Thien Minh Dang - Engineering Log Book (s3330850)
Transcript of Thien Minh Dang - Engineering Log Book (s3330850)
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RMIT ENGINEERING
LOG BOOK
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BOOK NO. 1
SUBJECT BH070 - Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) (Honours)
CONTINUED FROM BOOK NO. 1 CONTINUED TO BOOK NO. 1
START DATE 18/11/2014 END DATE 16/02/2015
NAME Thien Minh Dang
SIGNATURE DATE 26/02/2015
ISSUED BY - DATE -
PHONE - MOBILE 0481281924
EMAIL [email protected]
COMPANY / ORG. Austwide Paper Products Pty. Ltd.
DEPARTMENT Manufacturing / Mechanical Engineering
ADDRESS 112 Main Road
CITY Clayton South PROVINCE VIC
COUNTRY Australia POSTAL CODE 3169
NOTES:
RMIT STUDENT NUMBER s3330850
COMPANY EMAIL [email protected]
SUPERVISOR NAME / SENIOR ENGINEER Michael Chenh
SUPERVISOR CONTACT 0411 274 322
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Contents WEEK 1.................................................................................................................................................. 6
18/11/2014 – OHS ............................................................................................................................ 6
19/11/2014 – FACTORY PROCESSES – RISK ASSESSMENT OF FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE ................... 6
20/11/2014 - FACTORY PROCESSES – RISK ASSESSMENT OF NAPKIN MACHINE .............................. 7
21/11/2014 - FACTORY PROCESSES – RISK ASSESSMENT OF TOILET PAPER MACHINE..................... 8
WEEK 2................................................................................................................................................ 10
24/11/2014 – LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – NAPKIN MACHINE 1 ............................ 10
25/11/2014 - LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – NAPKIN MACHINE 2 ............................. 11
26/11/2014 - LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – TOILET PAPER MACHINE 1 ................... 12
27/11/2014 – PROCESS OF THE TWO SECTIONS OF THE TOILET PAPER MACHINE ......................... 17
28/11/2014 – LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE (PACKING) ... 18
WEEK 3................................................................................................................................................ 22
01/12/2014 – LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE (PACKING –
PART 2) ........................................................................................................................................... 22
02/12/2014 – OPERATING FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE TO PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS DEMAND ...... 24
03/12/2014 – PROCESS AND SENSOR OPERATIONS OF THE FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE................... 26
04/12/2014 – EXPLANATION OF SENSORS ...................................................................................... 27
05/12/2014 – OPERATING FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE TO PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS DEMAND ...... 34
WEEK 4................................................................................................................................................ 35
08/12/2014 – LECTURE ABOUT MECHANICAL COMPONENTS ........................................................ 35
09/12/2014 – ANOTHER LECTURE ABOUT MECHANICAL COMPONENTS ....................................... 38
10/12/2014 – METHOD OF IMPROVING THE OPERATION OF FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE ................ 42
11/12/2014 – TESTING OUT USING A CAMERA TO SEE HOW EFFECTIVE THE METHOD IS IN
REGARDS TO SOLVING MANUFACTURING FAILURES / PROBLEMS ................................................. 43
12/12/2014 – ADDING A “FLAP” TO THE PROBLEM ........................................................................ 43
WEEK 5................................................................................................................................................ 47
15/12/2014 – FMEA OF FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE PROBLEM.......................................................... 47
16/12/2014 – PROBLEM OF THE CARDBOARD PAPER FLAP ON THE FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE ...... 48
17/12/2014 – CONCEPT IDEAS OF DESIGNING A FLAP FOR THE FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE ............. 48
18/12/2014 – MEASURING THE WORK AREA FOR CREATION OF THE FLAP / CREATING A PLAN FOR
MAKING THE PART .......................................................................................................................... 50
19/12/2014 – RESEARCH ON 3D PRINTING MATERIALS ................................................................. 54
WEEK 6................................................................................................................................................ 56
22/12/2014 – 3D MODELLING OF THE FLAP MECHANISM.............................................................. 56
23/12/2014 – 3D PRINTING OF THE DESIGNED FLAP MECHANISM ................................................ 59
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24/12/2014 TILL 05/01/2015 – FACTORY CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR PERIOD .............. 63
