Lean six sigma assessment on the production and packaging process of carbonated soft drinks

Abstract

The aim of this project was to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the production line No 1 of Crown Beverages Limited using Lean Six Sigma Methodology. During the production process, the automatic filling machine experienced deviations from the theoretical production yield of up to 9600 bottles per batch. This line being the oldest at Crown Beverages Limited, cases of increased downtime and reduced production were expected. These inefficiencies led to high costs of production in terms of work-in-process and re-inspections of the products. Therefore, a defect analysis hence sigma assessment on production line No 1 of Crown Beverages was undertaken in this study. Outputs from the assessment were used to inform the quality control recommendations to the company for improvement. Discrete data used in the assessment was collected continuously for 14 days. Limited was undertaken in this study. Microsoft excel was used as a tool to find the total defects, defects per opportunity (DPO) and sigma value for each step on the production line. The production steps were categorized into syrup preparation, bottle washing, mix processing, filling, crowning, coding and packaging. All steps in the production process were analyzed. The sigma value for syrup preparation, bottle washing, crowning and packaging was 3.4, while that of mixing processing, filling and coding was 3.3, the average sigma value for the entire process was 3.4. The six-sigma value variation was observed to be as a result of various reasons explained in chapter 3.