Productivity Improvement in Plastic Bag Manufacturing through Lean Manufacturing Concepts: A Case Study

Abstract:

In the fiercely competitive market, productivity improvement always plays a key strategic role in determining bottom-line success for an industry. Being a plastic bag manufacturer, which is widely used as packaging material for apparel industry, the manufacturer belongs to a group of backward linkage industry, which is highly competitive. As such, the company has to focus heavily on three strategic issues: reduction in overall cost, improvement in quality with right assurance scheme, and improvement in productivity with right tools and techniques. This research has been conducted in a large FDI-based plastic bag manufacturing company, a techno-economic consortium of Dutch, China and Bangladesh, and located in the suburban area of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. This research was aimed to focus on these issues along with future guidelines as to how to approach lean manufacturing as a pursuit to achieve the ultimate goal of “near perfection”. All of these improvement efforts are planned around the concepts of lean manufacturing. This involves application of Value-Stream Mapping (VSM) and 5S program.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 110-116)
• Pages: 1975-1982
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.110-116.1975
• Online since: October 2011
• Authors: Tahera Yesmin, Md. Masuduzzaman, Ahmed Zaheer
• Keywords: Lean Manufacturing, Super Market, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Waste

References

[1] Hobbs, D.P., LEAN Manufacturing Implementation: A Complete Execution Manual for Any Size Manufacturer, J. Ross Publishing, (2004).

[2] Lian, Y.H., Landeghem, V., An Application of Simulation and Value Stream Mapping In Lean Manufacturing, Proceedings 14th European Simulation Symposium, (2002).

[3] Zylystra, K.D., Lean Distribution: Applying Lean Manu fact ring to Distribution, Logistics, and Supply Chain, Willey and Sons, New Jersey, (2006).

[4] Krajewsky, L.J., Operations Management, Strategy and Analysis, Pearson, Singapore, (2002).

[5] Besterfield, D.H., Michna, C.B., and Besterfield, G. H., Total Quality Management, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, (1999).

DOI: 10.1080/07408170008963939

[6] Everett, E., Adam, J. and Ebert, R.J., Production and Operations Management: Concepts, Models, and Behavior, Prentice-Hall, India, (1992).