Performing TPM at Tan Bien Rubber Company

Tan Bien Rubber Joint Stock Company (Tan Hiep Commune, Tan Chau District, Tay Ninh) is an enterprise specializing in planting, caring, exploiting and processing rubber. The company’s main product is natural rubber in the form of nuggets for domestic and export markets.

Participating in the application of lean under the Government-supported program in 2019, the Company together with consultants to focus on solving the following issues:

• Waste related to product defect due to raw latex error (SVR10) affecting the reputation and brand of the company and incurring recycling costs;
• Wasting due to spending a lot of time searching for materials, tools and tools for production;
• Wastes related to machine outages due to machinery malfunction.

Implementing improvement to minimize the survival rate of SVR10 product

In 2018, the proportion of raw latex SVR10 products accounted for 2%, causing many orders to be returned, customers complaining, affecting the reputation of the Company. Therefore, the company aims to improve the rate of raw latex SVR10 product to only 1% in 2019.

The company formed an innovation team comprised of members from the engineering, manufacturing, quality control, and maintenance divisions. The group is equipped with problem solving skills by PDCA method & team work skills. Use the 5 Why method to find out the root cause and offer remedy solutions. After 12 months, the rate of raw latex SVR10 products was only 0.7%, there was no product returned by customers due to live latex error.

Perform 5S at the entire factory

Before 5S implementation, most of the tools, tools and materials in many parts were in a mess; There are many unnecessary equipment and objects that do not serve the work but occupy many areas of the factory. After the implementation of 5S, the factory appearance has changed markedly. The tools and tools are arranged tidily, convenient for the employee’s operation, thereby reducing a lot of time wasted due to unreasonable movement, searching and manipulation.

Perform self-management maintenance at the latex line:

In the past, machinery and equipment were often dirty, leaked, unsafe, lost small details; There is a lack of data about the device’s performance, so there is no basis to evaluate and improve the device’s performance. Therefore, the team leader and operators of the latex line have been trained in Self-Management Maintenance (AM). They realized that taking care of the equipment was the job of both the operator and the equipment maintenance department. Results of the Company’s AM implementation are as follows:

• Many small problems in machinery have been remedied, equipment has been restored to its original condition;
• Equipment is always cared for thanks to a clear assignment of responsibility: What to do? Who did it? When to do? How? Who checked the implementation?;
• Operator coordinated with Worker to maintain more smoothly during equipment care;
• The operator’s knowledge and skills in minor troubleshooting have been improved.

Thanks to the enthusiastic support and guidance from QUATEST 3 experts, the lean activities of Tan Bien Rubber Joint Stock Company has exceeded the set target. The company leaders have decided to put Lean into application in all production processes of the company.

Productivity and Quality Office