WEEK 7................................................................................................................................................ 64
05/01/2015 – RESEARCHING/IMPLEMENTING THE VIDEO RECORDING ......................................... 64
06/01/2015 – SHADOWING OPERATOR AND REVIEWING THE SUPPLIES ....................................... 65
07/01/2015 – PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE FACIAL TISSUE OPERATIONS........................................... 67
08/01/2015 – MANUFACTURING TO MEET CUSTOMER’S DEMANDS IN AN CONSTANT CYCLE...... 68
09/01/2015 – FAILURE MODE EFFECTS ANALYSIS (FMEA) .............................................................. 69
WEEK 8................................................................................................................................................ 74
12/01/2015 – REAL LIFE BENCHMARKS (BEFORE) ........................................................................... 74
13/01/2015 – TISSUE PROCESSING / FOLDING MACHINE PROBLEM .............................................. 75
14/01/2015 – CONVEYER BELTS / PULLEY PROBLEM ...................................................................... 76
15/01/2015 – CONVEYER BELTS / PULLEY PROBLEM ...................................................................... 79
16/01/2015 – CONVEYER BELTS / PULLEY PROBLEM (DISASSEMBLY) ............................................ 81
WEEK 9................................................................................................................................................ 84
19/01/2015 – DESIGNING AN IMPROVED PART OF THE PUSHER PLATE IN 3D MODELLING
SOFTWARE ...................................................................................................................................... 84
20/01/2015 – PRINTING THE PART ON A 3D PRINTER .................................................................... 88
21/01/2015 – SICK .......................................................................................................................... 92
22/01/2015 – CUTTING BLADE TABLE PROBLEM ............................................................................ 93
23/01/2015 – CUTTING BLADE TABLE PROBLEM ............................................................................ 95
WEEK 10 .............................................................................................................................................. 98
26/01/2015 – AUSTRALIA DAY ........................................................................................................ 98
27/01/2015 – PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM ............................................................. 98
28/01/2015 - PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM ........................................................... 101
29/01/2015 - PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM ........................................................... 104
30/01/2015 - PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM ........................................................... 107
WEEK 11 ............................................................................................................................................ 113
02/02/2015 – PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM ........................................................... 113
03/02/2015 – SEALING / TAPE MACHINE PROBLEM ..................................................................... 115
04/02/2015 – TESTING NEW ADHESIVE GLUE PRODUCTS ............................................................ 117
05/02/2015 – NEW / IMPROVED PROCESS FAILURE MODE EFFECTS ANALYSIS ........................... 120
06/02/2015 – REAL LIFE BENCHMARKS (AFTER) ........................................................................... 124
WEEK 12 ............................................................................................................................................ 126
09/02/2015 – NEW PROCESS, NEW PRODUCT.............................................................................. 126
10/02/2015 – MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF PROMOTIONAL AFL PRODUCTS (SAMPLE) .......... 128
11/02/2015 – CYCLE TIME OF TASKS FOR MANUFACTURING AFL PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS .... 132
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12/02/2015 – CYCLE TIME OF TASKS FOR MANUFACTURING AFL PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS
REVISED ........................................................................................................................................ 135
13/02/2015 - FACTORY DEPARTMENTS – RECEPTION AND ADMINISTRATION............................. 137
WEEK 13 ............................................................................................................................................ 139
16/02/2015 – AFTER 12 WEEKS….................................................................................................. 139
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WEEK 1
18/11/2014 – OHS Today was my first day on the job. It was rather a short day with my supervisor (Michael) giving me
the general induction into the company, introduced me to all the staff members, the facility and all
the machinery / manufacturing processes that happens within the factory. The company is a small
business consisting of 7 staff members operating 3 different types of manufacturing operations.
