System study on the production system of Sentinel Plastics Manufacturing Corporation

Sentinel Plastics Manufacturing Corporation is a plastics manufacturing firm with the mission of being recognized and consistently competent as a leader in the manufacturer of quality plastic products today and in future generations. It is one of the top industry players in the plastic industry here in the Philippines where it has at least 50 competitors. This study is concerned with the Production System of this company. The problem being addressed is the Internal Rejects incurred during the actual production process where these Internal Rejects occur at a monthly average of 3.35% exceeds company standards of 2.5% by 0.85%..This problem translates to 90,000 kg. The system owners and writers believe that they have time and resources to solve this problem. The problem has the following specifications: WHAT: Shortshot Rejects constitute 85% of the total internal rejects WHERE: Shortshot rejects occur in the molding machines of the production department. Given that most of the rejects occur in the molding machines, it is implied that short shot rejects are mostly detected during the work-in-process inspection. WHEN: These short shot rejects occur in production initialization of every production cycle. Where production initialization is defined as the time when mold is still reaching its desired temperature in every start of the production process. HOW MUCH: These short shot rejects into a monthly average of 4, 200 kilograms or rejected products amounting to an average monthly net loss of at least Php 190, 000. The said problem was placed unto Problem Analysis where all probable causes were determined and through the initial cause and effect diagram where these causes were categorized under PRIMEU. Through this, it was found out that majority of these internal rejects were primarily due to Shortshot errors and it was caused by several probable factors in the system which are noted and highlighted in the initial cause and effect diagram. With this, the causes were then further evaluated with the help of the plant manager. The causes indirectly affecting the problem were eliminated. At the end of the validation process, only three causes prevailed which are mold temperature (91.33%), problems with molds (2%) and power interruptions (6.67%). These 3 main causes results to the overall short shots incurred by the system. After having identified the following causes, hypotheses were then generated per causes which were comprehensively discussed at the latter part of the problem analysis discussion chapter. Given the following hypotheses, solutions were then generated and evaluated using the Kepner-Tregoe Decision Analysis tool. The different solutions per hypotheses were scored according to the musts and wants designed by both the proponents of the study along with the plant manager of SPMC. After filtering the alternative solutions through the KTDA tool, the different solutions proposed then are the following: (1) For mold temperature, it is to enable molds to reach stable working temperature through an initial heating process by use of an injection mold heater. (2) For problems with mold, it is implement a strict mold preventive maintenance policy and to hire additional mold maintenance men. (3) For power interruption, it is to purchase a diesel generator. Following the different solutions, an overall recommendation along with its implementation plan was established in order to effectively bring about the proposed solution to the company as well as be able to relay the different costs and benefits per solution. As evaluated, the implementation of the solutions up to its establishment would approximately take about 8 weeks. Through this overall proposed solution, it will result into an approximately monthly net savings of Php 50,000, which also reduces monthly internal rejects by an estimated 1,200 kg