Application of lean manufacturing to increase productivity in a food sector company

Abstract

The application of lean manufacturing aims to increase productivity and reduce waste in companies in the food sector in Peru, a common challenge due to the lack of knowledge of its implementation. This research, conducted in a food SME, identified through a Value Stream Mapping (VFM) diagnostic a low productivity (72%) in the ice cream manufacturing process. Key findings included low machine availability in the molding, palletizing and packaging processes (70.60%, 70.32% and 86.46% respectively), bottlenecks in the only two processes with direct operator intervention (13.46 and 11.16 times slower) and excessive changeover times between batches (2.5 hours). To address these problems, tools such as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), One Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) and Standardization of Work were applied, achieving significant results: an 8.11% increase in productivity, a 9.7% reduction in cycle time, a 42.13% reduction in batch changeover time, a 15.69% increase in machine availability and a 42.44% reduction in the time of the boxing and taping processes.