Black Belt mini project

Sean Gorman Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Ca- Ophelia Business of Collage- Industrial Technologies
Revistioin: October 15 2015
LeanSixSigmaBlackBeltMini-Project
JustificationofNewTrayWashingMachine
Prepared by Sean Gorman
spgorman@calpoly.edu

1 of 19
EXECUTIVESUMMERY
Fresh Ventrue Foods is a produce processing plant located at 1205 Craig Drive in Santa
Maria CA. Fresh Venture food is in cooperation with Babe Farm’s and Gold Coast Packaging for
their supply of produce and shipment of product all over the United States and Canada. Fresh
Venture Food provides a variety of produce to retailers across North America such as baby
spinach and cauliflower heads.
Currently Fresh Ventrue Foods is seeing a growth in their company with more customers
buying from them each day. Due to the high volume of customer more and more produce has
been coming in and out of the processing plant each day. All produce that enters into the plant is
by either large bins or trays that are shipped from the field. On average there is about 4,100
different types of produce trays that pass in and out of the Fresh Venture Foods processing plant.
Each produce tray is reusable but must be cleaned and sanitized before the tray is ready to be
brought back out to the field for harvest. The cleaning and sanitation process is done by a tray
washing machine that requires a labor force of four workers to operate. This current tray washing
machine is slow and uses a large amount of water per day, close to 3000 gal/day! With water
shortages playing a huge role in the agriculture business Fresh Venture Foods decided it was
time to relook at the current tray washing process and look into different options about finding a
new tray washing machine and reworking the tray washing process.
Once observing, measuring, and analyzing the current state of the tray washing machine
it was clear that there are many places where improvement can take place in the process. First
step was to look into a new machine that would use recycled water to reduce the amount of water
being used when washing trays. Second was to rework the process of how the treys are going to
be washed once the new trey washing machine was purchased. Currently the process is at a labor
force of 4 workers but can be cut down to 2 workers with a new Standerd Operations Procedure
that will be implemented with the new trey washing machine. Lastly, an opportunity arrived
when the team found out the amount of prep work that must happen before the tray can actually
be washed. The team found that if a more effective trey washing machine was implemented with

a more effective SOP for the labor force these trays will be washed with a higher quality of
cleanliness and sanitation.
2 of 19
Serveral reccommendations have been put forward for Fresh Venture Foods to consider
once the new trey washing machine is in place. They are as follows :
1. Have all employees know how to do each job in the new SOP. This will include
cleaning, organization, washing, and palletizing the produce trays. Along with full
knowledge of how the new trey washing machine operates.
2. Construct the SOP so only a labor force of 2 workers are needed to run the process.
3. Spend the extra time to properly train the two employees. The two employees will have
to learn how to work effecivley and quickly. Thus a higher wage should be paid to them.

3 of 19
DEFINE
Tool #1: Project Charter: The project charter was selected as the very first tool to be used
because it started to give insight about what the project was going to consist of. The tool also
helps to give a basic idea of what has to happen in order for the project to be completed.

4 of 19

5 of 19

6 of 19
Interpretation: Project draft charter help to layout the project mission statement and the overall
project description. This also helped to break down the entire project into smaller pieces that can
be analyzed further down the road. Lastly the project draft charter helps to identify any potential
problems that could arise later down the road as the project gets more in-depth.

7 of 19
Tool #2: Process Flow Chart: This tool was selected to get an overall view of the current tray
washing process. The tool will help us to define what is actually going on in the current tray
washing process and will help to define where the labor force during the shift. A question to keep
in mind when using this tool is, ‘What little changes can be made to this process to make it flow
easier than before’?
Interpretation: This tool was very helpful with identify who is doing what at a certain stage of
the tray washing process. What can be seen here is that there are a total of seven steps that is
needed to complete the entire process of tray washing that includes a labor force of 4 workers.
This tool will become very helpful later in the project because it will be easy to look at this

picture and brainstorm what steps can be combined or taken out. Also it will provide a good
starting point to easily insert a new trey washing machine so a new SOP can be built around it.
8 of 19
MEASURE
Tool #3: Data Collection Plan: This tool was chosen for one of the measurement tools because
there are many different variables that are going into this project. This tool will help to layout
how the data will be collected and where the data is going to be collected from. A question to
keep in mind is ‘is the data sets being collected a reliable and accurate source’?

