Lean Improvement Study of an Online Sale in a Small Distribution Company

Abstract

Small businesses play a huge role in the global economy. It is essential that these companies be studied and analyzed to find any faults in the system that can be mitigated by using lean methodologies. The purpose of this research is to analyze the process in which a certain small business sells its product using Lean Manufacturing techniques. After analyzing the process, the same techniques are used to mitigate any existing problems in the process. Using the DMAIC Cycle, the accounting process was analyzed in reference to the time spent on creating customer invoices. The studies showed that an area of improvement was to implement a new employee to take clients’ orders, so the seller does not have to waste time searching the orders. The analysis was successfully implemented, and a new solution was developed in response to that analysis. Further time is needed to correctly implement the solution to the process and an analysis of time spent vs. time saved must be done to ensure its functionality Key terms ⎯ DMAIC, FMEA, garage sale, process map