(PDF) Lean Manufacturing Techniques To Reduce Electrical Wastage In Food Processing SMES -A Case Study

LEAN MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE ELECTRICAL WASTAGE IN FOOD PROCESSING SMES - A CASE STUDY A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MSc Mechanical Engineering by Ramsi Kalia (040670) August 2017 College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences University of Exeter 1 DECLARATION I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and appropriate acknowledgement and referencing has been provided. I also certify that no material is included for which a degree has previously been conferred upon me. --------------------------------- 2 ABSTRACT Purpose - This Dissertation aims to recognise, define, measure, analyse, and develop plans to reduce and control, Electrical wastage produced in a Food Processing SME. Design/ Methodology/ Approach - A combination of exhaustive literature review as secondary research, and collaboration with a sponsor SME in order to gather primary information. The company’s processes were observed and pilot projects were developed to address the concern to reducing electrical wastes. Information for pilot projects was gathered with the help of questionnaires and guided interviews of key personnel. This information was then analysed to develop a lean road-map for the SME to realise reduction in electrical wastes. Research Limitations - Limitations evident in the form that the road maps developed as a consequence of the pilot project caters to the sponsor SME and may not be useful for other SMEs in developing lean road-maps Originality/ Value - The development of the various lean road-maps are expected to result in a reduction of electrical wastes at SME to the tune of over £ 20,000 not including cost savings as a result of embedded electrical waste reductions. While the lean road-maps developed will cater to the sponsor SME, the methodology followed has been elaborately catalogued. This information is expected to provide SMEs with sufficient guidance to develop their own lean road-maps. Keywords - Lean manufacturing, Electrical wastes, Small to medium size enterprises, lean road-map, Food processing SME 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to Dr. Chris Smith, whose guidance and advice has been monumental during this period of higher education. I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Mr. Richard Shepherd, who guided and nurtured my ideas while also providing invaluable inputs. I would also like to thank my sibling and cousins Ms. Khushia Kalia, Mr. Ravish Sareen, Ms. Ankita Singal and Mr. Anubhav Singal who helped me develop the topic for this dissertation and regularly provided constructive counsel and direction. I would like to extend a special thanks to Mr. Charles Baughan at Westaway Sausages Ltd. who allowed me the opportunity to conduct this Dissertation at his premises. His kind support throughout the duration of this project was a key motivator in the development of it. I would also like to mention the employees at Westaway Sausages Ltd., with whom I had the opportunity to interact : Jonathan, Ben, Tim, Lucy and Sarah. I would also like to express my thanks to Mrs. Sue Addo and the staff at the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, who granted me the opportunity to pursue an MSc. in Mechanical Engineering at Exeter University. Finally, I must express my profound gratitude to my father for kindling in me the passion for Engineering. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for showering me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement. This accomplishment would not have been possible without the support and guidance of every individual mentioned. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 1 Acknowledgements 2 Table of Contents 3 List of Figures 5 List of Images 6 List of Tables 7 Notations 8 Chapter 1 : Introduction 9 1.1 Background 9 1.2 Aims and Objectives 10 1.2.1 Aims 10 1.2.2 Objectives 10 1.3 Scope of Work 10 1.4 Originality of Work 10 1.5 Outline of Dissertation 11 Chapter 2 : Critical Literature Review 14 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 Wastes 14 2.3 Lean Bundles 16 2.3.1 Total Productive Maintenance 16 2.3.2 Total Quality Management 16 2.3.3 Six Sigma 19 2.4 Lean Road Maps 19 2.5 Pilot Projects 19 2.6 Implementation of Lean in SMEs 19 2.7 Critical Success Factors for Lean Implementation in SMEs 20 2.8 Benefits of Lean Production 20 Chapter 3 : Research Methodology 21 3.1 Introduction 21 3.2 Primary Research Methodology 23 3.3 Company Profile 25 3.4 Pilot Projects 26 Chapter 4 : Analysis and discussions 27 4.1 Value Stream Mapping 27 4.2 Swim Lane Diagram 31 4.3 Spaghetti Diagram 33 4.4 Pilot Projects 36 4.4.1 Project One - Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) 36 5 4.4.1.1Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) 36 4.4.1.2 5S 38 4.4.1.3 Over-Processing 42 4.4.2 Project Two - Kobetsu Kaizen & Takt Time Analysis 43 4.4.3 Project Three - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen 45 4.4.4 Project 4 - Customer Satisfaction: The Six Sigma Approach 48 4.4.5. Project 5 - Visual Kanban 53 4.4.6 Project 6 - Food Wastes 56 Chapter 5 : Recommendations 58 5.1 Pilot Project 1 58 5.2 Pilot Project 2 59 5.3 Pilot Project 3 59 5.4 Pilot Project 4 60 5.5 Pilot Project 5 60 5.6 Pilot Project 6 61 5.7 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Development 61 Chapter 6 : Future Work and Research 63 6.1 Future of Lean Techniques 63 6.2 Future of Westaway Sausages Ltd. 64 6.2.1 Future of Lean 64 6.2.2 Future of IoT 65 6.3 Future Research Prospects 65 References 67 Appendices Appendix 1 - Questionnaires 71 Appendix 2 - Industry 4.0 Questionnaire 94 Appendix 3 - Letter of Intent & Resumè 105 Appendix 4 - Project Proposal 109 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 2.1 The seven types of wastes 12 2.2 Lean Bundles 14 2.3 TPM Pillars 15 Elements of critical factors for successful lean implementation. 2.4 18 Adapted from Achanga et al. 2006) 3.1 Continuous Development PDSA 22 3.2 PDSA cycle for Research Methodology 22 3.3 Research Methodology Flow Chart 24 4.1. Value Stream Map of Plant Processes 29 4.2 Swim Lane Diagram of Westaway Sausages Shop Floor 32 4.3 Spaghetti Diagram of Shop Floor 34 4.4 Idealised Spaghetti Diagram 35 4.5 The Kano Model, Adapted from Shen et. al (2000) 46 Flow-Chart showcasing the movement of a Customer Complaint to 4.6 49 completion. 4.7 Bar Graph showing the total number of complaints received in 2017 50 4.8 Bar Graph depicting the different complaints received in 2017 50 4.9 Customer Complaints received per 10 tonnes of production in 2017 51 4.10 Traditional Two-Bin Kanban System 54 4.11 Modified Two-Bin Kanban System 55 7 LIST OF IMAGES Image Page 4.1 Inventory Storage Area 27 4.2 Inventory Storage Area 27 4.3 Inventory Storage Area 27 4.4 Inventory Storage Area 27 4.5 Shop Floor - showcasing the Seasoning Bins 28 4.6 Goods In Fridge 28 4.7 Goods In Fridge 28 4.8 Supermarket - Finished Goods Storage - Chilled Area 30 4.9 Supermarket - Finished Goods Storage - Chilled Area 30 4.10 Goods Out Fridge - storing finished product 30 4.11 Pallet Packaging - Tertiary Packaging in Process 30 4.12 Inventory Storage Area 39 4.13 Inventory Storage Area 39 4.14 Examples of Floor Marking Techniques 41 8 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 2.1 Comparing the waste categories to energy wastes produced 15 2.2 TPM Pillar Definitions 18 2.3 Tools for TQM measurement and their uses. (Jostes & Helms, 18 1994) 4.1 OSHA Standard Guidelines for Floor Marking. Adapted from 41 OSHA Standard 1910.22 9 NOTATIONS 6ơ Six Sigma CRM Customer Relationship Management CSF Critical Success Factor ERP Enterprise Resource Planning G.M. General Manager IoT Internet of Things IQF Frozen Sausages JIT Just-In-Time LSS Lean Six Sigma LT Lean Techniques M.D. Managing Director NVA Non-Value Adding PDSA Plan-Do-Study-Act QA Quality Assurance QI Quality Improvement SKU Stock Keeping Unit SMB Small to Medium Business SME Small to Medium Enterprise TB Two-Bin TPM Total Productive Maintenance TPS Toyota Production System TQM Total Quality Management VA Value Adding VSM Value Stream Mapping WIP Work In Progress 10 Chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background After World War II, Japanese manufacturers were faced with vast shortages of material, financial, and human resources. These conditions resulted in the birth of the “Lean” manufacturing concept (Womack et al., 1990). Globalisation of markets has resulted in increased competition and organisations are under continuous pressure to pursue operational excellence and improve efficiencies in order to reduce costs, while also providing products of higher quality with shorter lead times. World-wide studies point to Lean Manufacturing as a tool to help organisations achieve these demands. Even though the origin of Lean was based in automotive manufacturing, it has evolved to a stage where almost every industry sector has gained tremendous advantages by employing suitable Lean Techniques (LT). It has been argued that Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are at a considerable disadvantage as a result of the globalisation of markets as they operate in sectors where there exist few barriers to new entrants and they exert little, to no, control over their suppliers. This causes the SMEs to perform in a reactive manner to ever changing circumstances. LTs have been widely accepted as cost cutting tools and are hence essential to SMEs. (Achanga, 2007; Achanga et al, 2005). Even though the importance of LTs in SMEs has been thoroughly explored, the extent of adoption of LTs in SMEs has remained dismal. This has been primarily attributed to the lack of clear understanding of and methodologies for Lean implementation. More importantly, the concept of Lean has mostly been employed to realise reductions in the seven mudas as defined by Taiichi Ohno (Toyota Executive, 1912-1990). The idea of using Lean Techniques to reduce utility wastes, while discussed by a few Large Enterprises, has remained fairly untouched in academic literature. This has resulted in the inability of most SMEs to successfully adopt the Lean Production concept. Moreover, there exists an information vacuum with regards to the most efficient manner in which to introduce LT at a company to ensure its success. 11 1.2 Aims and Objectives 1.2.1 Aim - This Dissertation aims to recognise, define, measure, analyse, and develop plans to reduce and control Electrical wastage produced in a Food Processing SME. 1.2.2 Objectives - The objectives of this Dissertation are as listed below : 1. To collaborate with an SME in the Food Processing Sector 2. To recognise one or more areas where Lean Manufacturing Techniques can be employed in order to reduce electrical wastage 3. To develop pilot projects to gather information regarding these areas of waste 4. To measure and analyse the Waste produced currently 5. To predict a reduction in waste by employing Lean Techniques 6. To recommend changes in functioning by aligning processes with Lean Techniques in order to realise these waste reductions 1.3 Scope of Work The scope of this Dissertation is focussed on studying the likelihood of success of utilising LTs to reduce Electrical Wastage at a Food Processing SME in the UK. However, the research study includes lean usage in all sizes and all sectors of industry as a means to obtain all available useful information and understand the best practices followed. 1.4 Originality of Work The work carried out in this Dissertation may be considered as Original in the following ways : 1. The method of utilising LT to reduce electrical wastage, while anecdotally mentioned, has not been standardised or even briefly explained in the literature available 2. The method of developing pilot projects has not been explored in the literature available 3. The strategy for selecting appropriate LTs to target wastes other than muda has not been explored in the literature available 4. The mechanism for directing different LTs to target utility wastes has not been explored in the literature available 12 5. The cross-functional utilisation of different LTs, while theorized (only Lean Six Sigma, LSS has been theorized), has not been practically explored in the literature available 6. The method of analysing the questionnaire results could also be considered as original 7. The development of recommendations that are easy to follow and apply has not been explored in the literature. Only a handful of literary sources discuss the steps involved in developing lean road-maps to help SMEs implement Lean, but even these are awkward and trivial discussions. Hence, the development of the lean road-map was original work. 8. The chapter of future work and research is wholly original 1.5 Outline of Dissertation The remainder of the thesis is composed of 6 chapters. Chapter 2 is a critical review of the literature in Lean manufacturing with emphasis put only on the aspects of Lean in direct relation to the development of this thesis. Chapter 3 covers in detail the research methodology employed as well as discussions on the development of pilot projects. A short company profile is also presented in this chapter. Chapter 4 is the discussions and analysis chapter. The findings of the individual pilot projects are covered in detail here, along with methods to implement the various projects, and expected results. Chapter 5 is comprised of the recommendations developed through the primary and secondary research. In Chapter 6, discussions on the future work in the area of Lean Manufacturing in SMEs as well as at the Sponsor Company are carried out. 13 Chapter 2 : CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction In the previous chapter, the research aims and objectives have been outlined. In this chapter a critical evaluation of the literature has been conducted. In order to simplify the vast concepts that fall under lean, a number of charts and tables have been utilised. The concepts explored in the further chapters have been elaborated upon. 2.2 Waste Any activity that does not add value to a process is termed as waste (Melton, 2005). Wastes or Muda are of seven types as defined by the Toyota Production System (TPS). Fig. 2.1 The seven types of wastes For the purpose of project development, these wastes need to be equated with Energy wastes. For this purpose table 2.1 is developed. 14 Waste Category Description Energy consumed in operating equipment to make Overproduction unnecessary products More energy used to heat, cool, and light Inventory Inventory Storage and warehousing space. More energy used for transport More space required for work in progress (WIP) Transport and Motion movement,increasing lighting, heating, cooling demands and thereby energy consumption Wasteful or defective energy conversion equipment Defects Defectiveproduction or information requires more space for rework and repair Loss of revenue due to poor energy quality Unnecessary production consumes unnecessary energy Overprocessing Oversized equipment usage Incorrect information causes NVA energy consumption Wasted energy during production downtime Waiting Wasted energy during finished product storage Table 2.1 Comparing the waste categories to energy wastes produced 15 2.3 Lean Bundles Lean production can be described at different levels of abstraction: it can be defined as a philosophy, as a set of principles and as bundles of practices (Čiarnienė & Vienazindiene, 2012). As a philosophy, Lean production can be defined as a multi-dimensional approach that encompasses a wide variety of management practices (Shah & Ward, 2003). The Lean production philosophy focuses on reducing the seven mudas (Schonberger, 1986). The principles of Lean, as defined by Womack & Jones (1996) are :  Identification of value  Elimination of waste  Generation of flow Extending on the work of Shah & Ward (2003), “bundles” of inter-relaed and internally consistent practices are developed. Specifically, four bundles are postulated; these are Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-In-Time (JIT), and Six Sigma (6ơ). Fig. 2.2 Lean Bundles These Lean Bundles are then used to develop the Pilot Projects for reducing electrical wastage at sponsor company. 16 2.3.1 Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) - TPM is described by Jostes & Helms (1994) as having a synergistic relationship among all the organisational functions, primarily between production and maintenance, for continuous improvement of product quality, operational efficiency, capacity assurance and safety. Fig, 2.3 TPM Pillars 17 TPM Pillar Definition Sort - Keep only the necessary items in the work place Set In Order - Arrange items to promote efficient work flow 5S Shine - Clean the work area and keep it tidy Standardise - Set standards for consistently organised work place Systematize - Maintain and Review Standards Autonomous Develop operator capability in handling maintenance tasks Maintenance Prioritising the most important losses and reducing them through Kobetsu Kaizen small incremental changes Develop trouble free machines through breakdown maintenance, Planned preventative maintenance, corrective maintenance and Maintenance maintenance prevention Quality Controlling the process interactions between manpower, Maintenance material, machines and methods to assure zero defect conditions Table 2.2 TPM Pillar Definitions 2.3.2 Total Quality Management (TQM) - Cua et al. (2001) have defined TQM as a manufacturing program aimed at continuously improving and sustaining quality products and processes by capitalizing on the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. Deming (1986) reasoned that as quality improves, waste is eliminated, costs are reduced, and financial performance improves. This is referred to as the Deming Chain. (Adam et al., 1997) Tools for Measurement Use Useful when need to display the relative Pareto Analysis importance of all problems Statistical Process Control Using control charts to analyse a process Problem Solving Techniques Involves Root Cause Analysis Used in order to shut machines down or lock Poka-yoke equipment in case of defect occurence Aimed at employees who participate in a positive Recognition & Reward Programs manner in the processes Table 2.3 Tools for TQM measurement and their uses. (Jostes & Helms, 1994) 18 2.3.3 Six Sigma (6ơ) 6ơ was popularised in the late 1990s by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric Corporation. The term “six sigma” refers to a statistical measure of defect rate within a system. Underpinned by statistical techniques, it presents a structured and systematic approach to process improvement, aiming for a reduced defect rate of 3.4 defects for every million opportunities (Pepper & Spedding, 2010). 2.4 Lean Road Maps A “lean pathway” or “lean roadmap” helps “lean” practitioners identify and address waste and its drivers, as well as understand how and when to apply the various “lean” approaches in the organisation (Anwari et al., 2011). 