These include a facial tissue machine (there are two within the factory) which is operated by 2
people at any one time, a napkin machine (there are three within the factory) which is operated by 1
person at any time, and a toilet paper machine (one) which is generally operated by 2 or 3 people at
any one time.
Michael gave me an 11-page safety manual of the rules and regulations of the factory, as well as the
employer’s duty of care for their employers. Many of the employer’s duty of care was rather
obvious, such as employees having their allocated breaks, maintaining a clean physical working
environment, having suitable ventilation within the factory, providing drinking water for the
employees, etc. Likewise, my responsibilities as an employee also consisted of the general safety
precautions, such as wearing person protection equipment, fire safety precautions and being aware
of my surroundings.
Additionally, before Michael would let me do anything involving the machinery, he asked me what
kind of safety procedures I went through when I was at university. To which I replied, that we were
required to complete a risk assessment sheet for each lab that we were in, and taking the general
safety precautions such as wearing closed footwear. Michael then agreed that I should fill out an
additional risk assessment sheet (using RMIT Risk Assessment template) for each type of machinery
used before I could operate or conduct any work with a certain machine so that I am aware of all the
possible risks and consequences in operating the machinery.
Most of my day was spent reading the factory’s safety manual, and looking up different OH&S and
WorkSafe pages on the internet. Although, I thought most of the safety procedures was common
sense, I understand that it was needed to be done so that all employees and employers are aware of
the dangers that can happen within a working environment. The skills and knowledge of developed
today ensures my own health and safety at work, as well as the others in the workplace who may be
affected by my actions.
19/11/2014 – FACTORY PROCESSES – RISK ASSESSMENT OF FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE As this is a small business, the employees must know more than just one element of the company
and be easily adaptable to any form of work (in case a staff member is sick, someone can take over).
Therefore, Michael gave me a brief overview of all the factory operations and everything that goes
on, on a day to day basis. This not only includes the mechanical engineering elements, but also the
designing, manufacturing, business and human resources elements of the company. I also thought
that this was a good idea because most of the larger engineering companies have a separate
departments for these specialisations, and to be a successful engineer, they require at least some
form of knowledge within each of these aspects. This also proves true throughout the mechanical
engineering course in university as it hints some elements of manufacturing (through core courses
like manufacturing systems), designing (such as what was demonstrated in our final year project to
sell our ideas to a certain audience through creating a poster), business (through core courses like
engineering and enterprise), and human resources (throughout the whole course where group
projects were completed).
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For this day, since I was a mechanical engineering intern, we focused in this area first. The main part
of this day involved shadowing the head operator of the facial tissue machine. This enabled me to
observe the mechanics of the machine and how to properly operate it. After observing the machine,
I asked Michael if I could fill out the risk assessment form for this machine.
The procedure of this machine is as follows, two jumbo rolls of raw tissue material are fed and then
weaved through the machine, then manually put on a conveyer belt as a long single row of tissues
which is then cut by three sharp blades thus creating 5 individual tissue stacks ready to be packed
into a tissue box by a secondary machine. From here, a labourer then puts a number of tissue boxes
into a cardboard carton and seals it through a third machine. This finished carton is then hand placed
onto a pallet. Once the pallet has been stacked to a certain height, a forklift operator then stores the
pallet away, ready to be delivered on request.
For the risk assessment, the first thing that came to mind, was the work environment hazard (noise).
The sound created when the cutting blades are being sharpened is very loud. In this scenario, the
workers wore noise protection ear muffs to reduce the effects of loud noises.
The workers must wear gloves when operating this machine at all times for a number of reasons.
Firstly, for sanitary reasons, as dealing with facial tissues, the workers must ensure that the product
does not come into contact with any unhygienic. Secondly, due to the system not being entirely
automated, the workers often get paper cuts from manual handling cardboard boxes. Lastly, the
machine can get quite hot while operating, specifically at the melting glue reservoir that seals each
side of the tissue box. The glue’s melting temperature is set to over 200 degrees Celsius. For this
reason, workers must wear gloves to reduce the chance of burning in the event of accidently coming
into contact with the glue. Additionally, the heat produced from the melting glue reservoir results in
the surrounding area to have an increased temperature. To prevent the chances of heat exhaustion,
fainting and fatigue, the factory is well conditioned with multiple fans within the working
environment.
