Glass: Lean manufacturing software for glass manufacturing plants
LeanSuite runs the daily routines of a container, flat or specialty glass plant in one place. Job changes run as timed checklists, and defects from stones to checks are ranked by what they cost. Forming and cold-end machines get daily care checks, and hot-end and cut hazards are reported from a phone. Every loss between the furnace and the pallet goes to an owner with a due date.
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The process
From batch to pallet: where a glass plant loses time
Container, flat and specialty glass share the same five steps, with different forming in the middle. The furnace never stops, so a loss anywhere after it is glass melted for nothing.
Batch house
Sand, soda ash, limestone, other minerals and cullet are weighed, mixed and fed to the furnace.
Where time and quality are lost
- Weighing errors and segregation that change the glass.
- Contaminated cullet or raw materials, a source of stones.
- Silica dust where materials are handled.
Furnace melting
The batch is melted and refined in a furnace that runs continuously for years between rebuilds.
Where time and quality are lost
- Seeds and blisters when refining is poor, and stones from wearing refractory.
- Pull and color changes that take hours to settle.
- Energy used to melt glass that comes back as cullet.
Forming (IS machines, float bath, press and blow)
Gobs are formed into containers on IS machines, or the melt floats on tin into a continuous ribbon.
Where time and quality are lost
- Job changes: molds, settings, swabbing, or a new thickness or width.
- Checks, thin walls, finish defects and distortion from forming.
- Machine stops while the furnace keeps pulling.
- Burns and hot-mold work during swabbing.
Annealing lehr
The ware or ribbon is reheated and cooled slowly to remove the stress forming leaves in it.
Where time and quality are lost
- Wrong temperature profiles that leave stress and cause breakage later.
- Lehr belt and roller problems that damage or stop the ware.
Inspection, cutting and packing
Containers are coated, inspected and palletized; flat glass is cut, and may be tempered or laminated.
Where time and quality are lost
- Rejects at the inspection machines, and good ware rejected by poorly set machines.
- Jams on conveyors and palletizers.
- Cuts from broken glass and damage in handling and packing.
- Critical defects missed and found by the customer.
The problem
What slows glass plants down
A glass furnace melts around the clock for years, so every hour the forming line or the cold end loses is glass melted for nothing. Here is where that slows glass plants down.
Job changes on forming lines
Changing the ware on an IS machine means new molds, settings and swabbing, and changing thickness or width on a float line takes hours to settle. The furnace keeps pulling the whole time, so glass made during the change goes back as cullet.
Stones, seeds, checks and other defects
Stones and seeds come from the batch and the furnace, checks and thin walls from forming, and stress from the lehr, but they are all found at the cold end. Without knowing where each defect starts and what it costs, the hot end and the cold end blame each other.
Forming and cold-end stops
Forming machines, conveyors, lehr belts, inspection machines and palletizers stop for jams, wear and lubrication faults. The furnace does not stop with them, so every minute of downtime is glass melted and sent back as cullet.
Glass melted that never gets packed
Pack-to-melt losses are spread across the hot end, the lehr, inspection and packing, and each area counts its own. Nobody sees in one place how many tonnes go back as cullet each day, why, and what that costs in energy and capacity.
Burns, cuts and silica
Swabbing and working near hot molds, cuts from broken glass at the cold end and in cutting, heavy pallets and silica dust in the batch house are everyday hazards. Near misses go unreported when reporting is a hassle, and lockout steps on forming machines go out of date.
Defects that reach the customer
A critical defect missed at inspection, such as a check in a bottle finish or a stone in a pane, leads to a complaint, a hold of everything made around it and a sort. When the follow-up lives in email, the same escape comes back.
Forming skills learned on the job
Running and swabbing an IS machine, setting a float line and tuning inspection machines are learned over years from the people already doing them. When one is off, the line runs with less skill, and defects and job change times go up.
How LeanSuite helps
How LeanSuite helps glass plants
Each problem maps to a LeanSuite module you can start with on its own, then connect to the rest.
Job changes on forming lines
In LeanSuite: Run each changeover as a visual checklist in Lean Creator and require a photo on the steps that matter most. Missing items are flagged from the tablet as issues, and step timings show where time goes. Vision AI can also film a changeover, separate internal from external tasks and recommend a leaner sequence.
Stones, seeds, checks and other defects
In LeanSuite: The QA Matrix gives every internal and customer defect an AA, A, B or C priority from cost, frequency, severity and detection point, with weights you set. Any defect can open a Kaizen or CAPA, so engineers start with the costly ones.
Forming and cold-end stops
In LeanSuite: Build visual CILR routines and schedule them through Daily Standard Work. Operators confirm machine condition on a tablet, with required photos as proof, and minor leaks and vibrations are tagged and routed to maintenance instantly. Professional maintenance tags turn radio calls and firefighting into work orders every technician can see, own and close out.
Autonomous MaintenanceCILR ChecklistsProfessional Maintenance Tags
Glass melted that never gets packed
In LeanSuite: Loss and cost management imports your loss data and builds a loss tree that puts a cost on each loss. Downtime, poor quality and waste are then ranked by what they cost and tracked as you remove them. KPI Dashboards track every KPI against its target, with RAG ranges, so operators and the plant manager act on the same numbers.