2.5 Pilot Projects Snee (2010) argues that prudent leaders would select pilot projects that have “significant impact”, are doable in less than three-six months and easy for the organisation to see the benefit of. 2.6 Implementation of Lean in SMEs Dora et al. (2014) examined the barriers to lean manufacturing in European Food SMEs. The top 10 barriers are : 1. Lack of top management commitment 2. Inadequate process control techniques 3. Availability of resources 4. Poor employee participation 5. Poor project selection 6. Lack of training 7. Lack of knowledge 8. Poor supplier involvement 9. Internal resistance 10. Poor delegation of authority 19 2.7 Critical Success Factors for Lean Implementation in SMEs The critical success factors (CSF) for lean implementation in SMEs, as discussed by Achanga et al. (2006) can be divided into the following categories : The most Critical Supportive Benefits Success Factor Elements of CSF Leadership & Management Funding Productivity Improvement A successfully Strategy Organisational Culture Resource Availability implemented Vision Skills & Expertise Willingness to Learn lean project People & Soft Issues Technology Development Fig. 2.4 Elements of critical factors for successful lean implementation. Adapted from Achanga et al. 2006 2.8 Benefits of Lean Production The benefits of lean, as discussed by Melton (2005) include : 1. Low process waste 2. Reduced lead-time 3. Less rework 4. Financial savings 5. Increased process understanding 6. Reduced inventory 20 Chapter 3 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction The initial aim of the project was to study the application of lean manufacturing techniques to reduce food wastes in UK companies. This was supplemented by extensive Literature Review, including studying examples that supported the hypothesis that Lean Techniques can effectively reduce wastes and improve operational productivity and efficiency, thereby reducing the cost of production, with special attention to Food Processing Industries. In order to study their present Food Processing Techniques, Westaway Sausages Ltd., located in Newton Abbott, was approached. The main objective for this collaboration was to identify areas where Lean Techniques (LT) had been employed as well as to recommend areas where suitable Lean Techniques could be effectively introduced. During the first meeting with them, in which Mr. Richard Shepherd was present, it was learnt that while they are open and eager to work on LT within their premises, they were not keen on reducing Food Wastes. This was because their current process controls were strong and resulted in minimal food wastes. However, during the discussion it surfaced that high utility costs were an area of concern for the company. Hence, it was suggested that the direction of the project be changed to explore the use of LTs to reduce either electrical, water or gas wastes. The change in the direction agreed at the initial meeting at Westaway Sausages resulted in a change in the primary aim and objectives for the project. This resulted in the need to revisit the literature to develop multiple pilot projects that would not only have a high probability of success but also provide “visible changes in diverse areas” in order to build Lean credibility (Burati & Oswald, 1993, p 466; Snee, 2010). This was fairly time consuming work as, although there exists an overabundance of information regarding LT and its effects at various facilities, it is fairly limited in terms of achieving particular waste reductions or providing road-maps on how efficiencies were improved. The information and examples cited in most sources are anecdotal at best, including emphasis on a very large number of projects launched simultaneously which dilutes the effect or impact any one project might have had. There is scarcity in the literature available regarding utilisation of LT in reducing electrical waste, and in general the implementation of LT in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). There is virtually no literature present on LT in SMEs in the Food Processing Sector and these constraints resulted in a longer than anticipated pilot project development period. Multiple literature sources cite the importance of Top Management commitment in order to implement any LT and through the first meeting, it was evident that Mr. Charles Baughn, the Managing Director (M.D.) at Westaway Sausages was passionate about implementing LT at his premises. This created an open atmosphere to introduce fresh ideas for pilot projects to him and glean from his experience and knowledge in these areas. Five pilot projects were developed, in consultation with Mr. Richard Shepherd before a second visit was arranged. 21 Fig.3.1 Continuous Development PDSA Fig 3.2 PDSA cycle for Research Methodology 22 3.2 Primary Research Methodology To gather primary information concerning these areas, a number of questionnaires were developed. These questionnaires were complemented by conducting interviews of the respective personnel charged with filling out these questionnaires. On the second visit at the premises, multiple interviews were conducted over the day. Interviews were held with the M.D., General Manager, Technical & Quality Manager, Office Manager and the Production Supervisor. This visit also included a second tour of the office space including the inventory stocking area. This further aided in development of the projects including the next set of questions. During this visit, it became fairly clear that while the M.D. had knowledge of certain aspects of LT and their benefits, a majority of the employees remained uninformed in this facet of efficiency and quality improvement (QI) management. Some employees interviewed seem to be working in manner similar to certain techniques (e.g. - 5S), but they were not aware of the technical terminology. This lack of knowledge lends to their inability to stay up-to-date with the advances made in these fields and especially keeps them unaware of the defined methods and procedures that would enable them to implement many of these procedures and techniques with greater ease. Another argument that became evident on this particular visit was that a number of LTs are termed as being unnecessary/irrelevant to a ‘small facility’ like theirs. This further prompted the need for extending the literature review to include studying the practical application of LT in SMEs as well as their critical success and/or failure factors. The third visit to the company involved follow-up interviews, filling out of the second set of questionnaires and an exhaustive visit and study of the Shop Floor (Kitchen). A complete walk-through of the Shop Floor was conducted in the presence of the General Manager, to understand the flow of work from “Goods In” to “Goods Out”. During this visit a vast amount of time was spent understanding the Food Wastes that are created on the Shop Floor and a new project was added to tackle the issue of food wastage. The fourth and final visit to the company was set up to discuss the recommendations that evolved through the analyses of the questionnaires and expected results of the pilot projects. The questionnaires were developed with the help of previous research work in these areas due to time limitations. Moreover, as the portfolio of sample companies was limited to one, the questions were altered to specifically cater for their processes and systems. These questions proved significant in surfacing the relevant information on their current status in the area of the pilot projects. The structure and jargon of the questionnaires immediately verified that LTs were misunderstood and the company was not practising true Lean. The interviews were not timed but instead used to enhance the understanding of the technology, management techniques and procedures being practised. These interviews were guided by the questionnaires which facilitated easy communication and maintained focus of the conversations. Finally, the information gathered from the questionnaires, interviews and observations were compared with the literature survey in way of analysis. 23 A Flow Chart of the Research Methodology is presented below. START Approach Prospective Partner Company with Problem Statement and Hypothesis NO Accepta ble? YES Fig.3.3 Research Methodology Flow Chart 24 3.3 Company Profile The company approached for the purpose of conducting primary research for this thesis was Westaway Sausages Ltd. Incorporated in May of 1997, Westaways was previously named Turton Quality Foods Limited under the first Director Steven Turton who bought the butchery business from Dennis Westaway. In February 2008, the business again changed hands and was renamed Westaway Sausages Limited and has since been based in Newton Abbott, UK. Currently, Westaways has two directors, the Managing Director, Charles Baughan and his wife and partner Ilona Baughan. The current company assets are estimated at £ 1.61 million. Westaway Sausages Ltd. is characterised as an SME (<250 employees) in the food processing sector. As the name suggests, Westaway Sausages manufacture a variety of sausages in a few different pack sizes as well hog’s pudding, black pudding, meat balls and burger patties. They cater to direct retail, wholesale, caterers, butchers, delicatessens as well as over 500 retailers in the West Country with fresh and frozen variants. Westaway has a long history of making sausages that date back to over 100 years, and some recipes have apparently remained unchanged for over 5 generations. This rich history has helped them establish a strong foothold on the sausage market and they currently remain one of only a few remaining companies that sell artisan sausages manufactured with British pork. It is registered in the Food Standards Agency as a manufacturing/packing service provider. Westaway Sausages Ltd. originally aimed their frozen products at export sales. They developed a strong network internationally including countries like Japan, Barbados and India. In fact they are the only British manufacturer allowed to sell pork to India. However, since 2014, these frozen products have also been made available to the British market. Along with this, they have signed many contracts with retailers around the country in the recent past, including one for supplying sausages to 140 Co-Op Food stores across the West Country in 2016. They currently employ 12 individuals in the Office and 18 on the Shop Floor. They have been the proud recipients of a number of awards for their sausages over the years including being recognised as one of the 50 Food Stars by the British Government. This award recognises and felicitates the rising stars of Britain’s Food and Drink Industry. The M.D. has also received the Sausage Oscar, for services to banger, in 2014. The contact with Westaway Sausages Ltd. was arranged by Mr. Richard Shepherd. 25 3.4 Pilot Projects HYPOTHESIS : The implementation of the pilot projects will result in reduction of electrical wastes. Project 1 - Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Analysing the peak machine performances and the current set up for planned, preventative, predictive, and autonomous maintenance. It included studying the breakdown occurrences and operator involvement in maintenance and repair activities. Finally, ascertaining any excessive or oversized equipment resulting in over-processing wastes. Project 2 - Processing Times - Takt Time Analysis - Kobetsu Kaizen Under this project, understanding Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) definitions and measuring takt, lead, and cycle times was the first step. Consequently comparing these with available man hours and production per month. Moreover, looking at de-bottlenecking and possibilities of improving the overall equipment efficiency(OEE). Project 3 - Forecasting - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen Analysing the current electricity consumption, the market contracts, regulatory constraints and possibility of on-site generation of electricity. Also looking at the possibility of shifting the production hours to low-tariff times. Project 4 - Customer Satisfaction - Six Sigma Studying the system for registering and addressing customer grievances, if any. Also analysing the extent of Customer involvement in product development and innovation. Project 5 - Kanban Studying the inventory control system as well as the set up for Pull System in terms of production, packaging and; raw material storage and ordering. This primarily included studying the presence, if any, of visual signals. Project 6* - Food Wastes This project emerged as a consequence of the interviews where the quantities of food waste generated on a daily/monthly basis was shared. It was aimed at studying the sources of food waste. The quantities of food wastes on a daily or annual term was to be calculated. Finally, analysing the effectiveness of LTs in place to tackle these issues as well as developing recommendations for further LT implementation to eliminate these wastes. 26 Chapter 4 : ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Value Stream Mapping The first step in a lean transition is to identify value-adding (VA) and non value-adding (NVA) activities. For this purpose Value Stream Mapping (VSM) has been developed. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) enables us to chart out the process flow. It is a map of all VA and NVA activities from raw material acquisition to finished goods shipping (Pepper & Spedding, 2009; Abdulmalek & Rajgopal, 2006). However, as the projects were launched simultaneously, it became evident that multiple visual aids would need to be utilised in order to fully and quickly comprehend the work process and flow. These visual aids included process-flow flowcharts, swim-lane diagrams and spaghetti diagrams. The VSM diagram is shown below. Production Control is managed by Lucy, the Office Manager. In this diagram you can see that the Production Control orders the inventory on a weekly basis. This is done by manually visiting the inventory housing the material and making note of all the materials that require ordering. Material that is catalogued weekly includes the trays, sleeves, cardboard boxes of all sizes, plastic wrapping rolls, cider, and spice mix. Some images of this inventory storage space are shown below. This inventory is shifted on a daily basis to the Shop Floor for use. Image 4.1 Image 4.2 27 Image 4.3 Image 4.4 The seasoning is stored in specified bins shown below. There are different bins for different seasonings. These seasonings are filled regularly, and once emptied, are refilled. Spice Bins Image 4.5 The second inventory refers to the fresh meat, pre-mixed meat and natural meat skins (sausage casing). This stock is regularly ordered twice a week, in advance, depending on the ‘forecasted’ production plans for the next week. All inventory is always ordered in a slight excess so as to ‘never run out’. There are two fridges dedicated to storing this inventory (Fridge 1 and 3). The figures below shows one of these fridges. Image 4.6 Image 4.7 Natural Skins Fresh Meat Pre-mixed Meat 1 Pre-mixed Meat 2 Apart from this weekly plan, a daily production schedule is also prepared. This production schedule is printed daily by the office manager and sent down to the Shop Floor, where Joe (Kitchen Manager) oversees the production. 28 Physical Pull External Shipment Inventory 1 - Packaging Supermarket Fig 4.1. Value Stream Map of Plant Processes Inventory 2 - Meat Safety Stock Buffer Inventory Operator Kaizen Burst Manual Flow Electronic Flow Forklift 29 The material is always produced in excess of the planned shipment. This is done primarily for two reasons - 1. In order to have buffer stock in case of an emergency order. 2. In case the production plan requires an odd weight of meat to be mixed, this makes it difficult to bring it down to exact numbers as the meat is either in pre-weighted packages, that need to all used at once; or the recipe doesn’t allow for odd number reductions. This forces the production of a round number weight of meat. This excess daily production is then moved to the chilled area and stored as buffer stock. This buffer stock is then subtracted from the next day’s production plan and is kept on constant rotation. The supermarket at the end of the process flow is the storage area where ready-to-be shipped products are stocked. Image 4.8 Image 4.9 The images above show the “supermarket” in progress. At the end of the day, the pallets will be stacked on pallets according to order summary and plastic wrapped. If this space is filled, some finished product is also moved to the fridge as shown below. Fridge Image 4.10 Image 4.11 30 In an effort to further understand the shop floor functioning, two more diagrams were developed. These were the 1. Swim Lane Diagram - to understand the work-flow from order placement to shipping, and 2. Spaghetti Diagram - to understand the work-flow on the Shop Floor These have been shown below. 4.2 Swim Lane Diagram The Swim Lane Diagram is a flowchart in which decisions and processes are placed in “lanes”. These lanes are presented horizontally and each lane represents a person, group or sub-process. Here we have sorted the lanes into Customer, Office Manager, Inventory Manager, Shop Floor Manager, Mixer, Kitchen Staff and Shipping. Here Shipping is the only sub-process and all other lanes represent person(s).The vertical columns show the sequence of events and the horizontal rows describe the roles involved. The swim lane diagram was developed to capably understand the ordering process and the succession of steps that yield the final product ready for shipping. The diagram was developed after interviews with the M.D., General Manager and Office Manager. Historically, swim lane diagrams have been used as a means to map and improve process flows and are similar to the flow process chart called multi-column chart which first appeared in the 1940s. Here it has been used to divide the process into visual categories in order to illustrate the different functional responsibilities. As can be seen from the diagram, the work cycle starts with the receipt of the order. This order is then accepted and physically input into the weekly Production Plan by the Office Manager (Lucy). The Production Plan is an excel sheet which then converts the batch order into kilos of meat required. This requirement is further transferred into daily Production Plans. The daily Production Plans are physically printed and presented to the Inventory Manager and the Shop Floor Manager. The inventory manager is responsible for ascertaining the material requirements and transporting them to the shop floor. The shop floor manager passes the kilo meat requirements to the Mixer. The mixer is responsible for mixing the required quantities according to the specified recipes. This mixture is sent to the WIP fridge to maintain temperatures. From here, it is the job of the Kitchen Staff to make the individual sausages, pack them in plastic containers, pass through the metal detector and finally cover with sleeves (secondary packaging). This packaged product is next passed to the shop floor manager who physically moves the product to the chilled storage area. Here he assorts the product onto different pallets depending on the order summary received from the production plan. Once the pallets are filled, plastic wrapping (tertiary packaging) is used to cover the entire pallet. These pallets are then shipped to the customer. 31 Fig.4.2 Swim Lane Diagram of Westaway Sausages Shop Floor 32 4.3 Spaghetti Diagram The Spaghetti Diagram was also charted after an exhaustive study of the Shop Floor and work flow from “Goods In” to “Goods Out”. This diagram helps us to visualise the flows through the space. It is hypothesized that visualising flow in this manner can help identify and thereby reduce flow inefficiencies. Spaghetti Diagrams at times purport batching and queuing as opposed to single-unit flow, however, the spaghetti diagrams have to be supported with physical examination of the shop floor and analysis of single-piece vs. batch flow(Levinson, 2007). Spaghetti diagrams also help in the study of variation in processing and material transfer times. Spaghetti diagrams are so called because of the lines that are drawn tracing the path of a work-piece through the process which can result in a diagram as messy as a plate of spaghetti. It helps identify redundancies in work flow, areas where walk paths overlap, the major intersections on the floor, and most importantly the areas of bottle-necking. They help to visualise the movement of man and material through available space and can determine areas of wastage. Spaghetti Diagrams are a part of Six Sigma tools and focus attention on the Shop Floor Layout and at times solutions appear instantaneously, primarily the C-shaped and U-shaped movements. Ideally man and material movements are marked in different colours to facilitate easy understanding, however, in this case a single colour is employed as there is no autonomous movement of material. Operators and handlers are present at every point in the flow and are required to physically move the material. The Spaghetti diagram shown below was utilised to understand the work flow on the shop floor. An ideal Spaghetti diagram would have one direction work flows and minimum, if any, path overlapping. As the work flow is entirely manual, it has created a false sense of efficiency. Moreover, as the facility is running far below capacity, the waits created by the disorganised and sloppy movements remain either unnoticed or unimportant. Again the point to emphasize here is that the facility is producing only 30% of its capacity on average and this has created a lackadaisical environment and attitude towards excellence. As a result, very little attention has been paid towards achieving flawless work flow. Moreover, as the results of implementing LTs to counter these issues has benefits that are difficult to quantify, it remains a point of contention in the minds of SME top management. One of the biggest points that came to light while studying the Spaghetti diagram was the process flow for producing IQF product. The annual sale of IQF product is close 700-800 kgs, which can essentially be producing within 7 days. This means that the daily movement of material back and forth from the blast freezer, to IQF packaging, and then storage is a gross redundancy. A reason for retaining this redundancy was expressed as the need to run the shop floor 5 days a week. A solution for this tangled work flow has been expressed below. The main idea is to separate the two production units and utilise only one section of the shop floor at any given time. This would result in the running of the shop floor 5 days a week, while only running one section. 