Analysis of packaging and delivery operation in a cucumber packaging factory using Lean Six Sigma

The paper is aimed at analysing and improving the sorting, packaging and delivery operations at a cucumber packaging industry. Packaging operation of a farm in Mpumalanga, South Africa has been studied in detail and possible areas of improvement are proposed. It is a usual practice for farms in South Africa to have packaging centre where farm produce is been sorted, packaged and delivered for various customers across the country. Perishable farm produce requires special handling, care and timely delivery to end users or consumers so as to keep to the limit of it shelf life. The farm under consideration has been having a lot of damages as a result of improper and poor packaging operation. Therefore, the study makes use of Lean Six Sigma tools to analyse and quantify the efficiency of the current packaging system and proffers a better and profitable approach in minimising waste. The result shows that simple changes in system arrangement and concepts can significantly reduce the damages, increase number of deliveries and improve system performance measures.