Applicability of Lean Concepts in Reducing Change Over Time to Increase Production Capacity

Abstract

Abstract - At this very competitive environment, companies need to do more with less. One way to do this is to maximize the use of the facilities that are already in use instead of building new ones or expanding existing ones. This project applied some of the Lean concepts and tools to reduce change over time for a key equipment during a pharmaceutical manufacturing process, without negatively impacting quality, health, safety or environmental compliance. The main Lean concepts used include: eliminating non-value activities, reducing the time required for business value-added activities and scheduling activities in the most efficient sequence. The Lean tools used include: Cause and Effect Diagram, Brainstorming, Single Minute Exchange of Dies, 5S, Poka Yoke, Standard Work and Risk Analysis. The implemented actions achieved a reduced average change over time (from 19 to 12 hours, for a 37% reduction). With the reduction of the change over time, additional manufacturing can take place within the same time period, and thus, the demand increase can be addressed with no significant investment. Key Terms - Change Over, Increase Production Capacity, Lean, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Challenges