As published in Food Industry Executive
By John Robertson, Vice President, Food & Beverage and Consumer Packaged Goods, Life Cycle Engineering
Key Takeaways
- Prepare early with proactive maintenance, workforce readiness, and efficient scheduling to minimize downtime and prevent bottlenecks during peak seasons.
- Track high-impact metrics like PM compliance, OEE, and first pass yield to stay agile, maintain productivity, and ensure quality under pressure.
- Focus on reliability and communication—integrating preventive maintenance, lightweight training, and cross-functional coordination to sustain performance and avoid costly disruptions.
For F&B and CPG teams, summer and fall bring the heat in every way. Demand ramps up, schedules tighten, and both your people and your equipment are pushed to the limit. “All hands on deck” has become the daily norm.
So, how do you keep operations running smoothly when the pressure is on? It comes down to a mix of smart planning, proactive maintenance, and keeping a close eye on the metrics that matter most. With a few timely strategies and a solid game plan, you can stay ahead of the rush and make peak season your strongest of the year.
Stay one step ahead: Prep now for a smooth peak season
The most important moves often happen before things get busy. If your tools and team aren’t ready, you’ll be scrambling. Here’s how to get ahead:
1. Make maintenance windows count: Smart planning for maximum uptime
If a scheduled shutdown or maintenance period is coming up, use it wisely. Take care of pending repairs, knock out long-overdue upgrades, and make sure your core assets are ready to handle extra strain. A well-planned tune-up now can prevent costly breakdowns when you can least afford them.
2. Strengthen your workforce before the surge begins
With output increasing, the need for a capable, well-aligned team becomes critical. Cross-train internal staff to cover multiple roles and bring in temporary help if needed—before the bottlenecks start. A proactive staffing approach can help prevent fatigue, improve flexibility, and maintain output even under pressure.
3. Maximize throughput with smarter shift scheduling
Idle production time is a missed opportunity. Consider activating additional shifts—nights, weekends, or staggered schedules—to better distribute workload and reduce strain on any one team. Running more consistently across available hours can help you meet demand without burning out your crew.
4. Keep the line moving: Put preventive maintenance front and center
An effective preventive maintenance (PM) program is your first defense against downtime. In the lead-up to peak season, aim for PM compliance above 90%. Train operators to handle simple maintenance tasks so technicians can focus on more complex needs. This small shift frees up time and reduces delays when every minute matters.
Know what counts: Key metrics to guide peak performance
When things get busy, the right data keeps you on track. Focus on a handful of high-impact metrics that give you a clear picture of where things stand—and where you need to adjust.
- PM compliance: Are your scheduled maintenance tasks getting done on time?
- Schedule compliance: Are you sticking to the production plan or constantly playing catch-up?
- OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness): Monitor availability, performance rate, and product quality.
- Asset utilization: Are you getting the most out of the equipment you already have?
- First pass yield: Is your product meeting quality standards without rework?
You don’t need to track everything—just focus on the data that drives action.
High volume, high standards: How to protect product quality under pressure
When production volume spikes, it’s easy for quality to slip through the cracks. But quality assurance can’t be an afterthought. Build checks into the process, not just at the end. If you’re launching seasonal packaging or introducing new SKUs, ramp up inspections at key points like shift changes or batch starts. Catching a minor defect early could save you from a major loss later.
Train smarter, not longer: Boost skills on the fly
Training during peak season might sound impossible—but it’s not. Keep it lightweight and on-the-go. Use microlearning, shift-change refreshers, and hands-on coaching to keep skills sharp without taking people off the line. Even brief reinforcement of safety, troubleshooting, or quality procedures can make your team more effective under pressure.
Avoid the usual traps: Small missteps that derail big results
It’s tempting to defer a minor repair or skip a maintenance check to save time—but that time saved can come back to bite you. A quick fix today could prevent a major outage tomorrow. Another common breakdown? Communication. Without coordination between production, QA, and maintenance, even small misalignments can snowball into bigger problems. Daily huddles or a shared dashboard can keep everyone on the same page.
The key to sustainable peak performance
At the end of the day, peak performance isn’t about running harder—it’s about running smarter. Reliability is the thread that ties it all together: maintenance, communication, quality, staffing, and metrics. With the right plan, tools, and team alignment, you won’t just survive the season, you’ll thrive in it.
Summer and fall might feel like a sprint, but with smart preparation, they become a golden opportunity. Get proactive now, and you’ll build a stronger, more efficient operation that lasts long after the busy season ends.
John Robertson serves as Vice President of Life Cycle Engineering’s Reliability Consulting Group. He focuses on helping manufacturing clients achieve greater shareholder returns via the optimization of existing operations. In addition, he helps clients minimize risk and recognize the lowest total cost of ownership for new capital investments.