UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLOGICA DE TAMAULIPAS NORTE

IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTIVE PROCESS OF

THE COMPANY EMERSON TOOL AND APPLIANCE COMPANY

Procesos Industriales TSU Área de Plásticos

5°A MPIP

Introducing

 Salvador Duran Jiménez

 José Santiago Garcia Pérez

Cd. Reynosa Tamaulipas March 2020

Abstract
The STEM Project is the acronym for the English terms Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics is a project where the students must propose and
make an implementation of an improvement, Emerson Tool and Appliance
Company S. de R.L. de C.V. allowed us to make the above-mentioned project.
The project consists of two stages, In the first stage, the analysis of the possible
improvement is carried out in the period from September 2019 to December 2019
and in the second stage the improvement is implemented in the period from
January 2020 to April 2020. In the first stage already mentioned, a diagnosis and
analysis of a problem was made in order to know what generates it and to propose
its possible solution.
Índex

.INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................2
1.3 Justification..............................................................................................................................4
1.4. Objective.................................................................................................................................5
1.5Limitations.................................................................................................................................5
1.6 Limitations................................................................................................................................5
2. FOUNDATION ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................6
3. PROCEDURE....................................................................................................................................8
GANT CHART..................................................................................................................................8
4. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS..................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................................17
ANNEXES..........................................................................................................................................18
BIBLIOGRAPHIES...............................................................................................................................19
GLOSSARY.........................................................................................................................................20

1
Introduction

The present project is carried out by the students of the career of industrial
processes, plastic area of fourth four-month shift in the morning, the project
consists of two stages. In the first stage the analysis of improvement proposals
was carried out, and in this second and final stage these proposals will be
implemented, in the period from October 2, 2019 to the first week of December of
that year for the first stage and from January to April 2020 for the second stage,
which is the implementation, under the command of Engineer José Antonio Rullan,
advisor of the area where the analysis for possible improvements was made.

2
 1.1 Project background
During the fourth quarter a stay was made in the company Emerson Tool and
Appliance Company S. de R.L. de C.V., which is an American company dedicated
to the manufacture of vacuum cleaners and accessories for the same, is located at
Avenida Pedregal #241 lot 8, block 2 Colonial Industrial Park in the city Reynosa
Tamaulipas ZC. 88787 Mexico.
This project consists of two phases, the first phase covered from October 7 to
December 31, 2019, where a diagnosis was made to improve the process of
labeling drums in the area of Vacs with the advice of Engineer José Antonio
Rullan, the second phase constitutes the implementation of these improvements to
see what impact they will have on the process.
As a first point, a constant problem was identified, which is the deterioration of
drums due to bad labelling. This problem has become so common that when
damaged parts are generated, the main option is to send them to the regrind area,
since the entire scrap is shredded and returned to the process, but having to
rework a process becomes a loss, which carries with it too many costs that will be
reflected in a certain period.
Once the above was exposed it was identified that in the VACS area the press
1A10004 in cell 5 the bad labelling of drums causes 3176 defects, this taken in a
previous period of six months, so by managing to decrease or eliminate this
problem can generate a significant improvement, therefore, this process involves
options for implementing improvements to be developed.
During the diagnosis three improvements were elaborated which could improve the
process, this way all the proposals were well received at the moment of exposing
them to the company, therefore, the first proposal consists of a change of fixture
components due to wear, since some components have not been changed in a
very long period of time.
Using new components will not only reduce failures but will also work more
efficiently since the same wear and tear was the cause of process errors in which
production will no longer be affected, the costs-benefits are not yet calculable, as
more data are required to perform such a procedure, the quotation of the
components of the fixture was sent to the EMI supplier, and we are working to
define which is the appropriate model for the label to be placed.
Our second proposal consists of a visual aid letter for the arrangement of labels, as
it is intended that the operator is guided to perform the roll change either at a
model change or when the roll is finished, plus the speed of change is expected to
increase, it should be noted that a time parameter will be added for each label
model to estimate the length of time the roll will last.

