Hands-on plastic processing for a lean manufacturing project

Abstract

Lean manufacturing has proven to be an effective strategy to increase productivity and cost competiveness in the manufacturing industry. Lean manufacturing has been integrated into the existing manufacturing curriculum. In a senior-level manufacturing course, hands-on plastic manufacturing experiments were implemented to allow the students to conduct small scale manufacturing, use value streaming mapping (VSM) techniques to identify the wastes, and improve the process using the Kaizen tools. The experimental manufacturing consists of three steps: 1) the open molding process, 2) the flash removal process, and 3) the packaging process. During the open molding process, a liquid pre-polyurethane is mixed with a curing agent and placed into silicone rubber molds. Through a series of the manufacturing experiments, students developed the VSM of their processes and identify the wastes, which include the waiting time of polymer curing, movement for acquiring a mold release spray, etc. After the Kaizen session, students improved their process by changing the plant layout and improving their set-up and process parameters. According to the student feedback, the hands-on manufacturing experiments was an effective project to review concepts of lean manufacturing, apply lean manufacturing tools to identify wastes or 'non-value-added' activities in factories, and suggest how to minimize or eliminate them. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.