Improvement Proposal to Increase the Availability of Machines in The Thermoforming Line of a Plastic Industry Applying TPM, SMED And Standardized Work Tools

Worldwide, the production of plastics has maintained remarkable growth in recent years. Since its emergence in the 1950s, it has maintained an exponential trend, due to the fact that products made from this material are adapted to different uses, such as containers, packaging, toiletries, etc. Thermoforming is one of the plastic forming techniques, this process is largely automated, so it is vitally important to keep the machines operational most of the time. There are studies that show that low machine availability can be caused by long setup times and downtime due to equipment breakdowns. In this sense, the purpose of this research is to identify, study and solve the main causes that generate the problem of low availability in the thermoforming line of a plastic industry in Peru, since they represent high expenses for the company due to penalties for delays in the delivery of orders and additional consumption. To solve this problem, the implementation of Lean Manufacturing tools such as Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM; Autonomous Maintenance and Planned Maintenance) and Standardized Work is proposed to increase line availability by 10%. and stay competitive in the market. This model was validated through a simulation method in the Arena software where three solution scenarios were established. After validating the model, it is concluded that the availability of machines can be increased from 80% to 93% by implementing these tools and having an optimistic scenario. In addition, the setup time indicator decreased from 56.25 minutes to 22.3 minutes, the programming time by non-standardized parameters decreased to 13.99 minutes, the number of stops due to breakdowns per year was reduced by 40.7% and the MTBF (Mean Time Between breakdowns) increased to 158.5 hours. Finally, it was possible to demonstrate economically that the project is viable, since the IRR (Internal Rate of Return) is greater than the Opportunity Cost (COK) and the Net Present Value (VAN) is greater than zero.