Lean Manufacturing Implementation in Fused Plastic Bags Industry

Lean manufacturing is concerned with the implementation of several tools and methodologies that aim for the continuous elimination of wastes throughout manufacturing process flow in the production system. Lean manufacturing also focuses on company's goals of improving quality, reducing inventory and becoming more competitive. This research addresses the implementation of lean principles and tools in a small-medium size plastic industry, and focuses on a company producing "Fused" plastic bags products. In this production operation, the major types of waste to eliminate include material waiting, processing-time and setup wastes. The primary goal is to identify and implement selected lean strategies to eliminate waste in the plastic bags manufacturing operation under study. A systematic approach was used for the implementation of lean principles and techniques, through the application of Value Stream Mapping analysis. The current state value stream map was constructed to improve the plastic bags manufacturing process through identifying opportunities to eliminate waste and its sources. Also, the future-state value stream map was developed describing improvements in the overall manufacturing process resulting from eliminating wastes. The implementation of VSM, 5S, Visual Control, Kaizen, and Reduced lot size methods have provided significant benefits and results. Productivity has increased to 95.5%, Manufacturing Lead Time reduced by 10.4% and the cycle time for the "Cutting/Packaging" process was reduced by 35% to about 30 minutes.