3
Finally, our third proposal consists of a preventive maintenance plan for the
technicians in the area, which goes hand in hand with changing components in the
fixture since in this maintenance plan you will have to specify the life time for the
fixture components since in a certain period of time they start to fail, become
inefficient and tend to affect the process causing defects in the final product. Also,
this improvement is intended to standardize the parameters given to the robot end-
of-arm tool so that the cycles are not lost when operating for an undetermined
period.
Among the main improvements is the possible redistribution of plant and change of
components which are in a better workflow, so that we can be working in the most
efficient and practical way possible, this not only helps the work processes but also
increases the quality of production and environment for the operators, this way you
have a better view when solving problems that constantly arise, we give faith and
invite you to be part of this important company that is constantly growing and offers
a great personal development highly recommended that has a desire to grow.

1.2 Description of the problem

The process of mislabeling drums in the VACS area of press 1A10004 in cell 5
involves options for improvements to be implemented, because drums are crushed
when defective parts are generated by mislabeling, so that they can be
reincorporated into the process, however, this is a problem that leads to loss of
time, machine hours, man hours, in addition to resin in its virgin state, these costs
already mentioned will be reflected in the long term, therefore, this problem
addressed our interests since the process can be improved by standardizing it and
changing some components that need to be replaced.

1.3 Justification
The STEM project allows students to develop their knowledge acquired during
the previous four-month period in an-SME in order to help the sustainable
development of the country by contributing to bring the industry to areas of
opportunity that allow the economic growth of the country and its inhabitants.
During the analysis stage in the second week of October, a diagnosis was
made in the area of Vacs, to find out what problem presents itself with the most
continuity in the Drum model, In this way, downtime and scrap data from the
last 6 months were taken into account.
During the diagnosis of the 1st 1004 press, several faults were identified which
resulted in 21934 minutes of downtime, When the causes were investigated, it
was analyzed that the bad labeling of drums produces 2232 pieces of scrap in a
period of six months.

4
1.4. Objective
The main objective of the proposal is to reduce the waste of drums due to
bad labeling by implementing improvements for the standardization and
changes of components due to wear to make it a more efficient process in
which we intend to reduce drums with SL, DL and WL code defects on the
label.

1.5Limitations

The main limitations that arose in the development of the project are the following:
The reduction of the number of members that previously was 5 to 6 members per
team, but at the time of developing the project within Emerson Tool and Appliance
Company S. de R.L. de C.V., the equipment was reconfigured to four people,
which limited the human capital.
 The schedule of TSU's career in plastics limits us to devoting time to the
schedule required by the company.
 The journey to get to the company is withdrawn from the university as it
is on the outskirts of the city.
 The insecurity that sometimes arises, due to risk situations in the city.
 Limited or confidential information from the company.
 Availability of timetables for the members of the work team.
 Lack of tools in the work area.
 Little willingness of the company's staff to collaborate.

1.6 Limitations

The project is carried out in the company is developed in the city of Reynosa
Tamaulipas, Mexico, in the company Emerson Tools and Appliance Company S.
de R.L. de C.V., located at Avenida Pedregal 241 L8 M2 Colonial Industrial Park in
the city of Reynosa Tamaulipas, in charge of the fourth quarter students of the TSU
Industrial Processes area, specializing in Plastics at the Universidad Tecnológica
de Tamaulipas Norte
Implementation and analysis of results carried out within the period January-April
2020, under the supervision of Engineer José Antonio Rullan in charge of the
maintenance area, in the morning shift by the students of the Industrial Processes
career in the plastic area of the Universidad Tecnológica de Tamaulipas Norte

5
(UT), which is located at Av. Universidad Tecnológica #1555 s/n Colonia La
Escondida.

