.
For some processes, it's also worth having a backup ready in case of emergencies. Coding is one such process. If your coding equipment fails, you can keep your line moving with the Edding Portable and Handheld Printer. The mobile printer can code 15 different barcodes, including QR, Data Matrix, GS1 and EAN, wherever your items are. There's a simple on-screen editor to create, edit and manage messages. The Edding Portable has the functionalities of an inline printer but with an industrial battery lasting up to 12 hours (4aH) or 30 hours (10aH), making it the ideal backup option if things go south.
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If your equipment is becoming unreliable, causing errors, or holding back your production capacity, now is the time to upgrade.
If outdated equipment means you are dealing with increased downtimes, unplanned stoppages, quality issues, and even recalls, you could be suffering the cost of unreliable equipment. You need to get on top of this now before it derails your peak season.
It’s no secret that manual processes can slow down production and lead to costly mistakes. But they can also hold back your business from reaping the full potential of peak seasons.
For instance, upgrading your manual labelling process to an automated label printer applicator can be a game-changer for Easter. Using staff to apply labels to products can be highly time-consuming and costly, not to mention the high risk of human errors. A Label Printer Applicator (LPA) can apply labels precisely to give your product a professional finish – even at high line speeds that humans wouldn't be able to achieve. This improves productivity while freeing up your team for other areas, which is extremely valuable during peak seasons. Reducing reliance on manual labour means you may not need to hire as many extra staff members over the Easter season. In a challenging hiring environment, this is a real advantage.
Be strategic and consider what will bring the most value to your business during the seasonal peak and ongoing. Any process that involves human input or interaction is ripe for automation. However, some areas, like automated pallet labelling, will provide an exceptional return on investment in the long term, as manual pallet labelling can be a significant bottleneck.
Ensure your team has the skills for operating new equipment or handling new processes, particularly if you have seasonal hires. Ensure they know how to handle and maintain equipment and diagnose faults. It's also worth refreshing safety protocols to reduce the risk of incidents when the pressure is on.
Matthews provides training sessions designed to give supervisors, managers, operators and maintenance teams all the knowledge they need to reduce costly downtime, improve safety and enhance operator productivity. Our course can teach the basic techniques to maintain equipment better and diagnose common faults. It also covers the processes that, if performed incorrectly, can cause major operating problems, from replacing consumables and threading labels to moving equipment safely from line to line.
Preparation is the key to a stress-free peak season. By proactively preparing your factory, scheduling preventative maintenance, and ensuring your team is ready, you can turn seasonal peaks into an opportunity for growth.
At Matthews Australasia, we’re here to lighten your load. From preventative maintenance and 24/7 support to cutting-edge equipment upgrades, we’re your partner in making Easter and every other peak season a success. Ready to prepare for Easter? Let’s start the conversation today.