An Application of Customized Lean Six Sigma to Enhance Productivity at a Paper Manufacturing Company

This article presents a process improvement study applied at a local paper manufacturing company based on customized Lean Six Sigma methodologies. More specifically, the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) project management methodology and various lean tools are utilized to streamline processes and enhance productivity. Two performance measures namely production rate and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) are employed to evaluate the performance of the cutting and the printing machines before and after the DMAIC cycle. Obtained results indicate that the production rate increment for printing machines by 5% and for the cutting machines by 10%. Moreover, the OEE for the printing and cutting machines has increased by 21.6% and 48.45% respectively