Operational

Excellence
LEAN GREEN
BELT
Yershen Govender

Luyanda Mbongwa

Shadrack Masinga

Luvo Ntsangani

Bridgette Nkosi

3/13/2023
Executive summary:
We have a growing concern at SBPTY whereby our quality of products produced have resulted in
numerous complaints and sub-standard products. Which has had a huge impact on our reliability and
confidence with our customers, this impacts the company’s outlook with potential customers thus
affects the future of the organization.

The project was to target the low hanging fruit of the organization dealing with internal issues which
can be addressed with a few changes in the way we operate, it firstly addressed the top 3 (volume)
products manufactured at SBPTY. Based on data collected and the analysis of said data. We looked
to address the contributing variables at the start of the process to amend the final product produced.
By acting earlier on, we greatly reduced the impact experienced throughout the manufacturing plants
on site. With success of this project we will proceed to implement these changes across the product
range.

The key focus area was found to be the BOM whereby the raw materials been introduced were
inaccurate in some cases based on the stoichiometry of the reaction that takes place as well the
rheology modifiers been added conservatively.

The team tackled this project with batch card analysis QC report analysis, job observation and
interviews of experienced staff members. The first step was to gather the data to support the theory,
thereafter we had looked at the feasibility of making the changes and the cost implications and found
that the cost of the product will not change with the changes, however the time spent in the vessel will
decrease significantly. Increase in efficiency

Many meetings were held with the relevant stakeholders and justification for the proposed
amendments was delivered. We had then created an alternate/temporary BOM with the correct
amounts and submitted to the plant to use to make the first batch. The success of this batch proved
that the pareto analysis we had performed was accurate in pointing out the issue on hand.

The same principles were applied to the remaining 2 key products and we are happy to report we
have achieved our goal.
TEAM/PROJECT
CHARTER
Project Name: Operational Excellence
Date (Last
Revision): 11-12-2022
Prepared By: Yershen
Approved By: Luyanda Mbongwa

Opportunity Statement (High Level Problem

Business Case: Statement):
We have a growing concern at SBPTY whereby our quality The quality of the products produced at SBPTY are
of products produced have resulted in numerous complaints compromising customer relations and profitability of
and sub-standard products. Which has had a huge impact the business the RFT rate of the resin plant (key plant)
on our reliability and confidence with our customers, this has to improve by 5-10% in order to see an
impacts the company’s outlook with potential customers improvement across the site.
thus affects the future of the organization.

The project will target the low hanging fruit of the Defect Definition: The Physical properties of the products
organization dealing with internal issues which can be produced in the resin plant are affecting the the quality of
addressed with a few changes in the way we operate, it will products produced at SBPTY
firstly address the top 3 (volume) products manufactured at
SBPTY. Based on data collected and the analysis of said
data. We would look to address the contributing variables at
the start of the process to amend the final product
produced. If we act earlier on, we will greatly reduce the
impact experienced throughout the manufacturing plants on
site. With success we will proceed to implement these
changes across the product range.
Goal Statement: Project Scope:
 The goal of this project is to improve the RFT rate of the Process Start Point: The process start point will be a RFT
resin plant by 5-10% which will directly improve the rft rate rate of 51.7%
of the site.
Process End Point: The end point will be reached when we
achieve an RFT rate of 56.7%-61.7%

Expected Savings/Benefits:the benefits will include an In Scope: The scope we will focus on is the physical
improved rft rate of the site, production efficiency will properties of the resin produced in the resin plant to better
increase and our OTIF delivery rate to our customers will the RFT rate.
improve,as well as product cost will decrease thus
Out of Scope: Culture of the manufacturing plant (staff)

Project Plan: Team:

Actual Name: Role: Commitment
Task/Phase Start Date End Date
End (%):
Define 19-11- 9-12- 09-12-
2022 2022 2022 Luvo Ntsangani Tech Expert 20
Measure 11-01- 21-01- 21-01- Shadrack Masinga Tech Expert 50
2023 2023 2023
Analyze 22-01- 01-02- 03-02- Bridgette Nkosi Tech Expert 50
2023 2023 2023
Improve 04-02- 01-03- 01-03- Yershen Govender Leader 75
2023 2023 2023
Control 03-03- 10-03- 10-03- Luyanda Mbongwa Sponsor 100
2023 2023 2023

