Aumento de la tasa de salida del proceso de cromado en una empresa de metalúrgica industrial para línea blanca

Abstract

CONDITION FOR PUBLICATION OF PROJECT. In a production environment, the throughput of a process is the number of units produced by a production line within a given period of time, reflecting the production pace. This project was carried out in an industrial metalworking company dedicated to manufacturing grills for household appliances, with the objective of increasing the throughput of the chrome plating process, where grills are given a shiny finish with nickel and chrome. To achieve this, the DMAIC methodology of Lean Six Sigma was applied, considering its five stages: define, measure, analyze, implement, and control, actively involving the customer to identify improvements, especially in the nickel plating operation, identified as the bottleneck. Through experimental design, the optimal combination of configuration factors was determined, reducing the nickel plating time from 16 to 12.5 minutes per batch of 57 units, along with implementing control activities focused on this operation. As a result, the throughput increased by 25%, from 185 to 232 units per hour, generating an additional net gain of $6,700 per month, achieving an environmental impact by reducing water consumption per processed grill by 20%, and a social impact by training 100% of the operators in process control activities, thus ensuring the sustainability of the results over time. Keywords: Throughput, DMAIC, experimental design, processes.