2 FOUNDATION ANALYSIS
IN MOLD LABELING
In-mold labeling is the use of paper or plastic labels during the manufacture of
containers by blow molding, injection molding or thermoforming processes. The
label serves as an integral part of the final product, which is then delivered as a
pre-decorated item. The combination of the decoration process with the molding
process reduces the total cost but can increase the manufacturing time. The
technology was first developed by Owens-Illinois in cooperation with Procter &
Gamble to provide pre-labeled bottles that could be filled on the product filling line.
In-mold labeling (IML) was initially designed for blow molding, although
developments using injection molding or thermoforming with reel-fed systems have
increased the efficiency of the labeling process. The original concept is to coat the
back of the label with a heat seal layer, followed by a substrate material on which
heat-resistant ink is applied. A layer of heat-resistant lacquer is then applied. This
process eliminates the need to flame treat bottles prior to labeling to achieve
proper adhesion. Initially, paper was used as the label substrate to which the heat-
reactive adhesive was applied. In more recent times, polyolefin substrates such as
Polyart from Arjobex Synthetic Papers have been used. This creates the
advantage that scrap polyethylene and polypropylene bottles produced in the
molding process can be recycled, without the need to remove the label before
recycling.
THE 3’M
Three terms are commonly used in TPS (called The Three Ms) that collectively
help identify waste to be disposed of:
 “Muda” means waste. Everything that consumes resources and does not
provide value for the customer and processes. Typically, we talk about
overproduction, inventory, waiting, transport, movements, over processing
and reprocessing.
 “Mura” means variability. All this produces irregularities, noncompliance or
interruptions in the processes due to lack of standardization. It causes
imbalances in the work system.
 “Muri” means overloading and consists of working at a rate above the
system's capacity, causing inefficiencies due to personnel fatigue, machine

6
 or equipment deterioration, bottlenecks and downtime in the process. It
arises mainly because of poor planning or inflexible processes.
There are 7 types of waste within the TPS:
1. Overproduction: Doing more than the client has requested.
2. Inventory: More product on hand than the customer needs.
3. Transportation: Moving the product more than necessary.
4. Wait: Any time the value cannot be added because of the delay.
5. Movement: Any extra movement of the operator when he or she is performing a
work sequence.
6. Over processing: Doing more to the product than the customer asked.
7. Correction: Anything not "done right the first time" that requires rework or
inspection. Includes scrap and appearance issues.
Kaizen System
It is a system focused on the continuous improvement of the whole company and
its components, in a harmonic and proactive way.
A third famous model is the so-called Kaizen.
Its meaning is that it is always possible to do things better. No passing day should
go by without some progress and, by improving the standard of work through small
and gradual improvements, this is possible.

7
3 PROCEDURE
The main objective for improvement is the labelling process to reduce
by a certain percentage the defects due to mislabeling of SL, WL and
DL codes, having said that, activities were proposed to improve the
process, since the variables that gave rise to the root cause of the
problem had to be found.

GANT CHART
The GANT diagram shows the main activities carried out during the JANUARY-
APRIL stay in the company, to improve the labelling process in drums on machine
1A-10004 in the Vacs area, the objective was to find the variables that gave rise to
three defect codes that we focused on because they produced between 15 and 50
defective pieces per week.

8
Defects recorded by SL, DL and WL code.

9
10
In order to standardize the process of changing the label roll, the process chart that
was already default in the area was updated, this is so that the technician in charge
of changing the roll has a clearer view of how to complete the process.

11
12
During the verification of robot arm components, several tests were performed to
monitor the condition of the components to be replaced, this to increase the
reliability of the components during the process, to make them efficient and to
ensure their remaining life span, no obstante, the components were in good
condition so the change of components was cancelled.
Some components such as the suspension, suction cups and the vacuum valves of
the robot arm were in good condition and did not need to be replaced, as they
worked well during the process.
Therefore, only monitored that the process of transport of label was made correctly
and if in given case there was an anomaly to register it at the moment that this one
appeared to be able to make a corrective action and still more important to be able
to visualize the variable that was presented and to be able to make an
improvement so that it eliminates that variable or to control it so that this one is
reduced.

Main components considered for possible replacement

13
Once exposed the above, during the monitoring there were several failures in
terms of the fixtures that host the label, since at the time of changing them in a
change of model these have irregularities in their size, weight and shape, so we
came to the conclusion that the fixtures do not have a standardization, so one of
our activities consisted in taking fixture measurements on the machine 1ª10004 in
the vacs area for a possible standardization.

These fixtures have irregularities when

placed on the base of the labelling machine.

14
Finally, with all the information already collected it was decided to standardize the
fixtures so that in a change of model the changeover time is faster, and efficient
this to reduce the time spent in changing the tooling needed to go from producing
one type of product to another with different dimensions. Whenever a change is
made, it is made with the machine stopped. Therefore, already with the measures
registered, we proceeded to elaborate some fixtures that hold the label, this to
standardize them and not present irregularities at the time of being placed.

