Identify and minimize in-process packaging waste using top-down and bottom-up root. Cause analysis tools within the context of the operational excellence system at Lindt & Sprüngli Chocoladefabriken GmbH Aachen.

Abstract

Executive Summary/Abstract: This thesis is concerned about the ability of the existing Operational Excellence Program of Lindt & Sprüngli, called the Lindt Production Way (LPW), to identify and minimize in-process packaging waste, since the importance to continuously grow in efficiency is an important demand of the shareholders. Additionally, the EU legislator, shareholders and consumers display a growing interest of resource saving, sustainable way of manufacturing. The second concern of this thesis is, to investigate if a combination of top-down loss detection/prioritization and bottom-up root cause analysis is an efficient approach to detect and handle in-process packaging waste. The first part is describing the results found within the literature regarding the scopes of operational excellence systems and the application of top-down/bottom-up problem-solving. The second part is testing the hypothesis by conduction of a pilot project within Lindt & Sprüngli Germany that addresses in-process packaging waste. The results of the literature review, as well as the pilot project clearly indicate, that Operational Excellence programs, specifically the LPW system is able to tackle in-process packaging waste in an efficient way, if the data capturing process get adapted. The top-down Pareto analysis revealed the major loss contributors of the loss type (“Umkartons”) and the bottom-up analyses done within the pilot project revealed the root causes for these major contributors. The results of the pilot project were promising, since the introduced countermeasures were able to reduce the loss of a specific kind of “Umkartons” by 80.000€ (estimated full year impact without the investments needed in the first year).