Approach to reduce the manufacturing waste & improve the process cycle efficiency of a food processing industry by using lean six sigma model

Abstract

This study was a case analysis of lean tools and Six Sigma methodology implementation in juice and beverage processing lines of X Food industry in Bangladesh. This work addresses the implementation of lean tools and Six Sigma methodology in the observed juice and beverage processing lines in order to evaluate present Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE), Tact time, Value Added (VD) and Non Value Added (NVD) activities and lead time and finally to develop an improved strategy to bring the improved PCE, Tact time and to reduce the lead time and NVD activities. Value Steam Map (VSM) and Pareto analysis were applied to evaluate the present and future state PCE and to find out the NVA activities. By this study the present state PCE of X mango processing line-1, X mango processing line-2, X up processing line, X energy drinks processing line, X Banana flavored juice processing line and X Litchi flavored juice processing line were found consequently as 15.28%, 12.20%, 8.32%, 8.01%, 11.32% and 10.68% that would be 34.05%, 26.91%, 19.46%, 18.84%, 25.60% and 24.45% after the implementation of lean tools and Six Sigma methodology. It is expected that after the implementation of lean tools the existing lead time of X mango processing line-1, X mango processing line-2, X up processing line, X energy drinks processing line, X Banana flavored juice processing line and X Litchi flavored juice processing line could be reduced consequently, by 55.09%, 54.64%, 57.23%, 57.44%, 55.78%, and 56.28%. By this study an economic benefit is also evaluated where it is expected that after the proper implementation of lean tools and Six Sigma methodology the total economic benefit would be 164,746,944 TK. or 2.13 million USD per year. After all the production flow was optimized by minimizing several NVD times such as bottlenecking time, waiting time, material handling time, etc. towards a lean environment establishment in management system of the studied X food industry in Bangladesh.