Lean Six Sigma for process efficiency improvement: Case study at roof-tile manufacturing company

Abstract

Lean Six Sigma is regarded as a strategic business change to improve the efficiency of the processes. A combination of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma's theory is a powerful practice by companies looking for ways to improve their productivity. The roof-tile company under study faced issues with high inventory and high lead time affecting the manufacturing efficiency. The team from UTeM was consulted with the objective to investigate the issues and propose improvement plans. Lean Six Sigma DMAIC-VSM methodology was used to systematically guide the project implementation. The Define- Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control process was explained in detail including the use of the current state value-stream map (CVSM) to identify the bottleneck and the fish-bone diagrams to evaluate the key issues. The three main problems uncovered were the high cycle-time at the hand spray coating process, the hydraulic press, the high waiting time for the clay bat process. Why-why analysis was used to define the countermeasures. The implemented improvements will enable the company to improve the bottleneck capacity and production efficiency by 42% without incurring additional costs. The company has benefitted from this study by having the right focus on the improvement plans to achieve a leaner production for the manufacturing line.