Future VSM

First of all, based on the information of the company, if one wants to try to produce more ‘lean’ it is necessary to incorporate the improvements step by step. It cannot be implemented directly this technique because for the nature of the business, the idea is to try the improvement as much as possible.

The first step will be balance the production with the sales. Mezzacorona has sales of 45 million bottles per year. The tendency is a rise on the Christmas time, so, the forecast for the studies of the line B are going to be; 10million line B, 15million and 20 million the other two lines. The number of bottles is proportional to their working speed. Thus, 3.650.000 bottles are expected to sell in a month during the middle of the year by the three lines, which is an approximate number of 810.000 bottles for the line B (proportional to 10 from 45).

Implementing Lean Six Sigma methodology on the bottling line Chapter 5

106 Fig. 5.6. Expected demand of wine. Source: [Author]

Therefore, applying the calculation for the takt time in a normal month during middle of the year, for example July, the information from the questionnaire informs about the use of 66% of the time each line. So, if a month has 22 available days of work, the 66% of the days there is production for the line B (see ANNEX 10.); 15days. It is also considered 12 hours of available time, eliminating cleaning time and other planning downtimes. The demand per day would be 54.000 bottles/day, using 810.000 bottles/month.

This takt time is a number easy to produce for the company due to the real data was producing less than 0,6s/bottle. The bottleneck process was the washing machine with a unit every 0,558s, so, this ‘extra time’ between the takt time and bottleneck process allows the company to sequence the production to reduce the quantity of stock thanks to the levelling production with its benefits, enjoying that extra time for the changeover of the models of wine.

As a result, the production plan could organize its production realizing more changes on the model sequence. Based on the production of 6450 bottles/h, the bottling of 54.000 bottles and including the new lead time of the first bottle until the line is working stable takes 8h 36min. The available time is 12h, then, it leaves more than 3h for the 3 model changes on the production sequence. The changeover is approximately 1hour each one, and time of the run- up including when the first bottles come into the processes and fill the reduced buffers are inside the time of the changeover; so, the number of possible changeover is 3 every day for this takt time, having around 30 min for solving unexpected problems.

,0 1000000,0 2000000,0 3000000,0 4000000,0 5000000,0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Demand of wine

Implementing Lean Six Sigma methodology on the bottling line Chapter 5

107 The future VSM is represented in the ANNEX 3. With the update values from the Lean improvement in the bottling line, the objective is going to reduce also the waste between processes.

The main step for reducing this extra lead time is going to be the intermediate buffers. In the case that all the buffers were eliminated the reduction will be 37,7% of value added time, but the great time is in the inventory before the washing machine. Due to the palletiser speed is higher than the washing machine, the stock could be enough with 232 bottles (1 batch of the palletiser) because a bottle enters every 0,558s, but the palletiser comes out 232 bottles at the same time. It means that in 120 seconds, the washing machine will have 232 bottles more, and it still will be using the last units of the inventory. In addition, the buffers are not going to be eliminated totally because when the control rejects a bottle this one disappears from the line, so, having a little buffer only for this expected bottles. It is decided a 10% of the space in the buffer because of the possibility of the fact that some rejected bottles occur and to not slow down the speed of the line. The Packaging 4x6bottles process can work without a bottle in the buffer due to this process does not need any run-up time or run-down. Therefore, reducing the space of the buffer, the layout could be more compact decreasing the movements of the operators, with fewer meters of belts between processes.

Under this scenario, the lead time can be decreased from 13min 57sec up to 837sec (see ANNEX 3.) It reaches the 65% of value added inside the process (see ANNEX 3.).

The last area is the supplying of the process. For the future VSM, there is a change on the way they order and manage the raw material stock, and intermediate stock in the processes like corks, bottles, capsules or boxes. The ‘supermarket’ with pull removal is introduced to reduce the stock of these materials. The operator will order to the supermarket the necessary items for the next batch or production of the day, and then, the ‘supermarket’ will inform the production department which must be connected with the supplier by software. This future VSM needs the collaboration of the supplier to introduce lean techniques too to be able of replacing often the warehouse of the company. It also benefits the supplier because they will know how its customer stocks are, so, the supplier company could organize better their batch sizes and know when the winery is going to need the replacement with faster communication.

Implementing Lean Six Sigma methodology on the bottling line Chapter 5

108 For continue analyzing lean manners of improvement, one way is the standardization of the activities development to create a patron on their tasks, always performing with the same schedule the routine activities.

There is no 5S implementation, which is universally applicable to all the processes of any kind of business. A place of implementation can be all the workplace of each operator. The main table of the line, the tools wall, the label machine place and all the material for the changeover, the place for the stocks intermediates of corks, capsules, labels. This technique will be associated with the standardization of the activities, for a better schedule and to minimize the movements of the operator.

A good point is that the materials when they are sent from the inventory to the bottling line are replaced next to the point of use. For this reason, the material only for the batch or product should be replaced. The company have to take care to not replace extra material to avoid extra intermediate stocks and disorganization.

More lean techniques such as Jidoka or structured changeovers can be influenced by these techniques like 5S or reduction of defects, because they will avoid some of the current mistakes, generating better performance.

After that, the bottling process will be quite optimized. The production could be more levelled reducing finished product stocks, less lead time, less intermediate buffers and less units in the inventories, better operator performance, less movements of the operators, better supplying relationship and faster. Afterwards, this same chapter analyses how reduce the defects and rejected bottles which will beneficiate with less overprocesing, waste of materials and better equipment efficiencies.