By deploying TPM and Lean Kaizen across critical machines, the plastic plant reduced cycle times, cut trim and rejection losses, lowered power consumption per kg and improved productivity on key assembly lines without major capital investment.
Context and Challenges
The company manufactures water tanks, SMC panels and industrial blow-moulded parts using multiple technologies like roto moulding, Sheet Mould Compound (SMC) and blow moulding. Before TPM and Lean Kaizen, operations faced:
- Low and variable OEE on key lines, with availability losses from no orders, no operators, frequent changeovers and mechanical/electrical breakdowns.
- Long cycle times and material losses in roto moulding and SMC, limiting output from existing capacity.
- High trim wastage and rejections in blow moulding due to leakage, blow holes and contamination of regrind.
- Imbalanced manpower and under-utilised capacity in some sections, with operators and helpers often idle while critical machines were starved.
Our Approach
The improvement was run as a multi-section TPM & Lean Kaizen initiative:
- Diagnostic Assessment
- Conducted a 2-week diagnostic across roto moulding, SMC, blow moulding and related plastics sections.
- Analysed OEE (Availability–Performance–Quality) machine-wise and identified top loss buckets: no order, no operator, changeovers, mechanical/electrical breakdowns, heating time, start-up and quality defects.
- Quantified improvement potential in availability, cycle time, material loss and rejections.
- Cross-Functional Rapid Improvement Workshops
- Formed four cross-functional teams (one per section) and ran Rapid Improvement Workshops (RIWs) focused on key machines and product families.
- Used OEE loss analysis, SMED, Why–Why analysis and QC-story thinking to develop practical solutions on mould change, feeding, temperature control, quality at source and operator methods.
- TPM & Autonomous Maintenance
- Introduced basic TPM pillars in pilot areas: cleaning with meaning, abnormality tagging, lubrication standards and simple daily/weekly AM checklists.
- Strengthened preventive maintenance to restore basic conditions on critical machines and reduce unplanned downtime.
- Standardisation & Daily Management
- Documented new standard operating procedures (SOPs) for mould change, cycle setting, start-up/shut-down and in-process quality checks.
- Implemented simple visual boards for production, OEE and losses, along with daily huddles and follow-up routines to sustain gains and continue problem-solving.
Key Strategies Implemented
Roto Moulding – Cycle Time and Availability Improvement
- Analysed the full cycle for key tank SKUs, breaking down heating, soaking, cooling and demoulding times.
- Optimised heating and cooling profiles to remove unnecessary waiting between steps.
- Improved pre-staging of moulds and materials so operators could run parallel activities, reducing machine idle time and changeover-related delays.
Sheet Mould Compound (SMC) – Moulding & Assembly Productivity
- Conducted an OEE deep-dive on SMC moulding machines; highlighted downtime due to heating time, no orders and lack of operators.
- Applied SMED to reduce mould change and set-up time, and tightened control on raw material viscosity and weighing to cut short moulding and cracking.
- Performed work-content analysis on SMC assembly lines and rebalanced tasks across operators to match takt time, reducing walking, waiting and imbalance—raising overall line productivity.
Blow Moulding – Trim Wastage, Rejections & Energy Reduction
- Measured actual trim wastage at hopper, mandrel and bottom for key SKUs and set realistic target trim levels and best practices per SKU.
- Reduced the distance between hopper and mandrel and improved guiding of the parison to minimise leakage and bottom waste.
- Tackled blow hole rejections by:
- Segregating hot lumps and preventing them from entering regrind,
- Organising and covering regrind bins to avoid contamination,
- Improving basic maintenance of air and cooling systems.
- Analysed power consumption per kg and introduced measures (better settings, leak elimination, more stable running) to reduce kWh/kg.
4) TPM & Autonomous Maintenance Across Sections
- Implemented cleaning with meaning, abnormality tagging and lubrication standards on pilot machines.
- Introduced simple AM checklists for operators (daily/weekly) to detect issues early—such as oil leaks, loose fasteners, abnormal noise and temperature.
- Coordinated AM with planned maintenance to reduce breakdowns and stabilise basic conditions.
Results Achieved
Within a few months of focused TPM and Lean Kaizen implementation, the plant achieved:
- Roto Moulding
- Cycle time reduction of over 15% on selected roto moulding products, increasing throughput from existing machines.
- Sheet Mould Compound (SMC)
- Around 10% reduction in cycle time on key SMC moulded products.
- 43% improvement in assembly productivity on selected SMC assembly lines through better line balancing and standard work.
- Blow Moulding
- 30% reduction in trim wastage on key SKUs by standardising hopper–mandrel set-up and controlling leakage.
- 70% reduction in blow hole rejections through improved regrind handling, contamination control and maintenance of air/cooling systems.
- 10–12% reduction in power consumption per kg, driven by more stable cycles and elimination of avoidable energy losses.
- Overall Plastics Section
- Around 20% reduction in rejections in one of the plastics sections through targeted root cause analysis and method improvements.
- Identification and initial capture of savings from alternate raw materials, vendor optimisation and lower HDPE cost, along with reduced inventory days on selected items.
By combining TPM with Lean Kaizen on roto, SMC and blow moulding lines, the plastics manufacturer transformed a low-OEE, high-loss environment into a more stable, productive and energy-efficient operation.