The Application of Lean Manufacturing to Increase Production Efficiency of Processed Squid

The processed squid industry is crucial to Thailand's food manufacturing sector, significantly impacting both domestic and export markets. The company we're examining has struggled with low production efficiency, resulting in bottlenecks and an inability to meet demand. To tackle these issues, this action research employs lean manufacturing principles aimed at enhancing production efficiency. A variety of tools and techniques were applied systematically throughout the production process, including value and waste analysis, takt time, cycle time measurement, line balancing, work-study, Yamazumi charts, and genchi-genbutsu. Each of these tools served a crucial purpose; for instance, value and waste analysis helped pinpoint non-value-adding activities, and line balancing addressed work imbalances across different stations. Consequently, production capacity saw a remarkable increase from 50 to 137 boxes per day. These improvements are anticipated to not only lower production costs and enhance product quality but also minimize environmental impact, thereby positioning the company to compete more effectively in both local and international markets.