9 of 19
Interpretation: This tool was good because it help me to look into the data that was about to be
collected and how it applies to either the machine or the process of the trey washing. The tool
allows for specification of who should be collecting the data and it gave a guidance on how the
data should be collected. As a result it is now known that all data that will be collected will apply
directly to the tray washing process. This ensured the team that no data will be collected that
does not directly apply to the tray washing process.
Tool #4: CTQC Cause and Effect Matrix: This tool was selected because there became a need
to know what cause and effect variables were the most important to the tray washing process.
The preferred outcome of this tool will provide the three most influential causes in the process. A
good point to keep in mind when using this tool is look at the most basic causes and see how
they affect the current tray washing process.

10 of 19
Interpretation: This tool is helped to identify and quantify three causes that are playing a huge
role in the tray washing process. This tool found that worker training is the biggest factor in the
tray washing process. Next to come is water consumption and the operation of both of the
machines such as the forklift and the tray washer. Now that we know these factors will play a
huge role in the tray washing process they will be carefully monitored when the new SOP is
created for the new tray washing machine.
Analyze

Tool #5: 5 Why Analysis: This tool was chosen mainly on the fact that it needs to be determined
what the root cause of why there is such a large need of workers to wash amount of daily trays.
Even though we know the main factors that play a big role into the tray washing process it is still
needed to breakdown the process even further to find the real root cause of this problem.
5 Whys
Problem: Current tray washing process requires a large labor force to wash all produce trays
Why?
- On average there is about 4,100 trays that need to be washed in one day
Why?
- That is the amount of produce trays being brought in every day thus about 4 workers need
to be working on the process
Why?
- The process can only be complete in one shift if there are four workers on the job
Why?
- One worker preps the trays, one worker places trays into washer, one worker will
palletize trays, and one worker covers the trays with a plastic bag.
11 of 19
Why?
- This is the process that must be done with the current machine to meet the demand of
clean treys
Root Cause: To clean 4,100 produce trays in one shift four workers must be on this process with
the constraints of the current machine. If the machine was to be replaced with a machine that
allows for one worker to prep and enter the trays into the machine, while another worker can
palletize the trays cover the trays then the labor force can be reduced.
Interpretation: This is a tool that proves to be very beneficial time and time again. This tool
helped to find that the root cause of the trey washing process is that the current machine requires

to large of labor force to run properly. If there was a new machine in place this labor force could
be cut in half due to how the new trey washing machine is operated and is set up. Overall the
workers are performing small jobs that could be done by two workers with the proper amount of
training.
Tool #6: 2 Means T-test: This tool was chosen at this point to help analyze the data that was
collected from the old tray washing machine. The data set is the amount of water consumption
that old tray washing machine uses. This will be compared to the water consumption of the new
tray washing machine. Both of the data sets units are in gallons/day.
12 of 19

13 of 19

Interpretation: Even though just by looking at the data it was easy to see that the new tray
washing machine would use less water than the old tray washing machine this tool was useful to
help explain just that. The confidence interval was chosen at 1% because the company needs to
be sure that new machine in fact uses less water before they invest $37,000 on the machine.
Overall it is now verified that the old tray washing machine does use considerable more water
than the estimated water consumption of the new trey washing machine.
Improve
Tool #7: Standard Operations Procedure: At this stage of the project since it has been verified
that it is reasonable to go with the new tray washing machine it is important that a new process is
created to compliment this decision. The new machine will only need two workers to operate this
process. It is important that they know exactly what needs to get done for the process to run
smoothly and meet the required trays to be washed per day.
14 of 19

