Question

The CONDUMEX Group is the largest manufacturer of conductors, semi-conductors, and fiber optics in Latin America. Their annual revenues exceeded $200,000,000,000 and are currently positioned as a successful competitor in the global marketplace. Recently, one of the child companies of CONDUMEX, CONDUTEL (Telephone Conductors) was audited by a group of consultants. After the facilities and processes were extensively scrutinized, it was concluded that the company wastes a considerable amount of money due to product handling. The report and recommendations from the auditors were misplaced, and the CEO of the Group wants a brief description of what needs to be done to solve the problem and how long will it take to implement a solution. The only available information consists of a series of notes and drafts that the auditors left behind. The information has been forwarded to one of the young engineers (YOU) of the company. After analyzing and organizing the available information the summary states: The transfer of wire spools to the pairing stations is costing the company an average of $ 7,000 per shift. The problem is basically related to how the workers unload the coils from the extruders and then transport them on carts to a batch area. The spools are coated and coiled automatically at the end of the extrusion machines, each one weights 90 lbs. The spools are supposed to be organized by color in the batch area prior to their loading into the pairing machines. Since most of the handling is done manually, several spools are damaged or are not grouped correctly. Damaged spools, or spools of the wrong wire color cannot be loaded into the pairing machines. Delays in loading the pairing machines involve an additional cost of $ 100 per min. The total physical area between the end of the extrusion machines and the pairing machines, currently used as the batch area, is approximately 5,000 ft² (70×72). Spools are stacked 5 high. The operations and methods used to unload spools from the extrusion/coiling machines, transferring of spools to the batch area, and deliver and loading to pairing equipment needs to be modified. It is imperative to determine modifications to methods, processes, and scheduling in order to… Since YOU need to complete the summary, what will you include to the report for the Group's CEO? Your job (grade) depends on it!

Answer 1

The main issues identified for the wastage in the process are

(a) Careless removal and loading of the spools on the cart from the extruder causes damaged spools.

(b) Careless attitude of workers causes mixing of different lots in the stacking area which causes re seggregation and further delay.

(c) Delay in loading to the pairing machine costs additional money.

Solution - As there is sufficient area ( 5000 sqft) available, there is a need to automate certain parts of the process to handle the material carefully and scientifically. For this following actions need to be taken.

(a) Installation of auto doffing and auto stacking equipement that will minimize the damage and spool mixing incidents.

(b) Auto loading to the pairing machine lot wise, so the seggregated lots can be loaded without delay or damage. For double checking the accuracy, manual supervision should also be incorporated.