Waste Reduction in Glass Manufacturing

Abstract

The AUG company is working in the field of glass production for different purposes. One of the most important products is the triplex glass which is used for isolating sound in different places such as hospitals, hotels, airports, and other different applications. The company is certified with ISO9001 quality management systems. Elimination of the waste is a topic involved in all types of industry with environmental way and economy respective. After collection of data the total percentage of glass breaks in the production line was10% per month at different areas. The first problem is the glass broken in the oven when they change in thickness of glasses to meet with required plan. Second, are the urgent requests coming with little specification, which is less than the standard glass slab, so the rest of the plan is useless or unprofessional use. Finally, is the daily target plan applied with 80% or less. So, the objective of this project is to reduce the total waste in the production line and increase the productivity by using the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology. After implementing lean six sigma DMAIC methodology, the waste at production line decreased by 7% of total waste and the productivity increased by 49.67%. Target plan is applied with 90% efficiency through reorganization of the plan of cutting machine, and the sequence of the orders at the oven station. Also, a new department for manual cutting was developed for the urgent customer requests and the orders which break inside the oven, to satisfy the daily target plan.