SIPOC Diagram
 Processes Outputs Customers

Suppliers Inputs
Who supplies the What inputs are What are the major What are the Who receives the outputs?
process inputs? required? steps in the process outputs?
process?
QA/QC Department QC Records Analysis of Data Identification of areas Plant management
of focus

Sales Manager Customer complaint Perform an Management/Customers

RCA( root cause Root cause Identified
analysis)

Technical Team Product analysis BOM optimisation Product been Customers/Company

produced is RFT

QA/QC Department QC testing of raw Test and verify raw Reduced amount of Company
materials received materials variables to contribute
negatively to the RFT
Rate
Project Team Project team to Perform Job studies Identify training needs Company
adhere to schedule with staff and process
improvements
required

Process Map
 Raw materials (C)
Procedures (C)
BOM (C)
Inp Operators (U)
Equipment (C)
uts

Pr Resin Manufacture
Gelcoat Manufacture

oc
ess
No. of NRFT products (U)
No. of RFT products (U)
Ou No. of sub standard products (U)
OTIF delivery to customer (U)
tp Customer Complaints (C)

uts

Process baseline capability:

 Resins 2022
100
90
80
70
60
No. of Products

50
40
30
20 Graph 1: Showing the Resin plant
10 statistics for the year 2022
0
ar
y
ar
y ch ril ay ne Ju
ly st er be
r
be
r
be
r 22
nu r u ar Ap M Ju ugu eb tc o m m 20
Ja b M A em ve ce
Fe ept O
No De
S

Resin RFT NRFT SS

RESINS %

Annual Average RFT 51.71 Table 1: Showing the annual average pass rate for
Annual Average NRFT 46.91
the Resin Plant.
Annual Average SubSTD 1.37
Process Sigma Level Calculator - Discrete Data

Sample Data (user inputs):

Number of units n 729

Total number of defects observed d 342

Number of defect opportunities per unit o 3

Sigma Shift (typically
+1.5) 1.5

Results:

Defects per Unit dpu 0.469135802

Defects per Million Opportunities dpmo 156 378.6

Defects per Opportunity dpo% 15.64%

Yield yield% 84.36%

Process Sigma Level sigma 2.509

 CAUSE & EFFECT
MATRIX (XY)
Root Cause Analysis

Process/Project Name: Operational excellence

Date: 23-01-2023
Performed By: Yershen/Shadrack
Notes:

Output Variables (Y's): NRFT RFT Sub std Y4 Y5 Y6 Y7 Y8 Y9 Y10

Importance Score (1-10): 9 9 8

Input/Process Variables
(X's) Table of Association Scores (X's to Y's) Weighted Score
BOM 9 9 9 234
Process map 7 6 6 165
Operator 8 7 7 191
Manufacturing
Instructions 4 4 4 104
Equipment 3 3 3 78

. Pareto Chart
100%
600 80%
400 60%
40%
200
d Score

20%
0 0%
 e ss c
uip
Op ce stru Eq

Wei
r o In
P g
urin
t
ac
nuf
a
M
Input/Process Variables (X's)

Based on the cause and effect matrix and pareto analysis the highest contributing variable is the BOM of the products been manufactured
therefore this project will focus on optimisation and corrective action on the BOM of products been produced in the resin plant.

Improve
CAUSE & EFFECT (FISHBONE) DIAGRAM

Process/Project Name: Operational Excellence

Date: 04-02-2023
Prepared By: Yershen Govender
Notes:

People
Material Environment
Not following Ambient
procedure Defective raw Temperature
materials
the procedure
is time Supplier Equipment
consuming malfunction
Insufficient
amount of Raw
materials
Change in
customer spec
BOM for Resin plant
products are deemed
ineffective

Too complex Inaccurate In

Insufficient process
dispersion testing
Was not
developed Staff Training
Equipment is
with the
outdated for
consideration the volume/
complexity of
Measurement
Method Machine/
Equipment

Based on the Fish Bone diagram above:

People: not following procedure due to it been time consuming hence they are taking shortcuts, this will be handed over to the relevant technical team to
come up with a more efficient way of following procedures.

Materials: Defective raw material- this can be ruled out as a company who is ISO9001 accredited we only buy from verified suppliers. The materials are
inspected by the receiving team/Quality Control who are trained to identify defects. The suppliers also provide us with a compliant COA.