33 Fig.4.3 Spaghetti Diagram of Shop Floor 34 Fig.4.4 Idealised Spaghetti Diagram 35 4.4 Pilot Projects 4.4.1 Project One - Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) This project was aimed at analysing the presence, if any, of the Total Productive Maintenance plans present at the company. The questionnaires developed were geared towards studying the different pillars of TPM, viz., 5S, Autonomous Maintenance (Jishu Hozen), Planned Maintenance, and Training. The ‘Over-processing’ waste was also included under this project as a majority of the over-processing wastes were believed to be present on the Shop Floor and building one part of the questionnaire for the personnel would have been better received than multiple ones. This particular Questionnaire had 8 sections, parts of which were answered by different employees. The 5S section was filled by Lucy (Office Manager); the Machine Operator, Autonomous Maintenance, Maintenance Prevention and Over-processing sections was filled out by Ben (Production Supervisor), and the remaining sections by Charles (M.D.). Charles also lent his answers to a majority of the other sections. This project was extremely successful in revealing irregularities and prevalent wastes. 4.4.1.1Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) - The basic objective was to ascertain the extent of TPM implementation currently in place. The first three sections of questions were geared towards ascertaining the upper management attitude towards TPM, and the efforts in order to fully utilise this LT, whether TPM was a worthwhile LT and to what extent it has been exploited to achieve cost savings. The overall response while positive to the idea of TPM, was doubtful about the practicality of it at their premises. This has been observed as a common occurrence through the literature survey wherein a number of LTs are regarded too costly, difficult to implement, or unnecessary at smaller companies (Achanga et al, 2006; Dora et al, 2014; Cua et al, 2001). What was a glaring disparity was that it was readily accepted by the M.D. as well as the Production Supervisor that TPM has benefits and that it can lead to resolving root causes of failures, and increase cost savings, even so, the extent of it’s implementation was meagre at best. A profound response was the lack of training provided before TPM implementation as well as Production Supervisor’s disinterest in receiving training for the same. A majority of responses for these sections of the questionnaire were supplemented with comments highlighting the fact that the need did not exist. Another reason for not implementing TPM at a bigger scale was the fact that the Shop Floor at the moment works at only 30% capacity. The company has recently expanded their work space and now have two fully functioning production lines in place while only one is used at a time. As a result, if they 36 have an equipment problem, they put it aside and utilise machinery from the other line to fulfil their production plan for the day. While this may work at present, it is a fairly irresponsible attitude towards production. Such an attitude will always ensure that the facility never functions at full capacity. It was also mentioned that the company is looking to add a third line soon, and this seems to be in order to always have spare machinery on hand instead of as a response to increase in orders. Another observation made on the shop floor was the small faults present on the doors, walls and floor. These failures are recorded in their monthly ‘hygiene and fabrication audit’. The audit not only includes the process machinery faults but also issues with flooring, doors, tables, trolleys, sinks etc. These repairs, while currently outsourced, could effectively be reduced with proper training in recognition of possible faults before they escalate to failures. That is one of the greatest benefits of implementing TPM, that faults and errors can be recognised and corrected before failure, resulting in maximum utilisation of component life (Najjar & Alsyouf, 2002). Moreover, it has been estimated that maintenance costs amount to 15-40% of the total cost of production in typical manufacturing (Jostes & Helms, 1994) and that emergency repairs are often thrice as more expensive than pre-planned maintenance while also taking as much as ten times as long (Chan et al, 2003). Recognising such errors can be improved by development of operator participation. Specifically by reducing the “Check your brains at the door” ideology (Jostes & Helms, 1994) and replacing it by the “Listen to your machine” practice (Richard Shepherd, 2017). This ties into electrical wastage as -  A machine that continues to be utilised with faults will not work at maximum efficiency and will undoubtedly use more electricity to perform the same function.  Issues with doors, walls, floors would result in issues with cooling. As the facility is working with meat, all parts have to effectively be kept at low temperatures. If the heat leakage increases because of these errors, the compressors have to work harder to maintain the same temperature resulting in increased electricity consumption.  The packaging machine has been shown to pack ‘tighter’ when newly serviced. While this effect is visible and therefore desired, what is overlooked is the increase in energy consumption by the machine at low operating efficiency.  It has also been observed that the refrigerant leaks fairly regularly every 2-3 months. While there are sensors in place to notify of a drop in the temperature, this kind of a failure does require calling outside help in order to refill the refrigerant. A regular TPM procedure in place would ensure that the coolant is refilled before it drops below desired level, in case coolant leakage is a gradual process; or if it happens due to failure of certain component, regular/daily checking will ensure that the faulty component is replaced at the end of its life without compromising the refrigerant level. There are various devices available that can facilitate regular refrigerant leakage testing. As the replacement of refrigerant is far costlier than valve or knob replacement, substantial cost savings will be realised. 37  Moreover, if the refrigerant leakage is a gradual process, it causes gradually increasing load on the refrigeration equipment which will result in increased electricity consumption.  Finally, the drop in coolant would cause shocks to the compressors. Even if there are auto shut-off mechanisms in place to safeguard the compressor and trip the refrigerator, these regular failures will ultimately lead to compressor failure. As is common knowledge, compressors are very expensive equipment. Moreover, finding the right compressor and installing it is not always a quick job. This will undoubtedly lead to large losses and repair costs as well as loss of production time.  Leak tightness on the refrigerators should be checked before refilling the new refrigerant. This is achieved by filling with nitrogen gas at a pressure higher than the operating refrigerant pressure for 24 hours. If after this time, no minor leakage is observed only then should the new refrigerant be filled. There are many leak detector equipments available today, varying in complexity. The acquisition of this equipment will aid in TPM and daily checking of the refrigeration equipment. Many of the results of TPM would possibly cause embedded electrical waste reduction. As a result, this LT has been ignored till now and would require further proof before acceptance by the M.D. The first step towards TPM implementation has to be strong top management commitment and a well developed strategy (Cua et al, 2001). Further, employee involvement is also crucial for the success and continued implementation. 4.4.1.2 5S - 5S forms the base of the TPM pillars. It is basically the idea that “a place for everything and everything in its place”. The 5S section of the questionnaire was filled out by Lucy (Office Manager) under guidance of the M.D. The M.D. was required to translate the jargon of 5S into fundamental ideas. This showed the lack of education regarding LT at the company. 5S being one of the simplest forms of LT, as well as one with very visible results, while being partially implemented has not been trained to the staff. As discussed in the literature survey, the stages of 5S are Sort, Set-in-order, Shine, Standardize and Systematize. If the idea of 5S is emphasized to a greater degree, it will result in a better impression of LT among the staff and possibly lead to an ease in acceptance of different LTs in the future. Setting 5S standards and adhering to them religiously can possibly reduce embedded electrical waste by increasing overall efficiencies. Moreover, the remaining pillars of TPM require 5S as a base. Ignoring 5S strategies can result in ineffective implementation of other TPM pillars and possibly failure of these projects. 38 During the first tour of the premises, the under-use of 5S philosophies became glaringly apparent. This was evident in the Inventory Stocking Areas as well as in the Fridge visited. 5S demands the follow through of its well defined steps. The company, at present, practises the first step of 5S that is Sort. Within the Inventory Storage Area, the raw materials have their obvious spaces. However, these spaces are not demarcated or labelled in any way. The inventory storage spaces are shown below. As can be seen, while there exists uniformity in location of different raw materials, these locations are not specified. Cider Seasoning Packing Sleeves Seasoning Image 4.12 Size 2 Cardboard Size 1 Cardboard Boxes Boxes Image 4.13 39 In the above image, two different types of Cardboard Boxes can be seen. Kindly note here that this is only a small representation and for more images of the Inventory Storage Space please see section 4.1 The same is also valid for the Storage Fridge. As shown in images 4.6 and 4.7 in section 4.1, the different raw materials, that is, the natural skins, the pre-mixed meat or rind while having their own assigned spaces, are not Set in these spaces. The next step of 5S, in association with the poka-yoke (error-proofing) methods, have been used widely to reduce mistake. In the context of Westaway Sausages Ltd., the errors that are possible if inventory management is not aligned with these methodologies could be ordering greater than or less than the required quantities at mistimed intervals. Either of these scenarios will result in electrical wastage. Electricity is required to light the storage areas, moreover, excessive storage can result in internal heat gains of the building which will result in increased cooling demands. Finally, excessive inventory can hinder movement through the space, leading to reduced efficiencies. The electrical wastage created by these factors is mostly embedded and for this reason remains neglected at present. In order to move onto the next step of 5S, the company needs to clearly indicate the inventory spaces. The areas to consider for this include the raw material storage areas shown above, as well as the refrigerators used for storing incoming and outgoing goods. Additionally, as the main customers remain constant, this method can even be applied to a great extent in the chilled areas for storing finished goods (supermarket). This can be done by either painting descriptions on the walls, or painting clear boxed areas for limiting the space assigned to these spaces. At this point in the discussion, the M.D. disclosed that they have “no need” of implementing these techniques. The primary reason for this was that they have only two employees who are responsible for ordering and maintaining the inventory and they are well aware of the current set-up. The second reason for not wishing to implement the next step in 5S was the need for variability. It was argued that, as the company expands, they would be required to move things around and hence cannot invest in the Set-in-Order aspect of 5S. While this may seem like a valid argument, another fact that came to light was that no new raw material has been added to the company’s inventory requirement in the past 12 months. A way to incorporate the 5S methodology, while maintaining flexibility, should the need for it arise, would be to invest in print-outs of material descriptions. These print-outs can be easily placed and replaced as the inventory expands. This should result in a smoother work environment and more importantly in reduction of human error. Another aspect of 5S that can be employed at the premises would be the “Floor Marking” methodology. In this, the work space, whether that be the inventory, the fork-lift movement areas, or even the shop floor are divided into aisle-way, production area, inspection, defect or WIP areas. This is facilitated by using different coloured tapes to clearly demarcate these areas. Training is necessary to ensure that the meanings of the different colours of tape are 40 clearly understood by all personnel. It is also equally important to use the minimum number of colours possible to ensure clear understanding by employees. In lean manufacturing, the general rule of thumb is that anyone should be able to walk into a workplace and identify the flow of work within 60 seconds. One of the easiest and most effective ways to visually accomplish this goal is through the use of 5S floor marking. Floor marking lays the foundation for the ‘set in order’ stage of 5S, as you start from the floor and work your way up organizing the facility. The proper use of floor marking tape helps create order and pattern of work in the facility, which eliminates searching and confusion within a work area. Floor marking also helps to clearly define processes and cells in the value stream. Strategic, color-coded 5S floor marking can help the facility not only meet the 60-second goal, but surpass it. Image 4.14: Examples of Floor Marking Techniques OSHA standards have defined the different colours for floor marking. These are Table 4.1 : OSHA Standard Guidelines for Floor Marking. Adapted from OSHA Standard 1910.22 41 As the main concern for not wishing to introduce Floor Marking at the premises is the need for variability and agility, it is recommended that the Floor Marking process be started under a test phase. In the test phase, the floor can be marked by using different coloured chalks. This will help in further development of the floor design. During the first few weeks, it is expected that the laid out plans would need to be changed regularly to incorporate errors. During this time inefficiencies in work movement will also come to light. As the floor would be marked with chalk, adapting the layout regularly would be easy. After a few weeks, laying down clear tape on top of the chalk outlines is recommended. This arrangement would ensure better working practices while maintaining changeability. 4.4.1.3 Over-Processing - The final section of this project was developed to recognise any over-processing wastes on the Shop Floor. Over-processing is different from over-production in the sense that over-processing is related to adding more value to the product than is required, for e.g., using anti-corrosion paint in areas that will never be exposed to air. In the context of Westaway Sausages, over-processing as one of the seven deadly Lean Wastes was used to analyse the use of over-sized equipment and the over-use of certain equipments. Food Standard Authorities prescribe shop floors to be maintained at prescribed low temperatures while working with meat. This is achieved by chilled areas, work-in-progress (WIP) fridges and multiple freezers. The idea was to measure the time that each refrigeration equipment is turned on and at what capacity. For this purpose a section of the questionnaire was devoted to over-processing questions such as the capacity of the freezers and fridges, the percentage of capacity occupied on average, the running times and ratings. This was supplemented by an informal interview to assess the answers and hold a conversation regarding these equipments. The Shop Floor has 2 freezers that are on average filled to 70% capacity. Apart from this, there are also 3 fridges for storing fresh meat, WIP meat, and finished product. Fridge 1 has a 3 tonne capacity and holds the fresh meat and natural skins/casings for sausages. Fridge two has around 3.5 tonne capacity and is used to house the finished product. Fridge 3 has a capacity of 3 tonnes and holds pre-mixed raw meat. No wood (pallets) or plastic (packaging) is allowed in fridge 3. Moreover, there is a chilled area of 20 tonne capacity, where the finished product of the day is stored before it is dispatched. As the production facility produces extra finished product (~ 15-20 kgs) on a daily basis, any extra finished product not being shipped by the end of the work day is left in the chilled area, forcing the need to keep it turned on. On average all shipments for the day are dispatched by 4 p.m. Work starts the next day at 7 a.m. As a result, a small portion of finished products are left in a large space which can effectively be moved to 42 one of the other fridges. This move will result in the possibility of switching off a huge section of the facility for over 14 hours. Even though 7 of these hours (12.30 a.m. - 7.30 a.m.) fall under the night tariff of 6 pence/unit, substantial cost savings can be still be realised from this activity. It is estimated that this activity would take less than 10 minutes at the end of the day. The cost savings are estimated to be at least £5,000 per annum. Another facet of over-processing or over utilisation of refrigeration equipment was revealed during the discussion of the Blast Freezer. The Blast Freezer is used to produce Frozen Sausages (IQF). This operation takes 8 hours. At present the blast freezer is left on 24*7. This is a tremendous waste of electricity. If the IQF production can be better planned, the use of the blast freezer can be reduced to a third. This will result in further reduction of electricity consumption and an average cost saving of approximately £ 9000 per annum. Average electricity consumption by Blast Freezer = 10,000 units per period therefore, average consumption per day = (10000/4) ÷ 7 = 357.14 units/day per hour = 357.14 ÷ 24 = 14.88 units/hour finding the cost based on different tariff for day and night -- charges from 7.30 am to 12.30 am = 11p/unit Day Charges 12.30 am to 7.30 am = 6p/unit Night Charges