Interpretation: This tool was a perfect tool to use to help create a good SOP for the new trey
washing machine. It helped the team to breakdown the process into 9 different steps that will
help the process run smoothly and effectively for tray washing. What was also useful about this
tool is it gave the option to write down key notes for each step that will take place in the process.
Hypothetically, if both the tray washer and tray palletizer are able to follow these steps in the
tray washing process then they should be able to clean the required amount of trays for that day.
Tool #8: New Process Flow Chart: This tool was chosen because there is need to create a new
process flow chart with a new machine being implemented. This process flow chart will depict
where the two workers will be. In this process flow chart numbers are added to signal new value
added points come into effect with the new layout for the new tray washing machine.
Interpretation: This tool was useful because it helped to map out what the new process will
look like once the machine is installed. Each of the numbers in the drawing represent new value
added points that will happen because of the process layout.
For number 1 the trays will not have to be depalletized then restacked. This was done
with the old tray washing machine because workers would have to pick out any large debris of
produce out of the treys that the old tray washing machine could not properly wash. However,
with the new machine Is more powerful thus will be able to remove large debris with one pass
and eliminate the annoyance of stacking and restacking treys.
15 of 19

For number 2 the workers will not have to move a large amount of distance to get the
trays. This is will eliminate the annoyance of the workers having to move back and forth to grab
trays and place them into the machine.
For number 3 the tray palletizer will be closer where the trays are pushed out from the
machine. This will allow for little movement of the tray palletizer. He will then be able to stack
trays much faster than the old tray washing machine.
For number 4 the new tray washing machine will only use about 250 or 500 gallons of
water per day as compared to the old trey washing machine that is using about 3000 gallons of
water per day. This is close to 89% water savings for the company. This water savings is
possible with the new machine because it uses a tank that recycles water to help clean the trays
rather than using new water like the old tray washing machine.
Control
Tool #9: CHECK Process: The check process was chosen because it address 5 different aspects
of keeping a new process in check. When using this tool it is important to keep in mind that both
process managers and process workers should be able to understand when to reference this check
process and should be easy to follow. Once this tool is created it can be used with each shift of
when the tray washing machine is in use. The CHECK acronym stands for:
Correct
Verify that all workers are trained properly with the new tray washing machine implemented and
knows the following:
- Can identify the correct produce tray
- Know the amount of water and chemicals to use for the Machine
- Can explain the basic process of cleaning the trays with the new machine
- Tray Washer can perform the Tray Palletizers job and vise-versa
Housekeeping
Verify that the workstation is cleaned each day after the shift
- Any produce debris is cleaned and disposed of properly
- “Dirty” water is disposed of properly
- All equipment is clean and tools are returned to the right place
- New Tray Washing Machine is perfectly clean and ready for the next day shift
16 of 19

Equipment
Verify that all equipment is in working order before and after shift
- All equipment is ready to be used when needed: Plastic wrap, tie downs, pallets, pressure
water nozzle
- Report any damage done to the machine to Alvaro Ceja.
- Log any damage that is done to the machine
Contain
Verify that the process that is in place will produce as little defects as possible and ensure that
no defects will be passed on to the next step
- Are the treys broken?
- Are the treys cleaned and sanitized out of the Tray Washing Machine
- Are there any pallets that are broken or have cracks in them
Keep Doing It!
Make the CHECK Process apart of the daily routine for every shift
- Continually verify that the Tray Washing machine is in perfect working order
- Reward hard working individuals. New process will require much more effective work
than last try washing process
- Workers should be asking themselves what can be done to make this process easier and
faster
Interpretation: This tool is important to use because it will help with all future runs of tray
washing. The tool describes simple tasks that should be completed for the process to run
smoothly time and time again. This CHECK process can also be edited as needed to help
overcome any other obstacles that can arrive later down the road with the tray washing process.
17 of 19

Tool #10: Project Close-Out: Lastly, the project close out helps to finish up the project and to
show the customer what requests have been met from the work of this project. This tool also lets
the customer know that no additional work will be done on the project unless requested by the
customer.
18 of 19

Signature Block
X Sean Gorman
Date: 10/12/2016
X Harold Reyes
Date: 10/12/2016
Interpretation: This tool was helpful in the end of the project to state requirements that should
be met when the project comes to a close. The tool also lets us set a target goal for when the new
tray washing process starts. This allows us to come back to the project close out to compare the
actual value of improvement on the process. With the new tray washing machine the company
will begin to save money with the reduction of labor force and water will be saved once the
machine is put into effect.
19of 19

Black Belt mini project

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Black Belt mini project

Similar to Black Belt mini project (20)

Black Belt mini project