Bottleneck Identification And

Process Improvement By Six

Sigma DMAIC Methodology
Group Members
Muhammad Ahsaan Sadiq (20-IE-03)
Muhammad Hassaan (20-IE-14)
 purpose:
All industrial companies want to increase uptime,
reduce operational costs, and boost productivity and
throughput. However, bottlenecks in manufacturing
are one of the primary reasons why processes get
delayed, budgets burst from the added cost of delays
and the whole process becomes unpredictable.
It is also a fact that bottleneck in manufacturing
exists regardless of how well factory workers and
machinery are working.
That is why it is important for manufacturers to know
how to accurately identify the bottleneck in
manufacturing in production so that they can take
the necessary measures to avoid the costliest ones
whenever and wherever they occur.
methodology:
o We analyzed a food processing company with major focus on the production and packaging
departments that had bottlenecks and high defect rate. Our major objective was to identify and
eliminate the bottlenecks and to improve the production processes by applying DMAIC method.

o Based on the analysis we have derived an action plan detailing the implementation of chosen
solutions by modifying the existing 5S system of the company.

o Suggestions were given to improve the overall equipment efficiency, to improve the productivity
and to reduce the production fluctuations through DMAIC and six sigma initiatives.
 It was introduced by American engineer 
Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986.
Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools
for process improvement.
What is
It provides organizations tools to improve the
six sigma capability of their business processes.
6σ ? “Six Sigma quality" is a term generally used to
indicate a process is well controlled.
It consists of five phases also called DMAIC.
About Greens Mills Pvt Ltd Multan.

The company under study is Greens Mills Pvt Ltd Multan. It is largely process-based that has various process
variation and high defect rate. It is a food processing company. The company has a capacity of 240 metric tonnes
per day and the build up area is 25000 square feet. Maida, atta, sooji, oats and wheat germ are the main product
and bran and bran flakes are the by-products. The main outlets of the company are in Multan itself. The company
started commercial production during the latter half of 1991. Later it up-scales its capacity to 240 TPD. Currently,
three hundred employees are working in the company. It has both domestic as well as international suppliers and
customers.
Problems and bottleneck:
• The production and packaging departments were having bottlenecks and high defect rate.
• The objective is to eliminate these bottlenecks and to improve the production processes by applying six sigma
and DMAIC method.
• The overproduction of bran and bran flakes were identified in the production department leading to excess
finished goods inventory.
• In the packaging department problem identified was that during the consumer packaging of the products with
manual machines, many packets of products undergo material loss as they are manually operated, which
results in increase in defective products.
Application of DMAIC:
• Define Phase:
In this phase, various processes that has bottlenecks, in the production process of the food processing company
was identified. SIPOC method is applied to define the production processes of the company and is also used to
identify the processes that have bottlenecks . From the SIPOC method, it was identified that milling process and
consumer packaging processes were having bottlenecks.

• Measure Phase:
In the measure phase, the data related to the customer demand, inventories and cycle time of each production
process need was recorded. Sixty percentages of non-value added activities were determined in the company
which were the overproduction of bran and bran flakes in milling process and increase in defective packets in the
consumer packaging process.
Number of Production (in Kg) Production defect
Products
Atta-salsf1 15300 8
Atta-salamh 165071 31
Atta-salem1 58900 36
Atta-salmmh 62801 9

Atta-sales1 126100 3
Maida-salsmh 186898 10
Maida-salsfh 24960 65
Maida-embr500 52340 65

Maida-salbe05
Sooji-salap1
6903
5560
29
84
Collected Data
Sooji-sallrsh 32604 39
Sooji-saldrs200 15150 8
Rava-saldrs200t 301700 320
Rava-salea1 585421 12
Rava-Salmmh3 15300 12
Application of DMAIC:
• analyze Phase:
In this phase, the total production caused due to the frequent occurrence of defective packets in the consumer
packaging process was analyzed. It was identified that fluctuation in the total production was caused due to the
defective packets in packaging process

• improve Phase:
It was necessary to improve the existing 5S system to reduce the productivity loss and defect level in production
and packaging departments. Suggestions were given to the company in the control process.
Fishbone Diagram:
Suggestions:
• The overproduction of the cattle feed products such as bran and bran flakes can be reduced by
implementing Hijunka.

• In packaging department increase the storage capacity .

• One of the machines can be made automatic among the three machines in packaging (one is already
automatic).

• By implementing a bulk bag support frame, excess wastage of final product during packaging can
be eliminated.
Conclusion:
• The study was conducted in a food processing company with major focus on the production and
packaging departments that had bottlenecks and high defect rate. Our major objective was to
identify and eliminate the bottlenecks and to improve the production processes by applying DMAIC
method. Based on the analysis we have derived an action plan detailing the implementation of
chosen solutions by modifying the existing 5S system of the company. Various scopes of
improvement were also identified in the control phase to improve the overall productivity of the
company.