Track: Lean Six Sigma Competition

Abstract

Recently, global cotton prices have increased by 107.15% in the last two years, and the demand for fabrics has decreased, having a significant impact on the company's profitability by 15%. This research was conducted at a manufacturing company specializing in knitting fabrics made from polyester, tetron cotton, and chief value cotton. During observation, it was found that the company's expectations regarding the good quality of the fabrics produced were different from the reality that almost 75% of the fabrics produced had to go through the repair/rework stage due to defects. The purpose of this study is to prepare a strategy for companies to increase profitability in the midst of a crisis in company profitability. This research focuses on the production area, from the raw material preparation process in the warehouse, the knitting process, the quality checking process, and the storage process in the warehouse. One month of production data was utilized in the study. This research begins by observing the production process, interviewing employees, and collecting daily production data and waste identification using WAQ and a WRM. The problem-solving process uses the DMAIC method, starting by defining the problem and measuring the capability of the production process. WRM and WAQ are used to analyze the type of waste, and the root of the problem is analyzed with a fishbone diagram. The results of this study indicate that the most common types of defects are holes in the fabric, broken threads, and broken needles that cause other waste in the production process. The root of the problem is that there are no QC procedures for raw materials, machine operating procedures, or periodic inspection procedures. The proposed improvement to overcome this problem is to conduct QC inspections on incoming raw materials and make a periodic machine inspection procedures. From the validation process for the proposed improvements, it shows that lead time was reduced by 15.13%, efficiency increased by 11.23%, and profitability by 6.17%.