Performance evaluation of semi-automated filling machine for “Otak-Otak” Production

The food industry has been a part of the service sector in Malaysia. The “otak-otak” industry typically catagorised as SMEs which having common limitations of extensively depended on human labour instead of advanced machinery. As the “otak�otak” industries are dealing with a less complicated process, the manual production method is typically selected. Though the production process is not complicated, human limitations might cause production performance and product quality degradation. However, the impact of semi-automation to the production of “otak-otak” remained unclear, thus require the investigation. Through the use of statistical process control, the performance of the manual and semi-automated production process was determined. The integration approached of using ARENA and experimental data was successfully simulates the real production situation. The impact of the implementation of the semi-automated production system was determined and found positively improved the total production performance. This new process has satisfied the minimum requirement of the recommended process capability ratio. Numbers of production issues associated with manual production were determined including the inconsistent utilisation of operator, long value-added time, long product waiting as well as the quality issue of weight inconsistency. The utilization of the operator increased between 10.60 percent to 23.65 percent with the use of a semi-automation system compared to manual operation. The value-added time of semi-automation operation is also shorter than the value-added time of manual operation with the smallest difference of 0.88 seconds and the biggest difference of 1.49 seconds besides, 37.25 percent to 75.80 percent improvement for waiting time. For the aspect of manufactured parts per 1 million, the semi-automated operation has greatly reduced the percentage of product failure in the production of more than 50%. The weight of the “otak-otak” also can be maintain within the range of company specification (25±1 grams)

Analysis of worker performances using statistical process control in fish paste otak-otak food industries

This research focuses on the improvement of Small and Medium Enterprises through the used of Process Statistical Control (SPC). An industry that focuses on the fish paste (known as “otak-otak”) production was taken as the case study in this research and the problems analysed are based on the real industrial experiences. The data collection for control charts were recorded for two weeks consisting of working time for each operator. The data were collected in subgroup of 16 with sample size of 5. The collection of data for weight of product was recorded randomly for the whole production line, while data collection of working time of operation was taken randomly from each operator every 30 minutes of the working hour. From this study, there are several problems had been detected in the process that been categories in six element that is people, method, measurement, machine, environment and materials. There were lack of motivation, lack of skill, lack of supervision, manual operation, lack of standard of procedure, waiting time in process, weight-based operator, lack of quality check, not using weight scale, conveyer that sometimes got stuck, spoon for tools, no automation, poor layout arrangement, talking while working, small working space, lack of hygiene, waiting time for material and easily spoiled. The findings can be used as the guideline to the industries for future production improvement. The industries would focus on elimination or reduction of the problems through their innovative solution