Downtime Reduction in a Small Company Using DMAIC Methodology
Downtime Reduction in a Small Company Using DMAIC Methodology
Purpose – This work aims to present a detailed process of reducing downtime in a small company of animal food manufacturing in Brazil.
Methodology – The authors used the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology in a real situation.
Findings – There was a reduction in the occurrence of interruptions for a given stopping reason, which represented a decrease in idle time of 44%. There was also a suggestion for another downtime issue.
Originality/value – Optimizing equipment availability and reducing production downtime helps industries remain competitive since the generation of losses in the production process becomes a limiting factor for increasing production efficiency. This work shows how it is possible to obtain improvements with few resources and contributes to shedding more light on the particularities of implementing DMAIC initiatives in SMEs.
Paper type: Case study
Lean Six Sigma (LSS), DMAIC, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), animal nutrition.