Blast Freezer runs for 24 hours. Cost per day = (14.88×17×11) +(14.88×7×6) = 3407.52 p or £34.08 /day Cost over 1 week running for 7 days = 34.08 ×7 ×4 ×13 = £ 12405.12/annum Cost over 1 week running for 2 days = 34.08 ×2 ×4 ×13 = £ 3544.32/annum Cost Savings = 12405.12 - 3544.32 = £ 8959.8 /annum 4.4.2 Project Two - Kobetsu Kaizen & Takt Time Analysis While Kobetsu Kaizen is the second pillar under TPM, it was regarded as it’s own project as it can involve extensive work and exhaustive calculations. Kaizen stands for small or incremental changes made continuously in an effort to move towards ideal process working. For this purpose the Six Sigma concept of Takt Time Analysis is also considered here. Takt Time Analysis is done by comparing the required quantity to the production speed, to measure and analyse the ability to complete orders on time. Takt Time Analysis can also lead to de-bottle-necking which is a concept under Kobetsu Kaizen. Thus we have used Six Sigma 43 Tools or analyse and implement TPM Tools. This is a prime example of the interchangeability of Lean, Six Sigma and Quality Improvement Tools. In recent years, the concept of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has evolved from the marriage of Lean and Six Sigma. The plan being that we can use lean ideology in order to identify problem areas that require improvement (hot spots) and then we can employ the structured, focussed and measurable Six Sigma Tools to drive improvement. Kobetsu Kaizen was used to identify the production chain and flow process as a prime position for improvement. It was also hypothesized that the improvement in the work flow will yield reduction in process time and subsequently reduction in electricity consumption. The questionnaire developed for this project concentrated on Takt Time Analysis. This included plans for calculating the cycle time, lead time, takt time and analysis of results. The first question was the definition of one SKU. Unfortunately, the company does not have a single definition of the SKU (based on weight, cms, etc.) and there was considerable confusion around this topic. There were no definite answers concerning the man-hours, number of employees on the shop floor or average lead time. Even the definition of cycle is variable and effectively is considered on a day-by-day basis. Apart from these issues, the management seemed reluctant to work on process control and improvement, primarily because the facility is running at only 30% capacity. This opinion has resulted in possibly unpolished processing methods and speeds. There were also preliminary exercises conducted on improving process speeds by varying the number of employees with respect to the type of product being manufactured by the management, which were shared to emphasize their current efficiencies and continued efforts to improve efficiency internally. The only positive information gathered from this project was related to food wastes. It was gleaned that the average daily wastage on the shop floor is around 15 kgs of food and on average a few hundred kilos of IQF (frozen) are discarded from storage every 4-6 months. This led to further analysis of the reasons of these wastages and developing methods to reduce or eliminate these wastes. The fresh food waste on the shop floor is caused due a few reasons highlighted below  Overspill from the mixer  Food spills during transport to-and-from the different machines  Food not processed due to sticking to the sides of processing machines  Roughly half a kg of meat is discarded in all the machines due the inability of these machines to process the last portion While it difficult to quantify the electrical savings from reducing these wastes, it is still expected to reflect in the period consumption. It is also of note that no formal or informal training has been provided or is currently planned in order to educate the staff about ways to 44 be more mindful while working to reduce spillages. This can again be attributed to the overall apathy towards reducing food wastage. Another aspect of the original project was finding the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) at the plant. This is explained below Shift Length = ? minutes Total Planned Stoppages = ? minutes Unplanned Down Time = ? minutes Stated Cycle Time = ? piece/minute Total Pieces Manufactured = ? Rejected Pieces = 0 Availability, A = OperatingT ime Planned Pr oductionTi me  S TPS UDS S TPS % TotalPiece s OperatingT ime Performance, P = StatedCycl eTime % GoodPieces Quality, Q = TotalPiece s % However, these calculations were made impossible with the questionnaire answers. 4.4.3 Project Three - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen This project was aimed at recognising the likelihood of changing the current electricity tariff plan by surveying available market contracts, the possibility of on-site electricity generation as well the possibility of shifting high energy consuming tasks to off-peak tariff rate hours. The Questionnaire developed for this project was fairly straightforward and was developed keeping in mind the kind of work that would follow. The idea behind Kaizen is that things should continuously evolve keeping the demands of the customer at the forefront. As time goes on, the customer demands also mature. As an example, consider a company manufacturing product X. Now product X may have qualities A and B that are required qualities and quality C which is an extra quality, even called ‘attractive quality’ that makes this product X appealing to customers. As time goes on, the quality C downgrades from being an ‘attractive quality’ to an expected quality, without which the product is considered sub-par, while the addition does not provide any extra satisfaction. These can then be termed as “one-dimensional qualities”. Eventually, as time progresses, these qualities further downgrade to becoming “essential qualities”, that are taken for granted and the absence of which will result in a very dissatisfied customer. This concept was developed by Kano et. al (1984) and has also been summarised by Shen et. al (2000). They have explained this concept as relating customer satisfaction to product performance. This concept has been explored here to emphasize the importance of regular development of product to satisfy customer demands. 45 Fig. 4.5 The Kano Model, Adapted from Shen et. al (2000) At times, customer demands shift towards expecting cheaper products. They may switch brands and forego loyalty in lieu of more economically priced products. Thus, it is important to build on business excellence that contributes to reduced manufacturing costs. These cost savings can be then passed to the customer to maintain competitive advantage. Periodically revising the Energy portfolio and contracts can reveal possibilities of reducing the electrical costs, thereby reducing the running costs of the plant. For this purpose, employing outside counsel on matters of energy reduction are advocated. There exist multiple ways to reduce the electric bill, sometimes by simply switching the provider, or even exploring the available ‘plans’ to best suit needs. These concepts while simple, can effectively reduce electric bills and can do so regularly. Energy Sufficiency Kaizen utilises this idea and merges it with the concept of Zero Energy Variance. In essence, it includes energy portfolio management, optimisation, execution and long term management. Along with this the prospect of developing private energy is also heavily stressed. Private energy today is primarily related to setting up of Solar Panels. However, another form of private electricity generation, by wind power, also has merits as has been reported by the LEGO® company in May 2017. They have built a 285 MW offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea, and are now running their business on 100% renewable energy. Setting up private energy generation has large initial investment, requiring availability of capital. This may not always be possible for SMEs with low cash flow, however, the point to remember is that future gains that are to be expected. Apart from this, as our society becomes further cognizant of topics such as energy demands and global warming, having a “Clean Energy” or “Green Energy” tag will project a better image of the business and its practices. During interview with Jonathan (General Manager), it was revealed that the company was renting their current offices and hence were unable to move forward in this sphere as they are currently renting their offices. As such, they do not have the authority to install any solar 46 panels on their premises. Moreover, during discussion about their current tariff plans and their openness to switching providers, it was discovered that they have very recently changed their provider and will now enjoy much lower electricity tariff. On the aspect of switching production to off-peak hours, the tariff charged was considered. Their tariff is detailed below. Electricity Tariff - Charges same for all days of the week. Day Charges - 11p / unit 7.30 am to 12.30 am Night Charges - 6 p/ unit 12.30 am to 7.30 am After studying the Shop Floor set-up, it has been learnt that a majority of the costs are related to refrigeration equipment. While majority of the refrigeration equipment runs all day, it is essential to maintain the fresh, and final product meat. The only aspect that can be considered is the Blast Freezer. Currently, the Blast Freezer too runs 24*7. It is proposed that better production planning can result in easily changing the Blast Freezer use hours from day to night. It has been learnt that the Blast Freezer requires 8 hours to turn fresh product into frozen (IQF). Even though, IQF production is low and only 8 hours are required for freezing it, the Blast Freezer is kept on all day throughout the week. This is an unreasonable expense, and can be tackled effectively through production planning. In order to switch the Blast Freezer running hours from day to night, the fresh product produced during the day should be stored till the end of the day in the regular chilled zone. It should be transferred to the Blast Freezer at the end of the day. At this point, the Blast Freezer can be turned on. It should be left on over night and turned off in the morning. Production begins daily at 7.00 am, and at this time the IQF can be moved to a storage freezer, and the Blast Freezer can be turned off. This can result in an annual savings of over £ 5000 per annum. Current Blast Freezer charges = £34.08 / day calculated above Following from the calculations above, If the blast freezer was run from 4.00 pm to 7.00 am, Cost per day = (14.88×8.5×11) +(14.88×6.5×6) = 1391.28 +580.32 = 1971.6 or £ 19.72 / day Cost per annum = 19.72×7×4×13 = £ 7178.08 Thus, Cost savings = 12405.12 - 7178.08 = £ 5227.04 / annum 47 4.4.4 Project 4 - Customer Satisfaction: The Six Sigma Approach Six Sigma (6ơ) defines tools for improving process control mainly through empirical and statistical methods. Ideally 6ơ asserts a reduction of errors to below “3.4 defects per million opportunities”. Here we have explored the implementation of 6ơ tools as a means to quantify Customer complaints. While the primary objective of the project remains reducing electrical wastes at Westaway Sausages Ltd., it has been approached in terms of reducing customer complaints. The reason for this was the idea that lower customer complaints equates to lower amounts of food wastage (through either throw-away, batch suspension or product recall) which ultimately leads to lower wastage of electricity used to produce it. As described by the M.D., the primary customer for the company is considered to be retailers and not the end user. This poses the predicament of measuring defects per million opportunities. As an example, on 19/02/16, a complaint was received from a Debenhams cafe of finding plastic in the fresh sausages. This resulted in the grounding of the entire batch of sausages supplied. This corresponds to wastage of the electricity that was utilised in producing that particular batch of sausages. While the entire batch of sausages supplied were defective, only one complaint was registered and the defect was counted as singular. The questionnaires developed for this project surrounded the need for understanding the present system in place for receiving and addressing customer complaints along with the extent of analysis of customer satisfaction data. The questionnaire was filled out by Tim, the Technical & Quality Manager. Currently, the complaints received are manually input into Excel sheets and token analysis in the form of bar graphs is conducted. There exists very little value derived from this data. Primarily, this data is a means of record keeping The flow of Customer Complaint through the company is described below. 48 Customer Makes Complaint Receive Customer Complaint through e-mail, phone or mail NO Valid Close Complaint END Claim? YES Input Claim Pass Claim to into Records Issue Refund END Accounts Request Further Information and Pictures Investigate source of Defect Share results with all concerned Develop Solutions for END Defects Fig.4.6 Flow-Chart showcasing the movement of a Customer Complaint to completion. 49 . Some of the data collected by the Company, and the extent of its analysis is shared below. = 51 Fig.4.7 Bar Graph showing the total number of complaints received in 2017 Fig.4.8 Bar Graph depicting the different complaints received in 2017 Customer complaints are explored on an individual basis. Revisiting the complaint of plastic found in sausages at Debenhams cafe, this issue was dissected and explored, resulting in the identification of the contaminant plastic as being part of the packaging for seasoning and fresh meat. This was ascertained from a visual inspection of the defective sausage. This complaint was then further scrutinized in order to identify solutions to this problem. 50 The concluding solution was changing the size of the seasoning packaging from smaller weights to higher weights resulting in a reduction of the number of packets being opened everyday from 20 down to 5-6. This solution should reduce the probability of sausage contamination with plastic. It was observed on the shop floor that the meat and seasoning packets were being opened with the help of scissors. A simpler solution to the above problem could have been changing the scissors with blade cutters. This would have resulted in opening the plastic bags without cutting away any part of the plastic, thereby eliminating the possibility of plastic contamination completely. Moreover, the process of increasing the weight of meat packages required time and effort in liaising with supplier. This waste could have been avoided. The idea of utilising 6ơ concepts to address Customer Complaints is not in use at the company. 6ơ demands identifying the “possibilities” in the context of “3.4 defects per million opportunities”. For this, the possibilities would have to be defined as SKUs. As currently, the company does not have a singular definition of SKU and is, for the most part, undecided about SKUs, employing empirical methods of 6ơ became a challenge. Additionally, at present, the company identifies the limit of customer complaints in terms of complaints per ten tonnes of product. Fig.4.9 Customer Complaints received per 10 tonnes of production in 2017. **It is of value to note here that in the Excel document shared, containing the Customer Complaints, this chart was mislabelled as 2016. This small point further shows the need for rigorous development of Customer Complaint recording, analysing and addressing processes. Moreover, it also highlights the need for error proofing certain aspects of the system and processes. The average on year complaints per ten tonnes of product has steadily decreased from 1.76 complaints per ten tonnes in 2013 to an average of 0.92 complaints per ten tonnes in 2017 so far. The recorded complaints in the year 2017 were only 51 for 610 tonnes sold. While the complaints have reduced, no formal process was undertaken for this reduction. The reduction has been a by-product of continuous process improvement. 51 As mentioned previously, the production facility is running at very low capacity and, as the production volume increases it would be a natural consequence that work would become sloppy (as currently very little emphasis is put on perfecting processes and reducing errors/redundancies) resulting in increased defects. It has been discussed in literature that a continuously blasè attitude towards customer complaint reduction and process improvement, would eventually result in the loss of customers and irreparable damage to the brand (Stichler & Schumacher, 2003; McCollough et al, 2000). Another aspect of note was the characterisation of the primary customer as retailers. As retailers are not end-consumers, the type of grievances highlighted by them would essentially be different from those raised by end-stage users. This also lends to the inability to effectively compute the 6ơ ideologies at the company. The final objective of this project was to study the effect of customer surveys at company in order to improve existing products and possibly, for innovation of new products. For this purpose, part two of the questionnaire was developed. The answers to this questionnaire point towards an isolated environment with negligible feedback from customers regarding product improvement and development. While the value of Customer Feedback is well regarded, this information is not gathered pro-actively. This lack of information results in product development occurring in an isolated environment. While many sources argue against incorporating Customer Feedback in product development, most notably Steve Jobs with the iPhones, these concerns are of relevance only to those companies that are on top of their sector. For SMEs like Westaway Sausages Ltd., wherein their market share is not monumental and brand recognition is described as “good” on the likert scale (from questionnaire), it is essential to incorporate feedback to improve their products and services. These improvements could be in the form of different sized packs, or reducing the variety of pack sizes available; changing the casing texture; changing the look of the product; engaging customers to help develop new flavours, or even completely new lines. With the advancement of communications technology, it has become easier than ever to gather data and information directly from customers. It has been widely discussed in literature that the companies that can gather and analyse big data will remain in the forefront of competition in the near future. When discussing these concepts and ideas with the personnel, it was revealed that Westaway Sausages Ltd., has developed a “festive themed sausage” in response to the brief provided by ASDA for Christmas 2017. Moreover, it was also revealed, that in response to the high number of Customer Complaints regarding “toughness of sausage skins”, the process of skin preparation was changed. This information shows the capability of Westaway Sausages Ltd. to react to Customer Grievances, however, this is undertaken after the wastes have already occurred. In order to 52 achieve “leanness” in this respect, a more proactive approach to Customer Satisfaction should be employed. 