Full lead time mapping, analysis and improvement for packaging product manufacturing

Abstract

Service level is significant for the customers of a packaging product manufacturing company, especially for the customers with large- volume and high-value orders. To improve the service level will not only provide better service to the customers, but also enhance the relationships to ensure the achievement of the company business. In other words, the company has to fulfill each order quickly and well to obtain and maintain a high service level. A study of the whole supply chain for one specific product from the customer order placement to the customer finished goods (FGs) receipt was performed with the goal of improving the service level by reducing the customer lead time. Specially, the project mapped the customer lead time through studying each process like order handling, production and the FGs delivery. Based on the map, the current performance of the company for this product was known and further improvement opportunities were discussed. Because of the time limitations, general recommendations, like defect reduction in the production and data sharing in order handling, were made to narrow the gap from the company objectives to get things probably improved. This thesis focused on learning of the processes and analysis of the customer lead time for one specific product. However, there should be in-depth study of future work to have things improved. And the same approach might be applied to the products with the same properties in Technological Packaging Singapore's product portfolio.