Insufficient material been added- this came up quite a lot with the team and staff working in the plant over the years our customers have evolved, refining
their processes and thus our products had to change to meet their requirements however the amount of Raw materials required to change this
specification was taken into consideration but no follow up study was completed hence as time went by the raw material addition became insufficient.

Environment: The ambient temperature issue can be ruled out since our process is very sensitive to temperature the engineering team has implemented a
“Poke-Yoke” whereby you will not be able to proceed until the temperature is at the required value.

Method: The manufacturing instructions been too complex for operators who are not as technically inclined as the people who wrote them. This is a part
of the BOM (Bill of Materials and will be looked at together with staff members who use them) however not in this project as the effect on the outcome of
the product is not impacted enough to warrant changes at this point and the legal aspects that go into this. Its deemed to be a separate project.

Equipment: Insufficient dispersion of raw materials, equipment been dated. Engineering was consulted and we were told the equipment is more than
capable of performing the current job. This pointed back to the Raw material additions.

Measurement: Inaccurate testing, staff require training. It was observed that certain operators are not familiar with the test methods this will be
addressed by the continuous improvement project running currently in the plant and will be actioned by management.

Solution Generation
The most effective solution was to deal with the amount of raw materials in the BOM that will have the greatest impact further data analysis was conducted
to find that in the Resin Plant we produced 729 batches in the year of 2022, 342 products were produced with defects in three aspects Colour, viscosity and
gel time The amount of products produced with viscosity defects was 228. Unfortunately due to confidentiality I am unable to share the source of this data,
should this data have an enquiry I can gladly show the assessor part of the data very briefly. Rheology will be our focus in this project.

The solution after consultation and BOM analysis was to adjust the levels of rheology modifiers in the products based on data to improve
the RFT rate. To gain the biggest impact the target will be three of our biggest volume products which are used internally to produce other
products.

Control
We have adopted a number of tools to use to help during this project a huge one been 5s the evidence of this can be seen in the pictures below.

We have also adopted the Kaizen method for continuous improvement allowing us to have a visual reminder of tasks to be completed, the person
responsible and status of each action.

PDCA chart is also been used to give us a more focused approach.

Image1: Display of 5s board and PDCA charts

 Image3: KAIZEN charts and continuous improvement
Image2: 5s Leader
in the meeting area.
Control documents:
The control documents include Quality monitoring charts implemented, visual representations that are monitored daily/weekly. Spreadsheet
was designed to monitor results and keep records to identify future improvements.

3. QUALITY

RFT/NRFT/SS for January 2023

Quantity W1 Quantity W2 Quantity W3 Quantity W4 Quantity W5 Quantity Jan
Resin 5 12 13 6 36
To tal Quantity (kg) 52 788.00 134480 131259 53092 371619
RFT 2 40.00 2 16.67 9 69.23 3 50.0 #DIV/0! 16 44.44
RFT Quantity (kg) 27 072.00 51.28 27313 20.31 110031 83.83 35670 67.2 #DIV/0! 200086 53.84
NRFT 3 60.00 10 83.33 4 30.77 3 50.0 #DIV/0! 20 55.56
NRFT Quantity (kg) 25716.00 48.72 107167 79.69 21228 16.17 17422 32.8 #DIV/0! 171533 46.16
SS 0 0.0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.0 #DIV/0! 0 0.00
SS Quantity (kg) 0 0.0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.0 #DIV/0! 0 0.00

Example of Control Document implemented.

Closure Document

Project Name: Operational Excellence

Executive Sponsor: Luyanda Mbongwa

Project Manager: Yershen Govender

Date: 10-03-2023

Purpose: The purpose of the Project Closure document is to formally close a project and authorize the handoff from project to operations. It would include
final information about the project deliverables, scope, milestones and budget, as well as lessons learned.

1. Project Description
The quality of the products produced at SBPTY are compromising customer relations and profitability of the business the RFT rate of the resin
plant (key plant) has to improve by 5-10% in order to see an improvement across the site.

2. Scope Statement

The RFT rate of the Resin plant was improved by the set goal of 5-10%, we achieved this by focusing on the physical properties of the products
produced and bringing the BOM of each product up to date

3. Project Accomplishments
The goal of this project is to improve the RFT rate of the resin plant by 5-10% which will directly improve the RFT rate of the site.