4.4.5. Project 5 - Visual Kanban After the first meeting at Westaway Sausages Ltd., which included a visit of their entire premises, it became evident that they tended towards maintaining excess inventory at all times. To address this issue, this pilot project was launched. It was also believed that the implementation of this project would provide some of the most visual results thereby asserting the cogency of the Lean argument. The questionnaire developed for this section was filled out by Lucy, the Office Manager, who is responsible for Inventory Ordering and Maintenance. While this questionnaire was short, it was chiefly created for supplementing this idea of creating a Two-Bin (TB) system for Inventory Management. Kanban is a system for scheduling JIT manufacturing. The TB system is a method of Visual Kanban inventory control. Traditionally, the TB system is implemented by having two bins of a specific raw material to begin with. When work starts, raw material from the first bin is used. At the bottom of this bin there will be a “Visual Card”. As the bin is emptied, this card becomes visible. This is the “visual trigger” for ordering inventory. While the inventory delivery is awaited, raw material from the second bin is used. The capacity of the two bins are equal and so calculated that the second bin would hold enough inventory during the order period. Once the second bin is emptied, a second “visual trigger” signals the need for ordering inventory. At this point in time, the first bin has already been refilled and inventory is readily available for use. The calculations for determining the quantity of each bin is ascertained by considering  The time period between order placement and delivery of goods,  Quanities used on a daily basis, and  Storage area available The chief concern regarding the implementation of the TB system, as discussed with the M.D., was the loss of agility in work process. This would result in possible loss of confidence in the efficient and quick response rate to new orders. Currently all ordering is done on a “forecasted” quantity basis and steps are taken to ensure that there is always raw material on hand. To placate this apprehension regarding the prospective negative effects of the TB system outweighing any perceived benefits, a modified version of the TB system is presented here. 53 Consider a TB system where the Kanban Visual Card is placed three-fourths of the way in the bins. As a consequence, the order for restocking would be placed before the first bin is emptied. This method should ensure some excess quantity is always maintained and on hand for unplanned orders. As confidence in this version of the TB system grows, the buffer stock quantity can be steadily reduced and brought to conform with the traditional TB system. Another expected outcome of developing the TB system would be the reduction in product order variation. Following the TB system will reveal the irregularities and variations in inventory orders on a weekly basis. These issues can then be tackled to improve overall functioning of the company. This should also result in reduced effort from the Office Manager, who currently visits the inventory stores at least once a week to check the stock levels and calculate the required order quantities. Bin 1 - Full Bin 2 - Full Bin 1 - Empty Bin 2 - Full Visual Card Visual Bin 1 - Full Bin 2 - Empty Card Fig.4.10 Traditional Two-Bin Kanban System 54 Bin 1 - Full Bin 2 - Full Bin 1 - Not Visual Empty Card Bin 2 - Full Bin 2 - Not Visual Empty Card Bin 1 - Full Fig.4.11 Modified Two-Bin Kanban System Furthermore, developing the TB system will force better relations with the suppliers. This would be necessary in order to ensure regular delivery times and little to no delays. Maintaining inventory quality would also then fall in purview of the supplier. Building supplier relations is a leading ideology of Lean Manufacturing. Considering the Toyota Production System (TPS), it is a well known fact that Toyota is famous for their JIT production system. This has been made possible only by collaborations with their suppliers. Toyota has classified their suppliers into tier-one and tier-two. They collaborate with their suppliers to innovate as well as regularly reduce material costs. Toyota is also known to invest in and become partners with their supplier companies. This enables them to enforce their principles within their supplier companies (Alan Benson, 2017). While Kanban will undoubtedly present the aforementioned benefits, our primary objective was to reduce the electrical consumption at Westaway Sausages Ltd. The Two-Bin Kanban will result in reduced electrical costs in an embedded manner. The possible points of electrical energy wastage reduction would be due to reduction in man-hours required to maintain inventory and electricity required to maintain and support excess inventories. 55 4.4.6 Project 6* - Food Wastes This project developed as a result of observations made on the visit to Westaway Sausages Ltd. During the second and third visits, time was spent on the Shop Floor to understand the reasons for Food Wastage as well as the average quantities per day. No formal questionnaire was developed for this project as it was initially an extension of the TPM project and Takt Time Analysis projects. During the interviews conducted with the General Manager (Jonathan) and Production Supervisor (Ben), the extent of Food Wastes produced were uncovered. The main sources of Food Wastes are  Overspill from the mixer  Food spills during transport to-and-from the different machines  Food not processed due to sticking to the sides of processing machines  Roughly half a kg of meat is discarded in all the machines due the inability of these machines to process the last remaining portion  Any skins with tear  On average a few hundred kgs of processed frozen IQF is discarded every 4 months Correspondingly, simple solutions for these wastes could be  Overspill from the mixer is caused due to the presence of paddles for mixing purposes. These paddles push the meat up while turning, this results in spills from the sides. A simple solution to this issue would be reducing the limit that the mixer is filled to. Upon discussion with the Production Supervisor, it was disclosed that they are already filling the mixer below capacity and still experiencing spills from the sides. Another way to reduce this spill would be to install a cover for the mixer. The cover will eliminate the possibility of spillage from the sides. The possible drawbacks of installing the cover could be reduced accessibility of the mixer. As the meat and seasoning is mixed with other ingredients according to recipe in the mixer, a certain amount of freedom in adding different ingredients at different times is required. However, developing a cover with a quick and error-proof snap-on fixture will resolve the issue of spills without compromising on flexibility. Another solution that can be considered is changing the mixer machinery for one that mixes with worm gears instead of paddles. Moreover, replacing the machinery for one of a larger size will also resolve this issue.  Conducting regular training seminars to acquaint, inform and caution the shop floor employees regarding the costs associated with food spills and ways to prevent it should go a long way. Regularly familiarising the shop floor employees with the concept of mindful working will help in reducing wastes due to spills during movement. Training seminars are also known to increase employee productivity and morale, as well improving dialogue and openness within the employees. 56  The food that goes unprocessed due to remaining stuck to the sides of the various machines can be prevented by using a scraper. Essentially, the employees working on the various machines, would have to manually scrape the excess from the sides of the machines. This would be a time consuming task, and the savings realised would be minimal.  The machines capabilities do not allow for processing the product remaining at the end of the production period. These wastes are in the area of half a kg per machine. Considering the daily production quantities of the facility, these wastes are minimal.  The quantity of skins that are discarded due to tears are currently not recorded. These values while not known, are assumed to be low enough to have not been a cause of concern till now. This waste could possibly be prevented by ensuring quality checks at supplier site, as well as in-house quality assurance (QA) activities upon arrival of material. QA techniques. QA in the terms of Lean, focuses the attention from individual waste removal to creating a lean process flow. For this, the entire supply chain of the natural skins would be considered. From sourcing, supplier QA methods, receiving and storage at site. All of these points would have to be analysed to determine points of possible breakdown of quality guarantees.  The discarding of IQF products is of most concern in context of this Dissertation. This is because a large amount of electricity has already been spent in - receving and storing the raw materials, the processing of purchase orders, the processing of meat, the IQF conversion in Blast Freezer, the separate packaging route, transfer to long-term storage and finally long term storage in freezer. This waste can be reduced by increasing the life of the IQF products. Currently, the life of the IQF is one year. This also means that most retailers will refuse to accept product that has crossed the 6 month mark. By increasing the life of IQF (easily achievable by changing the quantity or variety of chemicals used), to two years, the waste can be effectively reduced or even eliminated. Another means of reducing “waste” would be to routinely donate the excess IQF. This will not only result in the product not being marked as “waste” but the costs spent would also offset by the tax relief received. 57 Chapter 5 : RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Pilot Project 1 While there exists a text-book understanding of TPM and it’s prospective benefits, there is little effort in developing a TPM strategy within the company. The reason provided for this is that the company is too small for TPM implementation. This view is in accordance with the average views, discussed in available literature, held by most SMEs. TPM is considered beneficial for large plants and facilities having a sizeable amount of similar machinery that require regular maintenance. (Achanga et al., 2005; Achanga, 2007). This thought process is counter-intuitive to Lean Manufacturing. At present, the company argues that their production capacity is far greater than their output, and as such they have contingency plans in the form of ready availability of spare equipment. Their biggest effort in this area has been setting up two production lines. While they are planning to expand their production output, they have managed to double their production capacity without first optimising the existing processes. They have developed a second line without much effort into idealising the running processes and plans. This has created an environment of waste. There exists a tremendous waste in all areas (muda). Recommendations for this pilot project are :  Creating plans for regular maintenance by the equipment handlers  Extensive training in order to enable efficient equipment upkeep. This should include all aspects of maintenance as detailed in the “Hygiene And Fabrication Audit”  TPM plans should include preventative maintenance plans. These would essentially be empowering the shop floor employees to - ably recognise the status of all units; ascertain whether the end of life of parts is close; and most importantly, be responsible for carrying out these maintenance activities.  Comprehensively establishing 5S standards throughout the company and encouraging employees to adhere to these religiously  Initiating 5S techniques in all inventory storage spaces - raw material and finished goods holding areas  Utilising 5S techniques to develop an error-proof environment  Continuously organising and revising the plant layout by using “Floor Marking” techniques  Reducing Chilled Area usage at the end of the day by shifting finished goods to other suitable fridges  Reducing Blast Freezer usage by improving production planning; essentially shifting the IQF production to only twice a week 58 5.2 Pilot Project 2 This was one of the more difficult pilot projects to launch. In preparation for developing methods to improve process control, lead time, takt time, and overall equipment efficiencies, a number of steps need to be followed.  Extensive and exhaustive work needs to be undertaken to define and set a standard for lead time, takt time, cycle time, working hours, man-power and man-hours per day  The above can only be achieved after the unevenness in demand and supply is smoothed out. This is also called Production Levelling or Heijunka and is achieved by improving the Supply Chain Management processes. It is believed that the unevenness or volatility in the demand is caused due to the Bull Whip Effect as end-customer demand has very little variation.(Chen et al., 2000; Metters, 1997; Dejonckheere et al., 2003)  After the set up of TPM, all planned, preventive and unplanned breakdowns should be recorded meticulously  Additionally, in order to map the work-flow through the Shop Floor, various methods such as “Floor Marking” should be utilised. Another method to measure the efficiency of employee movement on the Shop Floor, is by using activity trackers. In order to circumvent the issue of whether such expensive technologies have any scope in SMEs, it is advised here to use a free software (such as AnyPlace Indoor Service) that maps employee movement within small spaces using the WiFi signal. After gathering all relevant information, efficient analyses of this data is required. The movements should be used to identify any “transport wastes” and employee downtime present. This data should then be used to identify the most efficient Shop Floor layout in terms of production per day. This flow of work should be continuously optimised by introducing small changes in line with Kaizen activities.  After mapping the work-flow on the Shop Floor, attention can be focussed on the bottlenecks that are exposed. De-bottlenecking should also be attempted in small steps and changes, as described by Kaizen. 5.3 Pilot Project 3 This pilot project validated the hypothesis of realising cost savings by regularly reviewing the Energy portfolio and pro-actively working towards reducing Energy costs. This has recently been achieved at the sponsor company by change of their electricity provider. Recommendations in this regard are :  Regularly revising the Energy Portfolio by reviewing available plans and providers available in the market 59  In case of long-term lease of office property, negotiating a deal to set-up private energy production. The easiest form of this would be setting up Solar Panels on the roof of the premises. As a number of adjacent units are leased, the area available will yield substantial energy production and eventual cost reductions.  Switching the Blast Freezer hours from day to night  Further review of equipment that can be switched from day running to night running 5.4 Pilot Project 4 In this project, it was observed that there is no concept of 6ơ methods for improvement present at the company. In an ideal situation, the company would employ 6ơ green belt, or higher, qualified personnel to drive changes within the company. However, considering the SME status implies reduced free cash flow (Achanga, 2007). This results in the inability to hire such qualified individuals on even “consultation” basis. Thus recommendations are as follows :  Pro-actively engaging with customers to receive feedback on products and services  Developing greater analysis of Customer data  Switching from defining defect rates as defect per ten tonnes of product to defect per million opportunities  The above will again require extensive work in the sphere of takt time analysis. Follow the procedures described under pilot project 2  Cataloguing all defects in terms of per million opportunities  Separating the customer complaints based on the “type” of customer, into retailers, end-consumer and so on  Working towards perfecting process controls to eliminate possibility of errors and defects  Utilising customer data to innovate new products and drive supply 5.5 Pilot Project 5 This project discovered the glaring absence of any form of calculated or methodical process in Inventory ordering and management. This mismanagement results in wastes in a number of areas. There is waste of movement with the Office Manager visiting the the Inventory Storage bi-weekly in order to ascertain order quantities. Waste of overstocking in the obvious sense. Finally, waste of waiting exists as the raw material waits a long while before it is used in production or packaging processes. A simple solution to the Inventory Management has been discussed. 60 The recommendation derived from this pilot project is to establish and sustain a modified version of the Two-Bin Inventory Ordering System. 5.6 Pilot Project 6 This pilot project was aimed at studying the sources of Food waste in the company and developing strategies to tackle them. Recommendations that have evolved through the analysis of this pilot project are :  Either altering the mixer machine or replacing it completely in order to reduce wastage through spills  Employee training aimed at improving mindfulness and clean work in an effort to reduce wastage through spills during transport within the shop floor  Establishing stronger quality measurement tools for the the natural skins at the supplier end as well as in-house  Increasing the life of the IQF product from 1 year to 2 years in order to save on the electrical costs already expended in producing and storing of IQF product  Regularly donating the unused IQF product to bypass “food waste” classification and enjoy the corresponding tax relief 5.7 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Development In the past, having worked at Mellcon Engineers Pvt. Ltd. in the capacity of Project Manager, for a period of three years, extensive experience and knowledge was amassed in ERP use and ERP development. The ERP was used in all aspects of daily work, from logging indent orders, indent details, purchase orders and individual Job details to account ledgers, material request details, materials issued details, QA activities, quotation enquiries and many more. This experience was further supplemented by direct involvement in regular monitoring of ERP updating to reflect desired changes. The presence of an ERP eased the access of information regarding all projects, past, present and planned. Moreover, the ability to view the different sets of data in conjunction allowed for greater ease in recognising irregularities and supported a more efficient production planning process. At Westaway Sausages Ltd., it was observed that a majority of the company functions were operating in silos thereby necessitating consolidation and synergistic integration. To achieve this, it is recommended that a comprehensive ERP software be either developed internally or procured from an established software provider based on the company’s internal financial and economic considerations. 61 Even though the processes and stages of work at Westaway Sausages is far fewer than what was observed on average at Mellcon Engineers, the concept and benefits of ERP remain the same. Currently all work at Westaway Sausages is conducted on Excel Sheets and there exists a large number of physical movements. An example, as observed on visit 3, was the need for the General Manager to personally print the sleeves for secondary packaging. This was required as currently there exists no database for storing this information. The different sleeve designs (in different languages) are placed in a number of different folders, and the G.M. was required to print these sleeves himself, a task that took him over an hour. This kind of waste can be easily avoided by developing a database for this information. Moreover, when all the information would be present in one location, the ability to view and compare the different designs would also become easier. The major benefits of ERP development are listed below :  Consolidated on-line environment for storing all business proceeding resulting in better transfer of information within the company  Production Planning can be greatly automated by employing an ERP system. This can be achieved by having automatic acceptance of orders from pre-specified e-mail addresses. This plan can then be transferred electronically to the concerned personnel. For even greater automation, the ERP can be linked to the Steven’s Weighing System for automated information exchange regarding the mixing quantities. This can further be linked to trigger the printer for printing sleeves once the weights are mixed. The sleeve quantities would be defined by the production plan which is already present on the ERP.  