At the end of the day, I had a sit down with my supervisor and we went through the risk assessment
form that I filled out and my observations. He also explained to me the reason why these person
protection equipment are so important whilst working as explained above.
20/11/2014 - FACTORY PROCESSES – RISK ASSESSMENT OF NAPKIN MACHINE Continuing from yesterday, we now moved onto the napkin machine. Again, I was shadowing the
head operator of this machine to observe how this machine works and its operations.
Again, after observing for a few hours, I filled out the risk assessment form for this machine. The
procedure for this machine is as follows. A single jumbo roll is fed into the machine and is folded a
particular way (either M folded or C folded), then is cut by the guillotine to its set size. The folded
and cut napkins are then pushed through the end of the machine, to which a worker must grab a
particular amount of grouped napkins and place it on their working bench. From here, the worker
must separate each stack of napkins (which contains a set number of individual napkins) and
package it into its plastic packaging and hand seal it. These sealed packed napkins are then hand
placed into a cardboard carton with a set number of packaged napkins per carton, which is then
placed on a pallet to be stored away until an order is made.
For the risk assessment, the main risk is in relation to the guillotine. It is very close to where the
worker picks up the grouped napkins. Without being properly trained on the safety procedures and
operations of this machine, a worker can easily cut their hand on this guillotine when attempting to
pick up the grouped napkins. This was my main concern and I immediately suggested for Michael to
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look into possibly putting a plastic protective cover or window between the area where the
guillotine is cutting the napkin and the napkin pickup area. This in turn would dramatically reduce
the risk of a finger being caught in the guillotine from a high risk score of 450 to a low risk score of
50. A risk score is determined by a multiple of consequence, exposure and probability.
Another risk is at the sealing phase. There are two ways in which the worker seals the plastic
packaging depending on the napkin being packaged. The first option is the napkin 500 pack, in which
a heat sealant/frame is used. The plastic package is put into contact with a hot metal frame which
melts the plastic just enough to seal the plastic and not damage the napkin. However, in order to
seal the package properly, the worker must fold the plastic to its desired form and hold the
packaging in place while the plastic is being heated. Again, for this operation, the workers are
required to wear protective gloves whilst doing this as there is a risk of burning your hands on the
heat frame. The second option for sealing is when packaging all the other napkins (50 pack, 20 pack,
90 pack and any coloured napkins). This plastic packaging has a pre-sealable glue on each individual
plastic package which is covered by a removable plastic, similar to a sticker. Whilst operating, I
noticed that the workers just throw the removable plastic on the ground and clean up everything
(throwing into the bin) just before their breaks. On average, the workers would easily package over
200 napkins within each session, meaning the slip risk increases as the worker continues to operate.
The worker often moves around their work area as they need to walk to the machine to grab the
napkin, walk to the work bench to package the napkin and lastly, walk to the pallet to place the
cardboard cartons. This is a lot of movement with plastic on the floor, hence why I placed this a
moderate risk score of 100 to slip (on the risk assessment sheet). I suggested that a slip risk could be
prevented by having a bin or a plastic bag next to the worker so that this removable seal does not
pile up whilst working and can be thrown immediately after removing the seal. This would eliminate
the slip risk, thus having a risk score of 0 according to the form filled out.
At the end of the day, I again had a sit down with my supervisor and went through the risk
assessment form. I gave him my suggestions and he immediately took them into deep consideration.
I showed him where I would place the bin or plastic bag so that it would not interfere with the work
productive, while still eliminating any slip risks. He thought it could be a good idea, so he suggested
to leave the plastic bag where I indicated and see if it helps on the next working day.
21/11/2014 - FACTORY PROCESSES – RISK ASSESSMENT OF TOILET PAPER MACHINE The final machine that is remaining is the machine that manufactures the toilet paper. Similar to the
previous two days, I shadowed the head machine operator and filled out the risk assessment sheet
after observing the manufacturing process.
