A systems study on the production department of Laguna Carparts Manufacturing Incorporated

Laguna Carparts Manufacturing Incorporated (LCMI) is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of exhaust system, plastic and metal parts for automotive, appliances and electronics industry. It belongs to the automotive parts manufacturing sector and has a market share of 9.92% against its direct competitors. This study focuses on LCMI production department, as this is the core function of the company. The operation of the production department was analyzed over the periods January 2012 to December 2012. The coverage of this study will start from the time the materials are available at the workstation until it is already finished for storage. The sais system aims to produce quality products based on the customer requirements with on-time delivery of the right quantity products, which represent the quality of service the customer deserve. Using WOT-SURG analysis, it was found that LCMI production department incurred a total of 4,457,949 ppm rejects which exceeds the allowable 84,250 ppm for the year. This problem is still being experienced by LCMI production department and remains an urgent issue as this incurs cost for the company. Likewise, this can affect the scheduled processes for the day as the production department has to work these rejects. The causes of the problem have been identified in the Pipe Bending Section. It was found that the problem have the following causes: (1) 31. 56% due to the inconsistent tightness of pipe clamp, (2) 16.87% due to the inappropriate usage of die, (3) 16.62% due to low material strength, (4) 13.32% due to human error in the pipe cutting process, (5) 7.60% due to the lack in communication, (6) 6.31% due to human error in the pipe bending process, (7) 4.26% due to lack in proper fixture to be able to properly execute the task, (8) 2.70% due to the operator being unable to determine if the deburred output is suitable for the curling process, (9) 0.39% due to insufficient oil lubricant in the air compressor, (10) 0.23 due to electrical tripping that results to defective goods and (11) 0.14% due to unfamiliarity with the specifications of the product type. The solutions of the given causes are (1) use of a torque stopper to minimize varying tightness of tooling of the machine, (2) setting up a system to monitor usage of dies through proper documentation, (3) conduct internal training on quality inspection of raw materials, (4) conduct a training to refresh workers on how to prevent measurement errors and give recognition to those team members who perform well, (5) come to terms with the client through a Memorandum of Agreement that the company will not be liable for rejects caused by wrong jig adaptation given by the client, (6) implement a parameter setting threshold which will be posted in each workstation to serve as a guide for production workers in adjusting the parameters of the machine, (7) purchase a pipe steel pipe holder with rubber to keep the pipe in place check the connection of the wirings, (8) assign both the deburring and curling process to regular workers, (9) implement an oil level inspection and attach a dipstick to the oil cover to determine the oil level, (10) making sure that enough power supply is extracted from the circuit breaker capacity, and (11) penalize workers that are caught not using an OIG. With the mentioned solutions, it is expected to have an initial investment cost of Php 13, 029.02. It is proposed to start the implementation of the recommended solution on Jan 6, 2014 and end on March 13, 2014