ERP can also help in the reduction of wastes associated with inventory stock ordering. By creating and maintaining the category of materials requested/materials released within the ERP, a physical examination of the Inventory Space would be eliminated. Furthermore, by creating programs to analyse the inventory use, forecasting can be improved. This forecasted requirement can then be automatically e-mailed from the ERP to the concerned suppliers without human intervention.  The ERP can also be developed to incorporate a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) aspect. This CRM can then be efficiently utilised in order to gather customer information and opinions. Moreover, this information can be sorted, stored and analysed with far greater ease. The ERP can be developed to send Mass Mails to all customers, or a specific identified target group in order to create greater brand awareness and increase customer interaction. 62 Chapter 6 : FUTURE WORK AND RESEARCH Future work discussions have been divided into three sections. The first section addresses the future of Lean Techniques in context of SMEs. The second section discusses the future of Lean Implementation at sponsor company as well as the possibility of moving towards Industry 4.0 or Internet of Things (IoT) in the foreseeable future. The final section explores the research opportunities generated as a direct subsequence of this thesis. 6.1 Future of Lean Techniques As has been discussed in the literature review, the concept of Lean has continuously evolved and grown since World War II to incorporate new ideas. Lean has also evolved to amalgamate different operations management techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma together forming the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) (see Arnheiter & Maleyeff, 2005; Jie et al., 2014; Pepper & Spedding, 2010; Snee, 2010; Byrne et al., 2007) or Lean and Agile together forming Leagile (see Naim & Gosling, 2010; Naylor et al., 1999; Agarwal et al., 2006) Again, there exists limited expert instances available in academic literature regarding the possible future of Lean. Nevertheless, extrapolating from the past, we can conclude that there is a high likelihood of further development of operations management and incorporation of new ideas and techniques under Lean. However, new LTs are not expected to be generated in the foreseeable future as, again taking the past into context, the spread of lean ideas, acceptance,implementation and proof of concept and further expansion into the world markets can take decades. Furthermore, the literature survey revealed primarily two types of directions being pursued in academic papers.  The first type is a theoretical explanation of the individual LTs, at times including their history, development and anecdotal applications.  The second type of research work found is aimed at generating a consensus amongst companies regarding the use, practicality and benefits of Lean for the related industry. This type of research work is especially underwhelming as it lacks well developed aims and objectives, and most of the results obtained are incomplete. The most common reasoning provided for this incompleteness is that different companies prefer different techniques and paths towards Lean. The use of questionnaire is still the main method primary research. questionnaires are developed in order to ascertain the companys’ capabilities and success or failures surrounding Lean Implementation. However, they lack robust questions that can help ascertain the exact applications of lean. 63 In order to develop an idea of what Lean might look like in the future, we must not try to generalise our opinions based on sectors and/or sizes of industries. This was the key learning from the literature survey conducted. Moreover, even if two companies are of a similar size (SMB, SME or Large Enterprises) and working in the same sector, it cannot be assumed that the same lean principles would be equally effective and successful. Thus it can be concluded here that Lean applicability has more dependence on corporate culture and individual personnel capabilities than on the size of the company or Industrial sector. Therefore we hypothesis that the future of Lean may evolve to incorporate regular psychometric testing of employees and corporate culture analyses to determine the right LTs to introduce and implement. As Lean credibility builds, ideally, human perception and views would also evolve. Thus a continuous loop of information can be formed which will result in the exploration and development of varied tools for Lean implementation. It needs to be emphasized here that the psychometric test should not take into account only the staff perceptions and probabilities of success, rather, extensive tests should be developed to effectively provide a road-map for Lean Implementation. 6.2 Future of Westaway Sausages Ltd. 6.2.1 Future of Lean As inferred from Chapter 4 : Discussion and Analysis, the extent of Lean implementation at Westaway Sausages Ltd. is quite low. For future implementations, the road-maps and techniques developed in this dissertation can serve as a starting point. The primary factor in successfully developing Lean projects is Lean Thinking. Thus, it is of utmost importance that Lean Thinking be actively developed by the top management and employees alike. A greater understanding of the Lean theory will result in an increased appreciation of its benefits thereby resulting in an increased appreciation of its benefits. The importance of senior management involvement in the successful implementation of Lean has been discussed in the Critcal Literature Review (sections 2.6-2.8). Therefore, it can be concluded that the future of Lean implementation at Westaway Sausages Ltd. is largely dependent on the vision and strategies adopted by the senior management towards creating a leaner enterprise. 64 6.2.2 Future of IoT IoT has been included here as Westway Sausages is interested to explore this area in the future. One of the examples cited during our discussion was using the ear tags on the pigs to ensure the raw materials are sourced from local British farms. In order to understand the preparedness of the company for IoT, a questionnaire was developed based existing information and research conducted in this area. To ascertain the level of understanding that exists regarding IoT, this questionnaire was filled by the M.D., the G.M., the Technical and Quality Manager, and the Technical Assistant. The results of this questionnaire (Appendix 2) provided a preliminary indication of the company’s current capability to incorporate IoT. Analysis of the answers to the questions suggested that the company currently has low level of preparedness with regards to adoption of IoT. This is because, there currently exist no examples of autonomous work-movement within the premises. Moreover, the average IT capabilities of the employee pool is low and no efforts have been made in order to improve them. Furthermore, the existing IT infrastructure is limited in its capacity and does not support end to end integration with Westway’s customers and suppliers A few key observations for both, the future of Lean and the prospect of IoT incorporation are discussed below :  Increasing awareness amongst employees - It is recommended that the top management conduct frequent seminars and training events to develop their employee capabilities.  Improving communication within the company - The senior management should encourage open and honest communication on preferred management techniques with the employees with the aim to develop collective knowledge and provide motivation to progress further. 6.3 Future Research Prospects It is proposed that this dissertation paves the way for a number of possible future research projects in the following areas :  Practical implementation of a the road-map developed in this dissertation in order to reduce wastes in SMEs  Using the road-map developed here to conduct comparative studies exploring potential for reduction of electrical or other targeted wastes at SMEs in the food processing sector 65  Development and testing of psychometric tests designed to develop LT implementation road-maps  Development of psychometric tests and studying their effect on LT implementation in SMEs  Studying the impact of regular organised employee training in the development of Lean Thinking in SMEs  Exploring the current level of integration of IoT in SMEs and prospects in the future 66 References Aalaei, A. and Davoudpour, H. 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Levinson, W. (2007). Beyond the theory of constraints. New York: Productivity Press, pp.97-98. 68 M.P.J. Pepper, T.A. Spedding, (2010) "The evolution of lean Six Sigma", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 27 Issue: 2, pp.138-155 Melton T. (2005). THE BENEFITS OF LEAN MANUFACTURING what Lean Thinking has to Offer the Process Industries. Trans IChemE, Part A, June 2005,83(A6): 662–673 Metters, R. (1997). Quantifying the bullwhip effect in supply chains. Journal of Operations Management, 15(2), pp.89-100. Mohanraj, R., Sakthivel, M. and Vinodh, S. (2011). QFD integrated value stream mapping: an enabler of lean manufacturing. International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 7(4), p.501. Naim, M. and Gosling, J. (2011). On leanness, agility and leagile supply chains. International Journal of Production Economics, 131(1), pp.342-354. Overturf, M., Chrosny, W. and Stine, R. (2011). 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Manufacturing Engineer, 84(5), pp.5-5. 70 Appendix 1 71 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance Total Productive Maintenance Lean Manufacturing Techniques in Food SMEs - Ramsi K -- Dissertation Project, MSc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Exeter * Required 1. Do you believe in TPM? * Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 2. Do you have a separate TPM Office? Mark only one oval. Yes No 3. If yes, why? Check all that apply. Providing awareness about office TPM to all support departments For Involvement and productivity of people in support functions To reduce administrative costs To reduce inventory carrying cost To reduce number of files To reduce manpower 4. If no, why? Check all that apply. Lack of awareness & importance of TPM Lack of funds Lack of facilities available in the company Lack of manpower Lack of skill employees Other: https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 1/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 5. Why did your organisation choose TPM method instead of other maintenance methods? Check all that apply. Easy to implement Employees’ involvement Elimination of production losses Maximization of equipment utilization Avoid wastage Increase employees’ morale and job satisfaction 6. What are the main objectives of your organisation to implement TPM? Check all that apply. Improve productivity Reduce production cost Reduce machines maintenance cost Improve quality Reduce Breakdown Reduce Rework Reduce Accident Improve customer satisfaction Increase organization competitiveness 7. What is the status of TPM in your organisation ? Mark only one oval. Excellent Good Fair Poor Failure 8. Do you think that there is potential for improvement in the TPM program at your company? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe Implementation 9. Does your organisation have a clear TPM implementation(master) plan ? Mark only one oval. Yes No https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 2/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 10. How much time did your organisation take for full implementation of TPM ? Mark only one oval. Less than 3 months Between 3 to 6 months Between 6 to 12 months Between 1 to 3 years 11. Did your organisation provide training before TPM implementation ? Mark only one oval. Yes No 12. If Yes, How much time required to implement TPM after training ? 13. If No, How much time required to implement TPM without training ? 14. Do you experienced that TPM is helpful to find root causes of machines failures ? Mark only one oval. Yes No 15. What are the problems encountered while implementing TPM ? Check all that apply. Resistance to change Top management support Lack of funds Lack of experience and awareness Lack of proper training Lack of Leadership Benefits 16. Did you find TPM useful in your organization ? Mark only one oval. Yes No https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 3/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 17. How does the behavior of employees change after TPM implementation with respectto following factors ? Mark only one oval per row. Qualities Poor Average Neutral Good Very Good Morale & Attitude Creativity Initiative Belonging and commitment Problem Solving Nature Co-operation & Co-ordination 18. Did you experience that TPM leads to higher productivity ? Mark only one oval. Yes No 19. Do you experienced the reduction in production cost after TPM implementation ? Mark only one oval. Yes No How much? 20. Do you experienced reduction in breakdown after TPM implementation ? Mark only one oval. Yes No Percentage of breakdown before implementation :______% per month. Percentage of breakdown after implementation :______ % per month. 21. Does TPM improve overall machine performance ? Mark only one oval. Yes No 22. Which of the following areas are improved after implementation of TPM? Check all that apply. Improvement in Rank (1-6) Productivity Quality Loyalty of Employees Reliability of Machine Customer Satisfaction Competitiveness https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 4/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 23. Do you agree that the overall performance of the organisation improved through TPM ? Mark only one oval. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree For Machine Operator 24. How long have you been working in this organisation ? 25. On which machine/s you are working ? 26. Which type of work you are doing on this machine/s? 27. Do you experience that TPM reduces breakdown maintenance ? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 28. Do you experience improvement in quality after TPM implementation ? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 29. Do you experience improvement in productivity after TPM implementation ? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 5/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 30. Do you agree that the TPM is beneficial to organisation as well as the operators ? Mark only one oval. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree 31. Have you experienced the following phases of learning while TPM implementation? Check all that apply. Phase 1 : Do not know Phase 2 : Know the theory but cannot do Phase 3 : Can do but cannot teach Phase 4 : Can do and also teach 32. Are you satisfied with TPM? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 33. Is there a maintained logbook for the production facility? Mark only one oval. Yes Sporadically Partially Mainly No 34. Are failures documented? Mark only one oval. Yes Sporadically Partially Mainly No 35. Are documented failures regularly evaluated and are measures taken? Mark only one oval. Yes Sporadically Partially Mainly No https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 6/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 36. How often does a failure occur that leads to downtime in production, and how long does it last until the failure is permanently eliminated? (if possible) Mark only one oval. >10 times 10 times 5 times 2 times 1 time Autonomous Maintenance Plans 37. Do you feel that you are the owner of machine/s after TPM implementation? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 38. Are there cleaning and maintenance plans? Mark only one oval. Yes No 39. Visual controls: Are the target values denoted on measuring equipment Mark only one oval. Yes Sporadically Partially Mainly No 40. Is there a responsibility matrix, or are the responsibilities for the maintenance works clearly regulated? Mark only one oval. Yes Sporadically Partially Mainly No Planned Maintenance https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 7/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 41. Are maintenance and repair works that have to be carried out in cases of facility downtime conducted according to designated time intervals? Mark only one oval. No Sporadically Partially Mainly Yes 42. Are condition analyses conducted for critical construction parts, and are these parts replaced ahead of schedule when necessary? Mark only one oval. No Sporadically Partially Mainly Yes 43. Is a maintenance and repair planning and control system in use in order to detect disorders and to plan maintenance and repairs? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 44. Is a spare part management system in use so that all necessary spare parts are available in a sufficient supply without overstocking? Mark only one oval. Yes No 45. Comments Maintenance Prevention 46. When procuring new production facilities, is attention given to easy maintenance and repair possibilities? Mark only one oval. Yes No 47. Are the employees from production included in the planning of new production facilities? Mark only one oval. Yes No https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 8/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 48. Are the employees from maintenance and repairs included in the planning of production facilities? Mark only one oval. Yes No 49. Are the employees responsible for maintenance and repairs included in the installation of new facilities so that they become familiar with these facilities? Mark only one oval. Yes No Over-processing 50. What is the capacity of the Walk-In Freezer? (vol.) 51. Is it possible to stack the inventory to occupy vertical space? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 52. What percentage of the Freezer is occupied on average? Mark only one oval. 1-25% 25-50% 50-75% 75-100% 53. What is the electricity consumption/rating of the Walk-In on an average day? Mark only one oval. Option 1 54. Do you follow 5 STAR rating for the equipment? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 55. What is the production capacity of extruding equipment? https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 9/10 31/07/2017 Total Productive Maintenance 56. What is the average Daily production on the extruding equipment? Powered by https://docs.google.com/a/mellcon.com/forms/d/16PjPxcXo2GYEj6yPARLI5PW4A6P0HgFhLxhNDaL8AvI/edit 10/10 31/07/2017 Takt Time - Kobetsu Kaizen Takt Time - Kobetsu Kaizen 1. How do you define one SKU? (stock keeping unit) 2. What are the available man-hours? 3. What is the average production demand? (per month) 4. What is the average lead time? (from order placement to delivery) 5. What is the average throughput time? (per sausage) (including inspection and packaging) 6. What do you classify as 'one cycle' of production? 7. What is the average cycle time? 8. How long are the total planned stoppages in a day? (minutes) 9. How long are the unplanned stoppages in a day? (minutes) 10. What is the average total number of sausages (SKU) manufactured in a day? 11. What is the average number of sausages rejected in a day? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aFgakkvPWM3mlWJFZy_JXM7NahK4PAQ5LuU4zcaXQ3Y/edit 1/2 31/07/2017 Takt Time - Kobetsu Kaizen Powered by https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aFgakkvPWM3mlWJFZy_JXM7NahK4PAQ5LuU4zcaXQ3Y/edit 2/2 31/07/2017 Forecasting - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen Forecasting - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen 1. What are the hours of work? 2. What is the duration of the lunch break? Mark only one oval. Option 1 3. Do all the employees go on a lunch break at the same time? Mark only one oval. Yes No 4. Is there a dedicated team managing the Energy Portfolio? Mark only one oval. Yes No 5. Who is your electricity provider? 