The process of manufacturing the toilet paper can be split into a number of sections. Firstly, a
machine must take the raw cardboard material and create the internal cardboard of the toilet paper
roll. This involves the raw material being passed through melted glue which is wiped onto one side
of the cardboard and then fed through a machine which wraps it and creates its thin round
cylindrical shape. After creating its desired cylindrical shape, the machine cuts the roll to its desired
length and then compressed air blown to push the cut roll on the floor into a sectioned area, ready
to be placed in the next machine. The second section of this process involves a worker gathering a
bunch of the cut cardboard (approximately 10 long rolls) and placing it an open metal frame/funnel
like holder. From here, each cardboard roll is rolled by the machine with the actual toilet paper and
then pushed onto a conveyer belt one by one and moves onto the next section. The third section is
the guillotine section which cuts the long cardboard rolls into its toilet paper size. The roll goes
through several pulleys and belts which pushes two long rolls at a time through a constantly
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spinning, self-sharpening guillotine blade. At the fourth section, once the toilet paper reaches the
end, there is a pusher that pushes 6 toilet paper rolls into another belt and is wrapped with its
plastic packaging and then fed through a heat sealing machine. Finally, the wrapped and sealed
toilet paper rolls are pushed onto a table for a worker to pick up and place in a larger plastic bag,
which contains a set number of packaged toilet paper in each and then placed on a pallet to be
stored away until an order is made.
For the risk assessment, the main risk is the heat sealing machine during the fourth section. In order
for the plastic wrapper to seal properly around the toilet paper, it must be heated to a certain
temperature. The machine is able to reach the desired temperature easily, however it often over
heats which causes the plastic to very often get melted to the toilet paper. With the machine being
this hot, it means that the area surrounding the machine also becomes hot. This is really bad
because a worker is always standing next to this machine to pack the toilet paper away. Having the
surround area being too hot can cause heat exhaustion and fatigue in the worker, this is worse in the
summer. They do have cooling systems around the worker, but sometimes it just gets too hot for the
cooling system to work effectively. After speaking to the worker, next to the machine, she informed
me that most times they only use the heating sealing machine to wrap the toilet paper but turn off
the heat as it causes more damage than anything else, by melting the plastic into the toilet paper. So
recently she would have to take the unsealed wrapped toilet paper and use sticky tape to seal it off.
I found this to be very inefficient, and didn’t look good either. At the end of the day I sat down with
Michael and asked him what they were planning to do with the heat sealing machine. He informed
me that he has been trying to control the heat, and even got the men who made the machine in to
look at it. None of them can determine the cause of the issue, and have decided to investigate and
invest in a new machine from China. Currently this risk has a high risk score of 300, if they are able to
find the right machine which works properly the risk score will dramatically reduce to 0.
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WEEK 2
24/11/2014 – LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – NAPKIN MACHINE 1 After completing the risk assessments of all machines, Michael finally permitted me to operate any
of the machines as long as I was supervised by the person who I was shadowing at the time of the
risk assessments. He said that the best way to learn is to physically operate the machines to
understand their manufacturing processes and to easily identify problems that occur on a daily basis.
This would allow me to see firsthand how often problems occur, and visually see why it is happening.
From here, I can suggest some solutions to each of the problems to my supervisor in order to
improve the machinery’s efficiency and manufacturing processes.
Michael told me that today and tomorrow I will be spending with Melissa and Wendy, as they will
teach me how to operate the different napkin machines. For today I will be working with Melissa
who primarily works with the napkin 50, napkin 90 and if they need to the colour napkins. All these
napkins are produced using the same machine, they just need to change the setting and paper
supply depending on what they are going to be making that day, and today is the napkin 50.
