Membrane Production Start-up Scrap Reduction

Abstract

A start-up process for two production lines of a biopharmaceutical company was generating more scrap than expected, generating lots of time and physical material waste during the process. The objective of this project was to reduce the amount of scrap generated and improve the efficiency in each production line. Data was gathered by consulting supervisors, interviewing operators, and observing the workflow to understand the start-up process. Through data analysis, it showed that the major factor of scrap produced was caused by pinholes or scratches. To reduce this, a cleaning step was added to avoid particles being present in the machine. Results showed a significant reduction in average waste generated on the production line. Due to one of two production lines not passing a hypothesis test, further study is recommended to be performed with more samples to be collected to have better statistical proof statistically that the process was improved. Keywords ⎯ Biopharmaceutical, Continues Improvement, Process Improvement, Waste Reduction.