16-gallon RIDGID Fixture

CRAFTSMAN 6 and 9 gallon fixture

15
4 ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
Due to the lack of resources and the adversities that arose and presented
themselves throughout the January-April 2020 stay in the company, it was
impossible for us to implement our proposals due to the lack of communication with
our advisor, so the pilot tests that would give us the reliability of being able to
implement it were not carried out, in addition, machine 1 A10004 was constantly in
operation which made it difficult to implement improvements as there was no
availability. On the other hand, the standardization of fixtures was one of our main
objectives so that when there is a change of model, the time spent in changing the
tooling necessary to go from producing one type of product to another is reduced,
obtaining competitive advantages such as minimizing preparation time and
production flexibility by being able to produce. Because, in a much shorter time,
several models will be produced on the same production line. This means not only
a reduction in costs, but also the process of becoming more agile and flexible to
changes in demand.
Fixture standardization is something more, it is a tool to optimize processes, and
although it has been usually used to reduce the time of tool change, it can also be
used, with small modifications, to improve any fixture that is occupied in any
machine.
The implementation of this proposal is generally linked to the objective of reducing
defects and improving lead-time. By reducing the time needed to make a model
change, it improves our ability to make more model changes. The list of benefits is
extensive, but can be summarized in the following list:

 reduce changeover time.

 increase machine availability.
 decrease the displacements, manipulations.
 reduce the response time.
 decrease obsolescence, defective in auxiliary operations.
 increase the commitment of the person with his work.
 encourage the sharing of knowledge between those involved.
 use the creativity of people.

In short, making the production system more flexible, optimizing available

resources and improving industrial culture, in other words, becoming more
competitive.

16
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusion:
In the development of this project, as previously mentioned, the implementation of
the proposal was carried out for a problem that was detected in the past four
months to improve a process. For this, different improvements were implemented
for the process such as: a process letter for the change of label and improvements
in the fixtures of the labelling machine. In the last four-month period, the change of
different components of the robot was proposed but it was not carried out because
the components were in good condition.

Recommendations:
It is mainly recommended to follow the steps in the process letter for the change of
labels, in order to work in a more efficient and practical way, as well as it is
recommended that at the time of the change of label the appropriate fixture is
selected for each model of label.

17
ANNEXES
Annex 1.- Gantt diagram

Annex 2.- Process letter

18
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
-Shingo, Shigeo. Una revolución en la producción: El sistema SMED. Madrid: TGP
Hoshin 1990.

-Suzaki, Kiyoshi. Competitividad en fabricación: Técnicas para la mejora continua.

Madrid: TGP Hoshin, 2000.

-Jerónimo Morales, Harley William. Automatización de una inyectora de plástico.

Tesis Ing. Mecánica Eléctrica. Guatemala. USAC. Facultad de Ingeniería. 2005.
116 pp.

19
- Krick, Edward V. Ingeniería de Métodos. 3a ed. México. Editorial Limusa. 1991.
350 pp.

- Meyers, Fred E. Estudio de tiempos y movimientos para la manufactura ágil.

México. Editorial Pearson. 2000. 334 pp.

- Niebel, Benjamín y Andrés Freibalds. Ingeniería Industrial, estándares y diseño

de trabajo. 4a ed. México. Editorial Alfa y Omega. 2001. 750 pp.

Glossary

Scrap: Is an English word that is translated as scrap or waste.

Short shot: The glue material in the injection mold cannot be filled with the mold
cavity in the injection mold and lead to the light material of the injection product and
the incomplete structure.

Fixture: Are very detailed tools with minimal tolerance, to accommodate the parts
inside your assembly. In addition, they allow you to guarantee quality in your
production.

20
Quick fit templates: Are those that allow the tool to be prepared in the set
position.

Poka yoke: In Japanese, ポカヨケ; literally error-proof, is a quality technique that

is applied in order to avoid errors in the operation of a system.

Polypropylene: It is the thermoplastic polymer, partially crystalline, that is obtained

from the polymerization of propylene (or propene). It belongs to the group of
polyolefins and is used in a wide variety of applications including packaging for
food, textiles, laboratory equipment, automotive components and transparent films.
It is highly resistant to various chemical solvents, as well as to alkalis and acids.

Burr: Portion of excess material protruding from the edges, joints or surface of a
container or other object.

21