Orange Juice Bottling Company, Owerri, Imo State. (Enhancing Functionality Through Circulation and Safety)

ABSTRACT Research has shown that the popularization of plastic bottles in Bottling Industries has remained on the increase since middle of 1960’s, when high-density polyethylene was introduced. They quickly became popular with both manufacturers and customers due to their lightweight nature and relatively low production costs compared with glass bottles. Except for wine or beer, the food industry has almost completely replaced glass with plastic bottles. Despite this innovation, there has continued to be a setback in the Bottling Industry in Nigeria; largely due to inadequate circulation facilities for human; machinery/vehicular; material circulation.The effect of circulation or the movement of people, materials, and machinery in industrial operations cannot be relegated to the background. For there to be any meaningful operation and proper functioning, up to the required capacity, in any company/ industry, circulation must be giving its pride of place. This research work therefore investigates into ways of solving this perceived problem. The research methodology adopted to solve this problem is qualitative research. This lead to: provision of adequate circulation routes; proper separation of human, material, and machinery routes; adoption of easy/efficient production lines; proper location of loading and off-loading docks; a well laid out site; separation of administrative spaces from production space; etcetera. If this research is implemented, it will result in a significant improvement on production flow- from raw-material intake, through the production stages, to the storage docks. Unlike the prevailing conditions, where circulation spaces make it difficult for forklifts and truck to manoeuver, this proposal overcomes that problem with adequate space around production stations. Furthermore, the distance between the new preassembly stations and the associated sub-assembly stations are much shorter, which results in reduced wastes caused by scattered production units.