Scrap Reduction in Printing Area

Abstract

The New Solutions Manufacturing Line consists of the following areas: Mixing, Printing, Filling, Pouching, Sterilizing and Packing. Its first commercial lot was manufactured in March 2017. Data trends identified that the Printing area had more scrap than any of the other areas. Therefore, a scrap reduction project in the Printing area was started to identify the major offender of scrap and implement actions to mitigate it. Data showed that the major offender was illegible bar code. After an analysis of the process, three possible root causes were identified: foil alignment on printing machine, printing machine breaks foil, and foil moves from position. Two sensors were installed in the bar code station of the Printing machine to stop the bar code station if it detects that the foil moves from position and to stop the Printing machine if there is no presence of foil. After implementation, data showed that the illegible bar code defect was reduced. Key Terms ⎯ bar code station, foil, illegible bar code, major offender.