1.1. Achieving our goal was a huge accomplishment on its own

3.2. Staying on track with the schedule and project plan by adhering to the structure provided with LEAN.
3.3 Change of culture with plant operators, the staff saw the benefit of operating using LEAN and continuous improvement as a driver and they are practicing this.

2. Project Milestones

Milestone Target Date Completed Date

Identifying root cause 01-02-2023 01-02-2023

Generating an appropriate solution 01-02-2023 01-02-2023

Getting approval to go ahead with the implementation of the proposed 15-02-2023 15-02-2023
solution.

Successfully integrating the Lean tools and continuous improvements to 28-02-2023 28-02-2023
achieve our goal

Goal achieved 10-03-2023 10-03-2023

3. Financial Summary

There were no additional costs incurred to the company, however there were savings in that of time and improved efficiency and in the long run the
reduced amount of customer complaints will improve the profit margins, This is now a separate mini project lead by our finance team so the actual financial
gains is still a work in progress.

4. Transfer to Operations
The project was officially handed over to the production manager of the Resin plant and the staff that work under him all the findings were shared but
most importantly the continuous improvement spreadsheet that was designed to identify quick wins and future projects was implemented the staff are
well trained on set system as it was an updated version of their already existing analog (pen and paper method) this system has a time and date stamp
operators are instructed to enter information timeously and the plant manager to oversee the process going forward analysis will be conducted by
myself on a weekly and monthly basis to continuously improve our site.

5. Lessons Learned
Lessons learned are that we cannot control everything or everyone, there are some things out of our control and we need to find other ways of getting our
point across to express importance.

Culture of the project site plays a huge role in the success of your project this has to be integrated at the start of the next project.

Teamwork is extremely important in the success of your project.

6. Project Manager Comments

The project was challenging in good and bad ways, but with a resilient team we pushed through and achieved our goal. This will be a project we look back on
to motivate us for future projects.
7. Project Completion Acceptance

Project Role Name Signature (Electronic is Date

acceptable)

Executive Sponsor Luyanda Mbongwa 13-03-2023

Functional Owner Shadrack Masinga 13-03-2023

Project Manager Yershen Govender 13-03-2023

Project Conclusion
The project was a success we set out to improve the RFT rate of the Resin plant by 5-10% and we have managed that, through effective communication lean
tool usage and strict control measures it allowed us to achieve this very difficult task. The RFT rate has risen from 51% 63.79% for February and 70% thus far
for the month of March, these are the 2 months the improvements were in place. The project was signed off by the project sponsor as a success.

RFT/NRFT/SS for February 2023

Quantity W1 Quantity W2 Quantity W3 Quantity W4 Quantity W5 Quantity Feb
Resin 8 16 13 14 7 58
To tal Quantity (kg) 77 387.00 191380 127656 147390 71450.0 615263
RFT 2 25.00 12 75.00 9 69.23 9 64.3 5.0 71.4 37 63.79
RFT Quantity (kg) 25 133.00 32.48 128650 67.22 72548 56.83 93450 63.4 48312.0 67.6 368093 59.83
NRFT 6 75.00 4 25.00 4 30.77 5 35.7 2.0 28.6 21 36.21
NRFT Quantity (kg) 52254.00 67.52 62730 32.78 55108 43.17 53940 36.6 23138.0 32.4 247170 40.17
SS 0 0.0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.00
SS Quantity (kg) 0 0.0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.00

Table 2: Showing Data for February 2023 the

improvements were implemented in the 2nd week of
Feb

RFT/NRFT/SS for March 2023

Quantity W1 Quantity W2 Quantity W3 Quantity W4 Quantity W5 Quantity Mar
Resin 8 12 20
To tal Quantity (kg) 95 560.00 124137 219697
RFT 6 75.00 8 66.67 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! 14 70.00
RFT Quantity (kg) 85 194.00 89.15 74904 60.34 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! 160098 72.87
NRFT 2 25.00 4 33.33 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! 6 30.00
NRFT Quantity (kg) 10366.00 10.85 49233 39.66 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! 59599 27.13
SS 0 0.0 0 0.00 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! 0 0.00
SS Quantity (kg) 0 0.0 0 0.00 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! 0 0.00

Table 3: Showing Data for March 2023 thus far and the
improvements and control plans in place are still
performing at optimal level.