The machine is already on, since Carmen turned it on in the morning, so Melissa started by showing
me how to start up the machine. This involved turning on the blade, so it will rotate to cut the
napkins, putting a new roll of raw napkin paper material into the back of the machine and then
starting the machine and set it to a certain speed. This speed needs to be above a certain amount for
it work effectively, but if it ever gets too fast it can be reduced to suit the individual. She got me to
help her roll the raw napkin paper material from its storage location to the machine, and showed me
the correct way to place it onto the holders, so the machine can elevate it to proper height. Then
pulling the start of the roll, kind of like pulling out the start of a sticky tape, and placing it in the
correct location to be fed into the machine. Once it has been placed correctly, she set the speed for
the machine and then the paper started to be fed through. I watched it get folded by the machine,
then passed through the knife to make two separate rows of napkins which are pushed out onto a
metal holder. Once a certain amount has been pushed through Melissa would use her hands to
separate a section and then tipped it up and pressed it between her chin and hand, then used her
spare hand to push to stopper at the end of the remaining napkins on the metal holder. After that
she placed the stack of napkins she was holding onto the table for her to package. This part looked
easy when she did it, but then after a few times of her doing this she got me to try it and it didn’t
feel right when I did it the first time. She told me once I practice it a few times it would get easier,
but it would be best to start getting smaller stacks to start off and then once I feel comfortable start
increasing the stack size. While she was packaging she got me to practice this, so whenever the
napkins got pushed out to a certain point I was in charge of taking it off the metal holder and placing
it on the table. I dropped a few here and there, but after probably half an hour I got the hang of it,
and started to get better.
Next thing I learnt was the packing component of the napkin machine. The stack of napkins, which I
was taking from the machine and placing on the table, was made up of a number of sectioned off
napkin stacks which for this particular day was dividing into 50 napkins per section, each section was
divided by the first napkin of the stack sticking out from the rest. So Melissa would have to separate
a section of 50 napkins, and then inserting the 50 napkins into its plastic sleeve. Once in the sleeve
comfortably, she would need to rip off the plastic strip to expose the glue and then folded over the
glue flap over to seal and secure the napkin in the package. Melissa was very fast at separating,
inserting and then sealing. She told me she had to be fast to keep up with the machine, since it is still
pushing out more napkins while she packs. This means she has to clear the table of the napkins in
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time so when the machine has pushed out a certain amount again she can pick it up and place it on
the table. If she is too slow the table can get over crowded, and if she doesn’t pick up the stack from
the machine it will just be pushed off and onto the floor. While she was packing, there was enough
room on the table for me to have a corner to myself so I packed some napkins while she packed. At
the start I wasn’t fast at all, I wasn’t used to separating the stack of 50, and also I found it touch
inserting the napkins into the sleeve. This is because they made the sleeve to just fit all the napkins,
so at first I would find it hard to squeeze it in to the sleeve, and often break the plastic. After a while
I got the hang of it, and I just needed to practice more to get fast at it.
Throughout the day, whenever the raw napkin paper material ran out I would have to help Melissa
replace it. Near to the end of the day she started to get me to do it by myself while she did other
things. It was pretty easy to get a hand off, and I was strong enough to roll the raw material jumbo
roll from the storage area to the machine. She did help me place the paper onto the machine so it
would be fed into the machine properly. She had to show me this a few times, but by the end of the
day I got it and knew the right position to do this. Another thing I had to do throughout the day was
place the right number of sealed napkin 50’s into the cardboard cartons and then feed the full
cartons through the sticky tape machine, which essentially sealed the box on the top and the
bottom. After it has been sticky taped I had to take the carton boxes and place and stack them on
the pallet. Melissa showed me the right way to stack it on the pallet, and it had to be positioned a
certain way for it to be neat, tidy and compact. Once a full pallet has been completed I had to use a
hand operated forklift to pull it to an area for it to be stored. Whenever an order for a pallet of the
napkins has been placed someone else will take it to get it string wrapped for delivery. Since the
napkin machines are usually operated by one person, Melissa said she would an average get around
4 pallets out per day.
