Waste reduction in a Refrigerators Factory

Abstract

The factory visited to start investigation was the factory of refrigerators International Home Appliances (IHA). (I.H.A) is one of the largest home appliances producers in Egypt. It was founded in February 1998 as a member of “BAHGAT GROUP”. International Home Appliances is currently producing a wide range of refrigerators, gas cookers and washing machines according to the most up to date technology with emphasis on safety and environment designs. This report is mainly focused on the manufacturing of refrigerators. Brand name in market is known as “GOLDI”. The project objective is to use Lean-Six Sigma methodology to reduce the different types of waste in refrigerator factory. All different types of products in the factory, and the production stages and their processes are identified. Different types of wastes percentages were calculated and analyzed for the department of thermoforming which is the initial department; responsible for producing cabins and doors for the refrigerator. Then a pareto chart was produced to calculate 80% of wastes. It was found that the most critical type of waste was defects. Further, a fishbone diagram was implemented to determine the root causes leading to defects. Study objective is to reduce the percentage of defects in the thermoforming department from 9% to 3% by dealing with three problems which are plastic problem, maintenance problem and media problem. Solutions adopted in the Material problem decreased 4% of the 6% target reduction value of defects, while solutions adopted in the maintenance problem and the media problem decreased the defects by 1% and 1%, respectively to reach finely the 6% target value.