Kraft Industries Sdn. Bhd

Introduction

Kraft Industries Sdn. Bhd. is a member of Tan Eng Hong Group of companies. It was established on 29 th January 1983. But since January 1992, Kraft Industries Sdn. Bhd., is fully own by Tan Eng Hong Holding Sdn. Bhd. This is a small scale industry because only have about 50 workers. The principle activity of the company involves with manufacturer of corrugated fiber boxes, colour boxes and other packaging needs. Since the brought over by Tan Eng Hong Holding Sdn. Bhd., Kraft Industries Sdn. Bhd. has been under the managerial ship of the present manager Mr Tan Kin Seng. Under the management of Mr Tan, the company has grown leap and bounce. It is the company’s mission to be a major packaging company in the near future.

Products that produce by Kraft Industry are Flexo printed diecut box E-Flute, colour box, pizza box, flexo printed diecut box, gift box and offset printed die cut box and so on. The main materials using in produce the product is cardboard so we can say that kraft industry is applying CSR because all these packaging materials are environmentally-free. All these materials are reusable and recyclable.

Analysis
After access to Kraft Industry website, we find out that almost the whole production lines are done by machine. To analysis this industry more detail, we will use process map to diagnosis the problem that may be hide behind the process. The aims of process map are to increase capability and reduce cost.

When order in, Kraft worker will start the production. Worker will design the plate for the product. Then, worker will use the Flexo Printing Machine to print out the design of the product. After that the design will insert into the Longway Printing Machine & Gluing Machine. This machine will print the design of the product on the surface of a flat cardboard. Then worker will put the cardboard into Diecut Machine. This machine will draw out the product size and shape from the flat cardboards that already have the design. Semi Auto Cleanser & Scorrer machine will cut out the product shape according to the line that has been draw by diecut machine. For the gift box, the process has some different from other product. After go through the Flexo Printing Machine, gift box will go to Gift Box Machines. This is because the material for gift box is different from normal packaging boxes. Complete flat boxes will store in storage.

after analysis the process map, we find out that Kraft Industry have waiting time and inventory waste. Waiting time occur when the product need to wait for the machine to finish the previous product first because Kraft Industry only have one equipment to produce certain process. When order is waiting, no value being added but financial costs are mounting. Indeed, because Kraft Inc. provides many types of packaging box , so the process of changing equipments from producing one product to producing another will increase the lead time of production and this may be will cause lateness.

On the other hands, because Kraft Industry have been had fixed customer to serve so they will produce more products to keep in warehouse to face sudden increase demand. This will cause inventory waste. This is because when Kraft Inc. keep inventory, the cost of capacity and labor will increase. Kraft Inc. need to hire labor to move the inventory, pay for the rent, and take the risk and cost of inventory damage before it is sold.

Solution
To help Kraft Inc. process become more efficient, and eliminate waste, we will suggest several suggestions.

Firstly, Kraft Inc. can apply the employee involvement concept in make decision to improve the process. This is because the detailed impact of decisions on customer interactions and specific processes must consider, and all this perspective only can be obtain from the employee who take part in those interaction and work in those processes. This kind of information is important in decision making and can not obtain from observation.

Secondly, Kraft Inc. can apply the matching production to demand concept. This mean Kraft Inc. will match the rate of production to the rate of demand at very small time increments. Under this concept, Kraft Inc. will operate in small-batch production and frequent deliveries. This concept only can be done if Kraft Inc. has a good communication with its customer and the customer also willing to apply this lean system. This concept will help Kraft Inc. reduce the inventory waste because its does not need to keep so many inventory in warehouse anymore.

Thirdly, Kraft Inc. needs to manage the job sequencing to reduce lateness of job. Since Kraft Inc. only has one set of equipment to produce the entire job, so it is a necessary to determine which job need to finish first. Kraft Inc. can using several method like first come first serve, earliest due date, shortest processing time and critical ratio to determine the queue.

Finally, it is a need for Kraft Inc. to determine the size of batch to reduce the changeover times. Capacity can be devoted to changeover (with little left for actual production) unless they made reductions in changeover time. This will affect the shortest production runs, smoothing out the flow of materials through the plant, and reducing inventory level.

Conclusion
As a conclusion, when Kraft Inc. want to improve its process quality, its need to collage the appropriate information and interpret it correctly to find out the problem and determines accurate solution. Kraft Inc. can choose to apply several lean techniques as long as they suitable with Kraft Inc. operation.