After the last break Melissa said she was going to just supervise me, and got me to work on the
machine by myself, while the machine operates at a slower speed just to help me out. Whenever I
needed help, or if she saw me struggling she helped me out, but she wanted me to try to do it by
myself. At the start I was a bit slow, so Melissa had to often help me get the napkins from the
machines so it didn’t spill over. However, once I got the hang of it and started to get into a rhythm I
made less mistakes, but still made some mistakes here and there. With time it got much easier, but I
think with practice I can run the machine by myself if I ever had to, just need to get better at being
faster. Once we finished for the day I spoke to Melissa about how I went today. She said I was okay
for my first time running the machine, just had to keep an eye on the machine’s output while
packing and increasing my speed at packing if I could. Other than that she said I went really well
considering it as my first time operating a machine in the factory.
25/11/2014 - LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – NAPKIN MACHINE 2 After working on the one of the napkin machine’s yesterday with Melissa, I was assigned to the
other napkin machine, which produced the napkin 500. The process for this machine is pretty much
the same as the previous napkin machine, the only main difference is the way in which the napkins
are packed into the plastic bag and sealed. For this machine I was working with Wendy, and since
she knew I was helping Melissa yesterday she got me to get the machine ready for the day. This
involved rolling the raw napkin paper jumbo roll to the machine and placing it on properly to be
elevated by the machine, then placing the paper properly on the machine to be fed through. The
buttons on this machine was a little bit different, so Wendy showed me what each button does.
Then I started to help her grab the napkins from the machine and placed it on the table. This was a
little different as well since the napkins were separated with 500 napkins within each section,
meaning the sections were much larger than the napkin 50’s.
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After I got used to handling the larger quantity of napkins, Wendy got me to watch how she got the
napkins into the plastic sleeve, folded the end of the plastic in a particular way and then press it
again the heating rod for it to get sealed. When I started to try this I was having trouble in all three
areas, I struggled getting it into the bag, then folding it and holding it a certain way so that when it is
sealed it doesn’t come apart. I think the first few times I was more scared of the heating rod than
anything else. After practicing a few times on the second heating rod located on the table I started
to find my own way of doing it so it looked the same but felt easier for me.
Operating this machine and replenishing the raw material was real easy for me, but it took me a
while to get used to the packing and sealing of the plastic bags. By the end of the day Wendy got me
to operate the entire machine, while she watched and made sure to help if I needed. I was a bit slow
to start off with, but she showed me a few hints and tricks when it came to inserting the napkins into
the bag, after that it got a little easier and I was able to increase my speed.
Overall, I think I would prefer working on the other machine only because it was faster to learn and
it felt more comfortable. The napkin 500 took me so long to learn how to pack and seal the plastic
bags properly. I think they may need to look at an alternative way to seal the bags, as it seems like
there is possible an easier way to do so. When I asked Wendy about this, she informed me that due
to the bags being much bigger than the other napkins they weren’t able to get the plastic sleeve to
have the peelable glue on the sleeve like the other ones. So this was the only other option they
came up with to seal the bags.
26/11/2014 - LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – TOILET PAPER MACHINE 1 I spent today learning how to operate the toilet paper machine, it was really easy to learn as most of
the manufacturing process was autonomous. My supervisor for this machine explained to me that
this machine is really simple, “it is as simple as pressing a button”. The majority of his job is to keep
an eye on the entire operation to ensure that no problems occur, and if anything goes wrong he
needs to fix it immediately. This meant that he has to keep a constant eye on each section of the
machine, and often at times certain sections of the machine doesn’t work autonomously, so some of
the process needs to be improvised. When this occurs he would need to often operate the machine
by hand, so he showed me how to do this as well.
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To begin with, he got me to just watch him work while the machine was running smoothly. Firstly he
filled up the glue holder for the cardboard toilet paper roll machine (picture below), this glue would
need to be constantly refilled throughout the day, but only when the glue gets below a certain point.
Toilet paper roll Glue
After the glue has been filled, he turned on this machine so the inside cardboard section of the toilet
rolls can be manufactured. This machine doesn’t require much maintenance, and barely causes any
problems. He told me that he only goes to this machine to ensure the glue has been refilled, and to
also pick up finished toilet paper rolls to place in the next machine.
