12 Steps of Kaizen

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12 Steps of Kaizen

We have a case study related to manufacturing where an issue was creating waste and they created a team to solve the issue using a Kaizen tool called 12 steps kaizen and they solve the issue successfully. the case study need to explain the issue that happened (which is attached), then explaine the 12 steps Kaizen tool. and finally merage the case study with the tool using the case study as an example of the tool application

Introduction:

One of the main challenges that you can face as a production line engineer/manager of running a production line is facing an unexpected issue during the production. It effects the productivity, waste and most importantly a direct cause of cost losses. This paper will start with a review a case that has happened an international manufacturing company that is considered the market leader in its business, using one of the Kaizen methodology tools a team was created to find a solution for a new cause of short stops. Sue to the success of eliminating the issue permanently, this case study was chosen to be an example of a propose way of problem solving that we belief can be a guide to solve any issue faced on a production line. In summery this paper will include a review of the case, followed by explanation of the tool used by the team. And finally, a purpose guide to future use of the tool.

Add Background of the Company 

Background of problem solving

Background of the issue

Tetra Pak is the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company working to provide safe food. It is a Swedish company that produce several types of Packaging solutions to all the liquid products such as milk, Juice and even Homos and honey to the solid cheese. The company has several locations in different countries either as a factory that produces carton packs or as a customer service office.

The case that we are about to study was on one of the carton factories that produces the food and liquid packs. When it comes to the packs it varies on shape, size and design printed on the pack as per the costumer requirement. Tetra Pak factories focuses on three main objects: ensure the safety of the employees working on the site, full costumer satisfaction and the high quality of product. That high quality ensures the protection of the food and liquids inside the packs for a year without the need to add any additives.

The case occurs on one of the main production lines of the factory, which is the printing line, the first line on the factory. The purpose of the line is to print the required designs as per the costumer order. Tetra Pak ureses a Flexo printing machine which is one of the industrial printing methods that has the capability of printing more than a million packs per hour depends on the sizes.

Flexo Printing …

Case story..

On the second quarter of 2018 the printing process started to have a repeated stop due to a defect Known as smearing. Smearing is a defect that happened due to un-dry ink which causes a bad appearance of the printed design*(add a picture). Which contributed to an accumulative loss on the plan capacity and the productivity of the machine. At the time they could not figure out the source of the defect, so a team was lunched to analyses the issue and propose the solutions to eliminate the defect using a Kaizen tool called 12 step Kaizen.

12 Step Kaizen Tool:

It is a tool used to study an anomaly and close it with a solutions and standers that will help on resolving the anomaly.

  1. Identify the losses:

The first step focuses on identifying the losses caused by the anomaly that we are studying.

  1. Select theme and justify
  2. Understand the process equipment
  3. Grasp the actual situation
  4. Establish objectives
  5. Update the master plan
  6. Cause analyses
  7. Propose actions
  8. Implement the actions
  9. Check the results
  10. Standardization
  11. Future Plans

Case study

  1. Identify the losses:

As per the factory strategy and must happens, one of the main KPI’s on the printing process is Printing efficiency. So, the team started with the main loss of printing line efficiency. and deployed the losses to identify the anomalies that caused then to not achieve the target. The first deployment losses showed that the rank of the efficiency losses is set up time, speed losses (running with slow speed), short stops, break down and other small losses. The anomaly that we are studying is categorized under the second main losses which is the speed losses. Deploying the speed loss shows us that searing is the second main loss. Hint, the Ramp up/down loss is a technological loss that comes with the printing machine. However, having the smearing loss in the second rank is not normal and we need to analyze it and come up with actions that will allow us to reduce smearing loss and restoring the Printing EE.

  • Should we explain more what is the set-up losses, and which KPI is normal and which one is not

Why we used the tool ( on conclusion )

Always why and how.

  1. Select theme and justify

In summery smearing is a speed loss anomaly that is causing printing efficiency losses which is a loss that can be transferred as factory capacity losses and cost losses. But as the team is a floor team that focuses on reducing the process losses only, they did not include the factory losses in their scope. Having that specified the team has decided to set an initial target of 50% reduction on smearing losses.

The team has set the focus to be fixing the smearing defect, which can will be followed under the printing EE (equipment efficiency) with an initial target to reduce the speed losses due to smearing by 50%. They started with reviewing what is concept of smearing and what is the exact defect that they are focusing on to avoid destruction of the other defects on their analyses.

What is Smearing?

It is the ink that smear out in a vertical direction from a part of the printed design.

  1. Understand the process equipment

*print unit explanation*

Explain the print unit with a reference to the ink smearing defect

Then next step explains the impact of its condition on the defect, also we can add the actual situation of the equipment’s

What do we need to include on the study:

  • Print unit
  • Cooling system
  • Drying system
  • ITC system
  • Ink

So we need to explain the printing on Print unit including the ITC, then the chill roller system and drying and finally the ink it self.

Printing Unit:

The printing unit is one of the main parts of the printing machine and it is responsible of printing one color as per the required design. The number of colors varies from one design to others however in each unit only one color is printed so every printing machine is equipped with more than one printing unit as per there costumer requirement.

  1. Grasp the actual situation

This step is required to review the condition of the element on step 3, and in case we find any abnormality we should add it to this step as a focus area.

(a) Drying system:

On the drying system the team has found 2 anomalies. One is the cleaning status of the drying system which was affecting the flow on the air on the system. Second is an anomaly found on the mechanism of the hot air flow system.

(b) Ink temperature

There was no anomaly found on the ink temperature as the ink temperature was controlled by an automation system. Add to it that the actual temperature was monitored through a quality system and in case of high or low temperature on any print unit the system will alarm * SPC system explanation*

(c)  Main burner

The filter of the main burner required a periodic change which in case missed would affect the control of the air flow which will affect the air temperature control.

(d) Ink drying system

*scratch on paper due to the drying system small gaps*

(e) Ink component

The ink used on the Flexo printing is a water-based ink and it is in simple explanation a mixture of base ink and varnish. The team reviewed the based-on Tetra Pak standard and there were no anomaly detected except the varnish behavior which based on the experience of team was not clear and it was recently changed, so the a trail was planned to try the old and new varnish to test the behavior.

5. Establish objectives

The objective is stated on step 2 and confirmed on this step after reviewing the actual situation on the machine. We are focusing on reducing the speed losses due to the smearing by at least 50%.

6. Update the master plan

Based on the findings on step 3 and 4 the team decided to validate the 50% target. And the master plan was updated to cover the coming steps.

  • Should we explain the master plan on details
  1. Cause analyses

Each anomaly detected on step 4 was analyzed deeply using the 4M-5Y tool known as fishbone analyses where you need to ask why question 5 times for each root cause.

*go in detail on the 4M-5Y*

* explain the fishbone tool*

  1. Propose actions

*explaine the CML steps*

* list the proposed actions*

  1. Implement the actions
  2. Check the results

Reviewing the result starting form June to end of the year after implementing the actions there were a 50% reduction on the speed losses, which was 2.4% on the printing efficiency. Which was enough to achieve the target. And when it comes to the smearing defect due to the root causes found the printing process did not a single stop.

 

  1. Standardization

*list the standard added to the system*

  1. Future Plans

Recommendation

Conclusion