Burns, cuts and silica
In LeanSuite: Anyone can report a near miss by scanning a station QR code with their phone, anonymously if you allow it, and each hazard becomes a corrective action with a due date. Lean Creator turns lockout procedures into photo-verified isolation steps, and only trained, authorized people can start a lockout.
Defects that reach the customer
In LeanSuite: Each non-conformance is captured with photos and routed to quality and engineering. Containment tasks, such as quarantining a batch, are assigned and time-stamped before root cause analysis starts. Systemic issues run through 8D or DMAIC in Kaizen & Projects, and the fix goes to every affected operator as a One-Point Lesson before the NCR closes.
Forming skills learned on the job
In LeanSuite: Competency Management keeps a live skills matrix whose levels update as people complete training and on-the-job sign-offs. The Job Cover Matrix filters qualified, available people by shift, department or proficiency, and CILR tasks can be linked to the matrix so only certified operators sign off.
Standards
Standards glass plants work to
Which apply depends on the product and the customer. These are the ones most often named in glass plants.
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1053Respirable crystalline silica, for batch handling and other dusty work.
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.212 and 1910.147Machine guarding, and the control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) on forming and handling equipment.
- ISO 9001The quality management system most glass plants are certified to.
- ISO 14001 and ISO 50001Environmental management and energy management systems.
- FSSC 22000 or BRCGS Packaging MaterialsFood safety and hygiene schemes asked for by food and drink customers of container glass.
- ANSI Z97.1 and CPSC 16 CFR Part 1201Safety glazing used in buildings, for flat glass makers and fabricators.
- ASTM C1036 and C1048Specifications for flat glass and for heat-strengthened and tempered glass.
- EPA NESHAP for glass manufacturing area sources (40 CFR Part 63, Subpart SSSSSS)Air emission rules for some glass furnaces.
LeanSuite is not a certification and does not make a plant compliant with any of these. It keeps a time-stamped record of the checks, audits, training and corrective actions your own program runs, which you can export for an auditor.
Customers
Companies that use LeanSuite
Whirlpool case study
How Whirlpool tackled project visibility and continuous improvement across 14 manufacturing plants with LeanSuite.
Its Global Kaizen Power Pitch saw 150 Kaizen presented, $14.8M in hard savings and $17.6M in soft savings.
14
Manufacturing plants
150
Kaizen presented at the Global Kaizen Power Pitch
$14.8M
Hard savings
$17.6M
Soft savings
What getting started looks like
Under a week
Until your first module is live; our team does the setup
$3,000
90-day pilot per facility
One flat price per facility
Unlimited users, so adding people does not change the price
99.5%
Monthly uptime commitment in the service agreement
SOC 2 Type 1 audited, hosted on secure cloud infrastructure, with single sign-on through Microsoft Entra ID or Okta and employee-ID sign-in for operators without email. Details on the security page.
Want to try it on one line first? See how the 90-day pilot works.
Free resources
Guides and templates
Free guides, templates and buyer's guides for glass plants, with no sign-up to read them.
Free tools
Related free calculators
Work out the numbers behind these problems. Each calculator shows its formula and a worked example, with no sign-up.
OEE calculator
Overall equipment effectiveness from shift time, downtime, ideal cycle time and part counts.
Open calculatorScrap rate calculator
Scrap rate, the cost of scrap per period and per year, and what reaching a target rate would save.
Open calculatorSMED changeover calculator
Time saved by moving changeover steps from internal to external, capacity freed per week and the smaller batch it allows.
Open calculatorPareto chart maker
Paste categories and counts: sorted bars, cumulative percentage line and the vital few at the 80% line, as a PNG or SVG.
Open calculator
FAQ
Questions from glass plants
LeanSuite does not measure the furnace pull or count ware. Loss and cost management imports your loss data for downtime, poor quality and waste, and builds a loss tree that puts a cost on each loss. You can then see which area loses the most and track it as you fix it. KPI Dashboards can track pack-to-melt against its target, with RAG ranges.
No. Inspection machines, furnace controls and production counts stay where they are. LeanSuite runs the improvement system around them: job change checklists, operator care checks, defect ranking, corrective actions, safety reports and training.
Yes. The routines are the same: changes on the forming line, defects ranked by cost, care checks on the line and the cold end, and corrective actions. You build the checklists and defect lists for your own products.
LeanSuite is not a certification and does not make a plant compliant. It keeps the records your own program produces: checklists you build, training sign-offs, non-conformances and corrective actions, each time-stamped and ready to export for an auditor.
LeanSuite is one flat price per facility with unlimited users, so every operator on every shift can use it without adding seats. There is no published annual price; you can request a quote on the pricing page. The first module is live in under a week, and LeanSuite's team does the setup. A 90-day pilot costs $3,000 per facility.
See LeanSuite on your job changes and cold-end losses
Bring the routine you want to fix first. We will show you how LeanSuite handles it and what a 90-day pilot would cover.