Productivity Enhancement at Molding Compound Manufacturing Plant by Applying Time and Motion Analysis

Abstract

Commercial boundaries have been erased by markets globalization. Companies around the world compete with each other and thus are enforced to improve their products and processes. These improvements depend on a number of factors such as proper management, working environment, and available technology, etc. Inappropriate design of the working environment is one of the main reasons for lower productivity. Inadequate and incomplete working environments caused by ignoring standard methods in planning level, persistent physical disorders and increase mistakes impact the productivity in the working environment. Maximum productivity, with less physical load and energy consumption, is achieved when the compliance occurs between worker and task. This paper aims to optimize ineffective time and eliminate undesired operations at Molding Compound Manufacturing plants using the time and motion study techniques. The results represent a significant improvement in the production process in productivity and cycle time to optimize the system. There is a substantial increase in the production of the product by simplifying the working method and changing the work sequence. Productivity is improved by eliminating unnecessary movements, simplifying individual tasks and changing operations sequence. Results show that time for each milling operation reduced from 36.3 minutes to 22.5 min, the number of machines reduced from 4 to 3.48 and productivity improved from 5 bags per hour per worker to 7.14 bags per hour per worker.