6. Are you aware of the Tariff Rates at your current working hours? Mark only one oval. Yes No 7. Are you aware of the Tariff Rates at off-peak hours? Mark only one oval. Yes No 8. Are you aware of the benefits provided for switching to off-peak hours? Mark only one oval. Yes No 9. Is there any energy production on-site? (solar/thermal) Mark only one oval. Yes No https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1F2AfNOkWhah2rPme_VuVDkK5JDDH26EiFB_G8qc5UrQ/edit 1/3 31/07/2017 Forecasting - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen 10. Are you aware of the costs associated with setting up solar energy panels at your site? Mark only one oval. Yes No 11. Are you aware of the rebates/benefits/government subsidies provided to companies setting up solar panels? Mark only one oval. Yes No 12. Have you sought outside professional guidance regarding setting up your own solar panels? Mark only one oval. Yes No 13. Do you currently employ automatic switches for lights? Mark only one oval. Yes No 14. If no, are you aware of the cost savings involved in employing automatic switches? Mark only one oval. Yes No 15. Do you currently employ automatic switches for processing machinery? Mark only one oval. Yes No 16. Do you emphasise the importance of turning off all electrical equipment when not in use? Mark only one oval. Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1F2AfNOkWhah2rPme_VuVDkK5JDDH26EiFB_G8qc5UrQ/edit 2/3 31/07/2017 Forecasting - Energy Sufficiency Kaizen 17. How often would you say electrical equipment is left on when not in use? Mark only one oval. Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never Powered by https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1F2AfNOkWhah2rPme_VuVDkK5JDDH26EiFB_G8qc5UrQ/edit 3/3 31/07/2017 Customer Grievances - Six Sigma Customer Grievances - Six Sigma 1. Do you have a system in place for receiving Customer grievances? Mark only one oval. Yes No 2. Is there a dedicated employee who responds to customer grievances? Mark only one oval. Yes No 3. What is the system that maintains these records? 4. How many complaints do you receive on average per month? 5. What percentage of these complaints are from first time customers? Mark only one oval. <25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% 6. Are you aware of your cost per customer? Mark only one oval. Yes No 7. How many SKUs do you need to sell to find your ROI ? 8. What percentage of these complaints are you able to rectify? Mark only one oval. <25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jVNGZQh-atJhEBWkXft4YC1JbBkP_94MPcEyZbcQnpY/edit 1/3 31/07/2017 Customer Grievances - Six Sigma 9. How quickly are you able to rectify these complaints? Mark only one oval. 1-12 hours 12-48 hours upto 1 week upto 3 weeks >3 weeks 10. What percentage of complaints are regarding quality of product? Mark only one oval. <25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% 11. What percentage of complaints are regarding delivery times of product? Mark only one oval. <25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% 12. What percentage of complaints are regarding the condition of delivery of products? Mark only one oval. <25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% 13. What percentage of complaints are regarding ease of doing business with your company? Mark only one oval. <25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% 14. On an average, are you able to assign responsibility outside of your production for these complaints? (on supplier for quality of food/ delivery service for quality of packages etc.) Mark only one oval. Yes No https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jVNGZQh-atJhEBWkXft4YC1JbBkP_94MPcEyZbcQnpY/edit 2/3 31/07/2017 Customer Grievances - Six Sigma 15. Do you fine suppliers if complaints are received regarding the product quality? Mark only one oval. Yes No 16. Do you fine Delivery services for complaints received regarding quality of packaging? Mark only one oval. Yes No Powered by https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jVNGZQh-atJhEBWkXft4YC1JbBkP_94MPcEyZbcQnpY/edit 3/3 02/08/2017 Customer Grievances - 2 Customer Grievances - 2 1. Do you believe Customer Surveys provide value to your company? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 2. Do you believe Customer Feedback is important for Check all that apply. Quality Maintenance Quality Improvement Product Innovation Sales Targets Increasing Customer Loyalty Increasing Brand Recognition 3. Are you in regular feedback contact with your regular customers? Mark only one oval. Yes No 4. When was the last time you conducted a customer survey? 5. What was the size of the Customer Pool you surveyed? 6. How did you engage clients for your Survey? 7. How did you target which clients to survey? (e.g. - based on age/location/particular product/ history of ordering etc.) 8. Have you used Customer Surveys to develop new products? Mark only one oval. Yes No https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18VX_PWb7Z4TOwQaCZbtlidPdGSOwbei0IhpDCwMkZ80/edit 1/2 02/08/2017 Customer Grievances - 2 9. Have you used Customer Surveys to alter existing products? Mark only one oval. Yes No 10. If yes, how did you alter a product based on demand? 11. Have you collaborated with retailers (Sainsbury's etc.) to monitor your sales, client interaction/satisfaction? Mark only one oval. Yes No 12. How would you rate your Mark only one oval per row. Poor Fair Good Very Good Excellent Brand Recognition Customer Loyalty 13. Have you received any Customer Complaints that you rejected? Mark only one oval. Yes No Comments : Powered by https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18VX_PWb7Z4TOwQaCZbtlidPdGSOwbei0IhpDCwMkZ80/edit 2/2 31/07/2017 Visual Kanban Visual Kanban 1. What system do you use for maintaining inventory control? 2. How often do you order raw materials? 3. Do you order raw materials based solely on the incoming order? Mark only one oval. Yes No 4. Do you order raw materials at regular times during the week in pre-specified quantities? Mark only one oval. Yes No 5. In what way do you transfer the order information from office space to production area? 6. Do you believe visual cards for maintaining inventory are important? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 7. Do you employ any visual tools for inventory control? Mark only one oval. Yes No 8. If yes, what are they? 9. If no, why not? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rniq2nyWrQa5KLXqnRIeezxAhlAB5LVW2yJfm6z0Vq8/edit 1/3 31/07/2017 Visual Kanban 10. Do you employ the card system before placing the next order for raw materials? (as in 2- bin system) Mark only one oval. Yes No 11. Have you painted any areas of the inventory space to indicate inventory levels? Mark only one oval. Yes No 12. Have you considered employing visual red/green switches or a signal board to indicate production requirements? Mark only one oval. Yes No 13. Are there any 'trigger points' for ordering raw materials? Mark only one oval. Yes No 14. If yes, what are they? 15. Do you believe in the 5S system to maintain quality of inventory control? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe 16. Do 5S priority actions have to be carried out regularly in order to ensure cleanliness and order? Mark only one oval. Yes No 17. Do you believe that 5S activities have helped you in maintaining the inventory? Mark only one oval. Yes No Maybe Powered by https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rniq2nyWrQa5KLXqnRIeezxAhlAB5LVW2yJfm6z0Vq8/edit 2/3 31/07/2017 Visual Kanban https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rniq2nyWrQa5KLXqnRIeezxAhlAB5LVW2yJfm6z0Vq8/edit 3/3 Appendix 2 94 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 Industry 4.0 1. Are you aware of Industry 4.0 and it's implications in digitising the work process? Mark only one oval. Extremely Aware Moderately Aware Somewhat Aware Slightly Aware Not at all Aware 2. How would you describe the implementation status of your Industry 4.0 strategy? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 No strategy exists Strategy implemented 3. How would you rate the contribution of digital features, products & services to the overall value creation of your portfolio? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Main Contribution - Value is mainly generated by purely digital products and No Contribution - Value is the licensing of generated solely with the sales Intellectual Property of physical products and product- (e. g. cloud-based related services (e.g. traditional predictive maintenance) maintenance solution, licenses for 3D-printing of products) 4. Which technologies do you use in your company? Check all that apply. Sensor technology RFID (Radio-frequency identification uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects.) Mobile end devices Realtime location systems Big data to store and evaluate real-time data Cloud technologies as scalable IT infrastructure Embedded IT systems M2M communications (machine-to-machine, refers to wireless data communication between machines.) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 1/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 5. To which degree is the average product in your portfolio digitised (e.g. RFID for identification, sensors, IoT connection, smart products etc.)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Not at all Completely 6. In which areas does your company have systematic technology and innovation management? Check all that apply. IT Production technology Product development Services Centralized, in integrative management Do not have 7. To which degree can your customers individualise the products they order? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Completely - Products can be Not at all - Products allow for no completely defined individualization at all (e.g. by customers (e.g. standardised mass production) via configuration tools for customers, lot size 1) 8. How important is the usage and analysis of data (customer data, product or machine generated data) for your business model? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Crucial - Data is Insignificant - No data analytics are the main value leveraged in the business model driver of the business model https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 2/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 9. How intense is your collaboration with partners, suppliers and clients for development of products and services? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Intense collaboration - Collaborative development of No Collaboration - Product products development is done completely in- together with house without any exchange of partners is information with partners, suppliers or institutionalised customers in value networks that are transparent for the customers 10. To which extent do you use multiple integrated sales channels to sell your products to your customers? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 One Multi-Channel (e.g. store, sales force, web- channel shop, sales platforms etc.) 11. How far do you integrate multiple channels (website, blogs, forums, social media platforms etc.) into your customer interactions for communicating news, receiving feedback, managing claims etc.? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Interactive communication (e.g. One-way integrating customers into product communication development via social media platforms) 12. How advanced is the digital ability of your sales force (mobile devices, access to all relevant system anywhere and anytime, full sales process possible at client site)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Digital sales approach - Sales force is supported by digital devices and Traditional sales approach - access to all relevant Sales force works ‘offline’ processes and systems without access to relevant at any time (real-time systems (e.g. using centrally access to customer and distributed paper product data, possibility documents) to configure personalised products & dynamically create orders etc.) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 3/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 13. How dynamic and customer-tailored is your pricing system (consideration of customer's "willingness to pay“)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Dynamic pricing - Automated Fixed pricing - systems calculate prices, Prices for all discounts etc. dynamically in real- products and time (e.g. individual prices based services are fixed on customer potential, history, relevance of order etc.) 14. To which extent do you analyse customer data to increase customer insight (e. g. personalised offers to customers based on their personal situation, preferences, location, credit score; consideration of usage data for design & engineering etc.)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Substantial data usage - Extensive data collection at all touch points Trivial data usage - Information is kept that is fed into decentralised and in an unsystematic integrated way by single units and is not systems to analysed further (e.g. sales orders in monitor, excel sheets) review and optimise products, sales and customer experience 15. How far do you collaborate with partners regarding your approach of accessing customers (exchange of customer insights, coordination of marketing activities etc.)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Unified approach – Customer access approach is Not at all - No collaboration with completely partners in approaching customers backed up (e.g. separate customer databases and along with the no coordination of marketing or sales partner activities) network (e.g. common customer ID with partners and use of partner data) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 4/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 16. How would you rate the degree of the digitisation of your vertical value chain (from product development to production)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Complete digitisation – Continuous data flow along the No digitisation at all - No automated vertical value exchange of information along the chain (e.g. vertical value chain (e.g. manual direct machine programming based on paper controlling of plans) machines via models, integration of ERP and MES) 17. To which extent do you have a real-time view on your production and can dynamically react on changes in demand? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Virtual Factory – Real-time view on Not at all – Batch production for large lot production sizes without insight into production with status. No ability to react flexible on capabilities changes in demand to dynamically change schedules 18. To which degree do you have an end-to-end IT enabled planning and steering process from sales forecasting, over production to warehouse planning and logistics? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Integrated end- to-end planning system – Comprising Isolated planning processes – real-time Neither IT-enabled nor integrated information along the value chain (e.g. planning along the entire based on past experiences) value chain (e.g. sales forecasts directly affect production) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 5/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 19. How advanced is the digitisation of your production equipment (sensors, IoT connection; digital monitoring, control, optimisation & automation)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Fully digitised factory – Interconnected production Purely physical factory – Production equipment equipment is entirely cut off from IT allows for IT- systems and no real-time information access and can be gathered information is fed into a virtual representation of the factory 20. How would you rate the degree of digitisation of your horizontal value chain (from customer order over supplier, production and logistic to service)? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Complete digitisation – Continuous data flow No digitisation at all – No automated along the exchange of information along the horizontal horizontal value chain (e.g. no value chain connection to supplier’s IT) (e.g. integration of logistic service providers into internal IT) 21. To which extend does your IT architecture address the overall requirements from digitisation and Industry 4.0? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Completely – All relevant requirements are explicitly Not at all – The current architecture considered in neither considers I4.0 requirements the IT (IoT, analysis of production data etc.) architecture, directly nor is it easily adaptable for the roadmap the new requirements reflects enhancements to meet future needs https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 6/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 22. Which of the following systems do you use? Does the system have an interface to the leading system? Check all that apply. MES – manufacturing execution system ERP – enterprise resource planning PLM – product lifecycle management PDM – product data management PPS – production planning system PDA – production data acquisition MDC – machine data collection SCM – supply chain management CRM - customer relationship management 23. To which extend do you use a manufacturing execution system (MES) or similar to control your manufacturing process? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Extensively – MES or similar is used for short-term Not at all – Production planning (capacities, planning is done by utilisation, schedules etc.), hand without support of system is highly integrated a central IT system with ERP and shop floor system to enable vertical integration 24. Are you already using cloud services? Mark only one oval per row. Yes No, but we’re planning to No Cloud-based software For data analysis For data storage 25. How mature is your IT & data architecture to gather, aggregate and interpret real-time manufacturing, product and client data? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 High maturity – Advanced (near) real- Low maturity - No central time analytic system for data analytics, capabilities to service analysis is done in island monitoring, controlling solutions if at all and optimising manufacturing and smart devices https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 7/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 26. How important are new technologies like social media, mobility, analytics and cloud computing for enabling business operations? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Crucial - Exploration and exploitation of new digital technologies Insignificant – Only minor with the overall aim investments in new technologies of enabling decisive that are vaguely linked to business operations business strategy (e.g. social (e.g. social media, media presence because it is both internally and perceived as 'the thing to do‘) externally, tracking consumer moods online and building knowledge sharing platforms internally) 27. To which extent is your IT organisation able to fulfill business requirements in the requested time, quality and cost? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Expectations are always met – The IT is able to Expectations fall regularly short – react agile to Implementation time and quality fail to new and meet business expectations (e.g. long changing lead times, inflexible IT processes etc.) requirements. Business and IT are perfectly aligned 28. How advanced is your IT integration with customers, suppliers and fulfilment partners? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Full integration – Interfaces for all relevant IT systems No integration at all – allowing seamless and Encapsulated IT systems secure data exchange (e.g. allowing no access for complete order tracking for external parties customers, inventory insight for suppliers) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 8/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 29. How sophisticated is your digital compliance policy? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Highly sophisticated – Digital compliance Lowly sophisticated – No dedicated policy is compliance policy for digitisation in defined for place and processes of internal control the complete are for the most part non-digital organisation and supported by a digital ICS 30. How would you rate your capability to create value from data? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Mature – Systematic approaches to leverage data for Limited – Large amounts of data the optimisation of are collected but structured operations and the approaches for utilising the data fostering of new to enable business models are business models missing are in place (e.g. core analytics team, data scientists etc.) 31. How would you rate your capabilities and resources related to Industry 4.0 (e.g. data analytics, IoT, CPS, HMI, production security, digital PLM etc.) in your organisation? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Mature – Special units are anchored in the Limited – Lack of clarity on the organisation presence or location of capabilities with overarching and absence of or confused responsibilities responsibilities regarding I 4.0 for I 4.0 topics (e.g. a cross- functional ‚digital factory‘-unit) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 9/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 32. What level of involvement, support and expertise do executive and senior management have in your organisation with regards to Industry 4.0? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 High leadership involvement – All senior management is Low leadership involvement – fully knowledgeable Senior management does not and aware of the recognise the significance of importance, Industry 4.0 and reveals almost workings and no digital expertise implication of Industry 4.0 (e.g. board of directors with a vision and road-map) 33. To what extent does your organisation institutionalise collaboration on Industry 4.0 topics along with external partners such as academia, industry, suppliers or customers? Mark only one oval. 1 2 3 4 5 Open collaboration – Industry 4.0 innovation is No collaboration – Industry 4.0 fostered within topics are, if any, mostly open platforms investigated internally and designed for outcomes are foreclosed towards cross-industry external organisations research (e.g. ‘Smart Factory’ environments, open laboratories for customers) 34. How do you assess the skills of your employees when it comes to the future requirements under Industry 4.0? Mark only one oval per row. Not Non- Existent ,but Adequate relevant existent inadequate IT infrastructure Automation technology Data analytics Data security / communications security Development or application of assistance systems Collaboration software Non-technical skills such as systems thinking and process understanding 35. Does your company already have use cases in which the 'work-piece' guides itself autonomously through production? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 10/11 02/08/2017 Industry 4.0 36. Does your company have production processes that respond autonomously/automatically in real time to changes in production conditions? Powered by https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kTwtshcyGQ3DqpJy8FVCDonHT0rl7BY5WXUC7D5w048/edit 11/11 Appendix 3 105 Appendix 3 Motivation Letter Dear Sir/Ma’am, I, Ramsi Kalia, am writing this letter to express my interest in the possibility of conducting my Dissertation within your Company’s premises. I am a student at the University of Exeter currently pursuing my MSc. in Mechanical Engineering. The topic for my Dissertation is ‘Lean Manufacturing Techniques in Food Processing to Reduce Food Wastage’. I am looking to study the structure of Food Processing Techniques and identify areas wherein Lean Techniques have been employed as well as looking to recognize and recommend areas where suitable Lean Techniques can be introduced. My Dissertation is guided by Mr. Richard Shepherd who has worked in the field of Sustainability Issues in Food Manufacturing as well as Technology Transfer from University to Industry. I believe that under his accomplished guidance I will have a positive value addition to your Company. Prior to my Master’s degree, I have worked professionally for 3 years in the capacity of Project Manager at a Manufacturing Company producing core Engineering (Refrigeration and Air) products where I have developed skills that will assist me during this Dissertation including self- motivation and individual work. Working as a Project Manager, I was responsible for 15-20 individuals working directly under my supervision on any given project and was, at most times, responsible for up to 5 projects at any given time. Along with this, I have also worked on multiple individual projects to boost employee productivity by analyzing working strategies, recommending and ultimately implementing desired changes within the work process. In addition, I have also garnered a number of Technical Skills that shall ensure that my work is well supplemented and of high quality. These skills include use of multiple Drawing Softwares including AutoCAD and Solidworks; Planning Softwares such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relation Management (CRM); and Programming Languages. Please see my attached resume for additional information on my skills and experience. I am currently residing in Exeter and can be reached anytime via my cell phone, 07823828939, or e-mail at

. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Ramsi Kalia RAMSI KALIA Address : Exeter , United Kingdom Telephone : +44-78-238-28939 E-mail :

Passport : Indian Mechanical Engineer with 3 years professional experience in Project Management and Leadership.Currently pursuing a Master’s Degree (MSc.) in Mechanical Engineering. SOFT SKILLS  Team management and Project handling capabilities  As a Project Manager at Mellcon Engineers Pvt. Ltd. was in-charge of 15-20 individuals from technicians to departmental managers on different tasks to deliver projects of up-to 350,000 GBP to successful completion  Led various in-house Workshops to train employees on the productive use of Microsoft Office  Effective communicator with excellent commercial acumen, interpersonal & relationship management skills  Proven Multi-Tasker; managed up-to 5 contracts concurrently  Successful in motivating workforce and organizing team work on daily basis  Experienced in customer service; as an Intern as NaukriNews(Job-Search Portal) successfully engaged with customers to sell product and address grievances. In addition to this, working as a Project Manager at Mellcon, was the lead communicator between company and customer at all times  Languages: English(IELTS - 8.0), Hindi(Native), Sanskrit (Intermediate), Punjabi (Basic), German (Beginner) TECHNICAL SKILLS  Computational  Accomplished in Microsoft Office (Word, Power Point, Excel, Access)  Experienced in Programming Languages such as C, C++, C#, Python  Trained in Simulation and Analysis Software such as MATLAB and Simulink, ANSYS, CREO  Extensively worked on Drawing Software such as AutoCAD, ZWCAD, SolidWorks, ProE, CREO, SketchUp, and analysis of P&I Diagrams  Handled Website Design and Blog software such as WordPress and Joomla (Basic Knowledge)  Efficient in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) softwares  Capable in Back End Querying software such as SQL, .NET  Proficient on Microsoft Windows, MAC OS and well versed in Linux  Industrial  Designing of equipment using standard International Codes and Guidelines, primarily ASME BPVC and ISO codes  Administered appropriate Welding efficiency techniques and codes, primarily ASME Section IX  Conversant in conducting Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) such as Hydrostatic Testing, Pneumatic Testing, Radiography  Performed CNC Lathe machining, Welding, Soldering, Brazing, Woodworking EMPLOYMENT DETAILS Mellcon Engineers Pvt. Ltd. http://mellcon.com/ June 2013 to July 2016 Job Title : Project Manager  Managerial  Communicating effectively the project requirements with customer in association with the Sales executives.  Relating to the design team the requirements of customer.  Worked with the different departments, sales, design, electrical, purchasing, manufacturing, customer service to ensure smoother transitions of work, timely completion of tasks and delivery of final project.  Successfully introduced creation of process plans for each project with time scale and ensured strict adherence to the time scale while maintaining highest standards of production.  Analysed welding technique and speed of each welder to improve upon efficiency and daily output by combining data gathered over a period of 3 months while working on the shop floor.  Responsible for maintaining a healthy work environment and open communication between the employees on shop floor and executives, engineers, designers and purchase department, to reduce loss of time and efficiency.  Technical  Verification and validation of project design, P & I diagrams, electrical diagrams before passing onto the shop floor.  Worked on the shop floor to understand, maintain and improve manufacturing practices including welding techniques, placement of valves, sequence of machine erection and many more.  Supervised creation of Quality Assurance Test Plans as well as Testing procedures, verified and validated product functioning in accordance with specified test plan.  Business Development  Conceptualized and designed solar cell based hydrogen generation plants in collaboration with the Managing Director.  Reorganisation and Development of Website.  Upgrade and designing of Product Information Flyers and Business Brochures. NaukriNews (Careerana) Job-Search Portal http://www.careerana.com/ Summer 2011 and Summer 2012 Job Title : Intern – Customer Service Representative  Responsible for achieving a weekly/monthly target by telesales  Successful in addressing and solving a wide variety of customer complaints in a timely and courteous manner.  Helping to connect individuals to jobs suited to their skill set.  Worked on improving the website by identifying issues and relaying the same to the web-design team, as well as refinement and further development of website.  Worked on an in-house CRM software to update customer information or purchases, and follow up with respective teams (Resume writing, Social Profile writing), to ensure timely delivery of products. ADDITIONAL PROJECTS  As a freelance writer, wrote a number of articles for websites such as WoofMeals.com, ShaadiCircle.com, and NaukriNews.com. Handled the Social Media accounts for ShaadiCircle.com for a period of one month in March 2016. Moreover, built the entire website for WoofMeals.com from scratch using WordPress.  Master’s Dissertation Project -- Lean Manufacturing Techniques in Food SMEs in the UK. Bachelor’s Final Year Dissertation Project – Development and Construction of a Six Stroke Engine (based on the work of Michael Beare).  At University, completed numerous projects on topics of – Reverse Engineering, Concurrent Engineering, Pressure Vessel Design, Design of Machine Elements comprising of Belt and Rope Drive, Design of a Gear Box, Sensor Technology - Nano-sensors, The Six Sigma Approach and many more, individually as well as in groups. ACADEMIC BACKGROUND University of Exeter, MSc. Mechanical Engineering Currently Pursuing 2016 - 2017 Exeter Maharashtra Institute of Technology, B.Eng. Mechanical Second Class 2008 - 2013 University of Pune Modern School, Vasant Vihar C.B.S.E. 12th (AS Level equivalent) 82% avg. 2007 - 2008 New Delhi C.B.S.E. 10th (GCSE equivalent) 82% avg. 2005 - 2006 EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES  Active member of Exeter Student Volunteers (ESV). As part of ESV special projects, volunteered at the Christmas Gift Wrapping in support of St. Loye’s.  Active member of ESV project RESTORE, fund-raising committee, volunteered at Waffle Sale stall at the Annual Christmas Fair.  Recent member of Animal Welfare Society; staunch supporter of Animal Rights and Welfare. Rescued and re-homed 4 dogs off the streets of New Delhi, India. Strong supporter of ‘Adopt Don’t Shop’.  Avid reader. Fiction.  At University, organized and participated in various events including heading the sponsorship team by collecting the maximum funds for Technical Festival AXLERATE 2012.  At school level, won the prestigious Vinod Dixit Award for ‘Silent Killers – Diseases of Today’, in 2006, awarded by the Chief Minister of New Delhi (in group of 3). Participated in the youth achievement award, Duke of Edinburgh Award and won the Bronze Level. Won first prize in State-Level Painting competition in 2007 with over 100 schools participating (in group of 3). Appendix 4 109 Form 2 - Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia MSc Project Proposal ECMM164 Title: Lean Manufacturing Techniques in Food Processing to Reduce Food Wastage Student Name: Ramsi Kalia Programme: MSc. Mechanical Engineering Student number: 660063724 Candidate number: 040670 MSc Programme Name: Mechanical Engineering Supervisor: Richard Shepherd 1 Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia Background With the globalisation of markets resulting in increased competition, organisations are under continuous pressure to pursue operational excellence and improve performance in an effort to reduce costs and provide products of higher quality with shorter lead times.World-wide studies and evidence suggests that lean methods and tools have helped manufacturing organisations to improve their operations and process.1,2 In The Machine that Changed the World, James Womack coined the term lean production to describe profound revolution in manufacturing that was initiated by the Toyota Production System (TPS), and which has been rapidly replacing mass production system. The TPS is an ongoing evolution of solutions designed to achieve ‘lean’ ideal.3,4 Lean manufacturing is the systematic identification and steady elimination of wastage in a manufacturing process. Another approach to lean manufacturing is focussed on improving the flow of work and thereby eliminating any unevenness in the process.The advantage of this approach is that it takes a system-wide perspective and any waste elimination is a natural result of the implementation. The original seven wastes(muda) are:  Transport - moving products that are not actually required to perform the processing  Inventory - all components, work in process, and finished product not being processed  Motion - people or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the processing  Waiting - waiting for the next production step, interruptions of production during shift change  Overproduction - production ahead of demand  Over Processing - resulting from poor tool or product design creating activity  Defects - the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects 5 Lean manufacturing includes Kaizen (continuous improvement), Kanban (inventory control system for supply chain), JIT (just-in-time manufacturing) and Lean Six Sigma (utilising DMAIC phases). Aims To recognise, define, measure, analyse, improve and control wastage produced in a Food Processing cycle in an industrial setting. Objectives The objectives are as follows: 1. To collaborate with a company in the Food Processing Space 2. To Recognise one or more areas where Lean Manufacturing Techniques can be employed in order to reduce food wastage 3. To measure and analyse the Waste produced currently, and predict a reduction in waste by employing Lean Techniques 4. To implement planned changes, PDCA (plan-do-check-act) 5. Observe, analyse and report the reduction in Wastage 2 Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia Methodology The approach for this dissertation would be quantitative in nature, specifically recognising the points or areas where waste is created and comparing that to the reduction in wastage post implementing Lean Manufacturing Techniques. For the purpose of this project, we could apply lean manufacturing techniques to a variety of situations, including but not limited to 1. Mechanical - Improving the functioning of process equipment and human interaction with machines; reducing wasted electricity, heat, water; improving design of tools and product 2. Mechatronical - Improving advanced automated processes and techniques 3. Inventory Control - Implementing JIT, Kanban; recognising spheres for improvement in raw material acquisition, storage; packaging, storage and delivery of finished product 4. Computational - Process engineering, thermal processes - heat transfer in food preparation, packaging, freezing, storing; introducing AI in process chain - food sorting, inventory control, preparation, cleaning, managing/sorting food waste for re-use etc. 3 Form 2 - Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia Table 1 Time management scheme is provided in the form of a Gantt chart: MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 General Reading Around The Topic Formulating a Research Question More Specific Background Reading Drafting The Literature Review Selecting The Methodological Approach Find Company To Partner With Devising Final Problem Statement Formulating Method To Tackle Problem Critiquing Method Implementing Method Data Collection Data Analysis 4 Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia Drafting The Findings Chapter(s) Drafting The Discussion Chapter(s) Editing Work Final Tidying Up And Handing In Reading Planning Writing Fieldwork Final Work Table 2 Project risk assessment template Importance Likelihood Severity ID Risk item Effect Cause Action to minimise risk What is the effect on any What action(s) will you take (and by Describe the risk or all of the project What are the possible L*S when) to prevent, reduce the impact of, briefly deliverables if the cause cause(s) of this risk? or transfer the risk of this occurring? actually happens? 1 Inability to find a If this happens, the Unimpressive student In order to prevent this, I have Company to partner project will be forced to profile resulting in approached my thesis advisor to help with change, in essence company not me in finding a company that would be resulting in a theoretical interested in working open to working with a student; time till or qualitative dissertation with particular student mid-April has been allotted to finding an only. or student’s ineptitude appropriate company or business. in convincing a company to allow dissertation work within their premises 5 Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia 2 Methodologies If this were to happen, it Methodologies are too To prevent this, 6 weeks have been recommended are would derail the risky, new, difficult to allocated to devising a problem rejected by the implementation and implement6 statement and finding a method to tackle company analysis aspects of the the problem. The aim will be to find project more than one area to work in so in case one methodology is rejected, another remains 6 Form 2 - Project Proposal (ECMM164) Student Name: Ramsi Kalia References 1. Mahapatra S, Mohanty S. Lean Manufacturing in continuous process industry: An empirical Study. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2006;66:19-27 2. Belekoukias I, Garza-Reyes J, Kumar V. The impact of lean methods and tools on the operational performance of manufacturing organisations. International Journal of Production Research. 2014;52(18):5346-5366. doi:10.1080/00207543.2014.903348. 3. Womack J, Jones D, Roos D. The Machine That Changed The World. 1st ed. New York: Free Press; 2007. 4. Liker J. Becoming Lean. 1st ed. New York, NY: Productivity Press; 2006. 5. Womack, James P.; Daniel T. Jones (2003). Lean Thinking. Free Press. p. 352. 6. Bhasin S. An appropriate change strategy for lean success. Management Decision. 2012;50(3):439-458. doi:10.1108/00251741211216223. 7