Abstract:
The objective of this research was to reduce the time needed to set up a vacuum thermoforming machine by allowing the time of each setup process is not more than 4500 seconds as specified by the company. This research also aimed to improve the work process and, adjust the machine to produce dental brush packages for employees to work more conveniently, and to reduce the waste of waiting for employees while setting up the vacuum thermoforming machine.
From a case study looking at the problems of a factory, it was found that the problem of the dental brush package took over the target value of the company. Therefore, the research was conducted by studying every step of the machine adjustment process. The collecting time and the work conditions for each activity were studied with process flow charts. Then, this information was used to prioritize the problem with the Pareto chart. Then, the Why-Why Analysis technique was employed to analyze the root cause and identify the basic solution. Moreover, the integration between the rapid machining principle and the ECRS method of wasted time reduction was applied to reduce wastes in the machine setup process.
The SMED and ECRS principles were utilized to reduce the time to set up the vacuum thermoforming machine, to reduce unnecessary movement time, and to improve work procedures for employees by reducing the work process to 18 working steps from a total of 29 steps. The reduction by 11 steps, resulted in a reduction in the time of setting up the machine in 1 time from 4852.25 seconds to 3895.59 seconds, a percentage reduction of 19.72 percent. This resulted in less stopping time to adjust the production model, and resulted in the increase of production times that met the objectives.