Track: Senior Design Project Competition

Abstract

The transportation and movement waste results in extra locating time, materials, and people movement. The company selected produces 25 million tablets per day (9 billion annually). Their high demand results in higher inventory and product movement within manufacturing rooms and warehouse. Optimize warehouse product flow by at least 15% & increase operational efficiency at least 15% were the objectives stablished. The expected deliverables were Optimize material flow to reduce costs and time, Improve and standardize FIFO system and culture within warehouse, production rooms and shipping area, Inventory Management and provide process flow analysis and continuous improvement opportunities to the current process. Project scope consists in the evaluation and improvement of inventory handling and storage in the warehouse within production rooms and shipping area. The costs and processes incurring these areas will be analyzed to give flow reduction recommendations at Pharmaceutical Company. A time study was conducted among the five warehouses on site. A lighting study and the evaluation of the materials stored in the different warehouses was carried out. After the implementations the process can increase the operational efficiency at least 35%, obtaining a 178% return of investment. Additionally, the objective to optimize the warehouse product flow by at least 15% after the implementations can be increased by at least 24% obtaining a 3,990% return of investment. The implementations of creating a standard operating procedure, 5s + Visual Aids, train the personnel, maintenance of the forklift and layout analysis will take approximately 6 months to implement the recommended alternatives.