Time Waste Reduction of the COMACO Cooking Oil Filling Line in Oil Tec Factory

Abstract

Oil Tec is an Egyptian company based on an oleo-chemical plant in Sadat city and part of a group of companies working in the field of edible oils, soap, feed additives, and oleo-chemicals. The company was established in 1999 and focuses on the field of refining, mixing, and packaging oils and manufacturing plastic bottles to obtain the highest levels of food safety, quality, and production. After investigating COMACO filling line of edible oils in the factory, a significant number of problems were noticed. The most prominent is that the current production plan and the switching between the different products on the line causes a changeover that averages from 60 min to 120 min per the 8-hour shift and this project aimed at a reduction of 20 to 30 mins from that total wasted changeover time. This project is concerned with reducing time loss of the filling line in the Oil Tec factory using industrial engineering methodologies such as the SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) and the 5S. These lean techniques were used simultaneously to reduce the changeover wasted time of the COMACO production filling line while also creating a more organized, optimized, and productive workspace. The successful implementation of both the SMED and 5S led to the following results: ▪ A total changeover time reduction of 17 mins from the initial 118 mins (14.4% of reduction). Therefore, the current changeover time is 101 mins per the 8-hour shift. Subsequently, the following was achieved: - ▪ The machine downtime decreased by 34.5 mins per 8hr-shift. ▪ Total Production time increased by 34.5 mins per 8hr-shift (29.2%). ▪ Total pieces produced increased by 365 pieces per 8hr-shift. ▪ Percentage of production capacity increased by 10.13%