Improvement of material handling system for coil transportation in the manufacture of aluminium rolled products

Abstract

The manufacture of aluminium rolled products is characterised by coil transportation, which is a process of moving the metal and lot tickets from one point to another for further processing at other sub-plants. The case study organisation is facing challenges on coil transportation and hence failed to deliver material on time and could not achieve manufacturing targets. The paper aims to identify the factors leading to the failure of achieving targeted schedule and introduce the system to standardize the process. As methodology, a flow diagram was used represent the current process and a failure mode and effect analysis was conducted to document and analyze the failures and implement mitigating factors. Breaking up of batches and delayed material arrivals to processing stations were found to be the key reasons that led to process inefficiency. An improved process flow was proposed and the recommended actions led to a streamlined flow characterised by reduced delayed material arrivals and processing.