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The raw cardboard material being rolled into its cylindrical shape
After a certain amount of rolls have been manufactured, he bunches them up and then places it into
the metal funnel. After this has been filled, this machine can now start creating the toilet paper.
While he was waiting for all the toilet rolls to be manufactured he used the time to place the raw
toilet paper jumbo rolls into the second machine. Similar to the napkin machine, he had to roll the
jumbo roll onto the machine, and then it is elevated into the correct position, and for this machine it
requires 2 jumbo rolls.
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The cylindrical roll being cut after a certain length and put aside for the next
manufacturing process
Cylindrical rolls being fed in the next machine’s funnel-like holder
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The rolls wrapped in paper is cut so that the next roll can be wrapped in paper, then
pushed to the next section, fed through a guil lotine to be cut into the toilet paper size
and ready for the packing section
From this machine, the remaining process is autonomous up to the packing section. Since the
machine is now set up and ready to go, he showed me what all the buttons on the machine do and
then started it up. After that, it was just a manner of watching the machine, ensure that everything
runs smoothly, refilling the glue and refilling the machine with the toilet roll.
The main section of the machine which tends to have issues is where the long toilet paper rolls are
pushed onto the conveyor belt, which then is fed through the guillotine. Sometimes the rolls are not
pushed onto the conveyor belt, and when this happens he will need to pick up the rolls and place it
onto the conveyor belt manually. This often slows down production, as this machine needs to be set
to manual mode, this is to ensure that it doesn’t keep rolling the paper through the machine if the
finished long roll hasn’t been moved. If it wasn’t changed to manual mode, the machine will keep
rolling the paper even though the previous roll hasn’t been pushed on the conveyor belt. This means
that the machine will eventually jam if not stopped in time. When this issue arises you simple just
need to grab the finished roll, indicated by it being cut, and placing it onto the conveyor belt for the
next section.
Since whoever is operating this machine needs to keep a constant eye on every section of the
machine, they would constantly need to keep walking back and forward. If the machine is running
smoothly, they simple just needs to stand in the middle and watch everything, but if one section is
causing problems they will need to attend to it. For example, if the long rolls aren’t pushing onto the
conveyor belt and the worker needs to do this, then he will need to stand at the start, move it onto
the conveyor belt and then run to the middle to ensure that the next sections are fine and then
finally run back to do it all over again.
The section after the guillotine can often cause some issues as well. The main issue which arises is
when the cut toilet paper rolls are separated into sections of 6 rolls. The conveyor belt in this section
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apparently gets loosened over time, which results in the sections not being placed close enough
together. If there are gaps between the 6 rolls it will result in it not fitting properly in the wrapping
section. So whenever the worker saw that the belt was getting loose he would quickly rush over and
tighten it by turning the wheel.
After he showed me that, he got me to watch him complete everything again for another hour, this
was just so he could be sure that I knew everything that had to be done. After that he got me to do
each section individually. So after lunch I started with refilling the glue, refilling the raw toilet
material and to place the cardboard rolls into the metal holder. After that I watched the whole
machine run pretty smoothly, I would often need to refill the glue and the cardboard rolls. When the
supervisor started to see the conveyor belt get loose, and I didn’t realise, he told me to quickly fix it
before it got any worse. He then showed me at what point I should tighten the belt before it causes
any issue. Once I got into a good routine it was very simple, and everything was pretty straight
forward.
Since the supervisor saw that everything was running smoothly, and that I got the hang of it, he
turned the toilet rolling machine onto manual. This was to give me practice of placing the rolls onto
the conveyor belt and keeping an eye on everything else. He wanted to make sure I knew how to
work the machine when this happens, so if I ever need to operate this machine by myself, and it
occurs, I would know what to do. At first it was a bit tricky as I was too focused on placing the rolls
onto the conveyor belt, that I often lost focus on the other areas which also needed my attention. So
he told me that if I am having trouble keeping up with the machine, it is best to only allow the toilet
rolls to get rolled with paper after I have checked on the other sections. So for a while I would turn
the machine on standby when I needed to go to the other sections. Once I got faster, I didn’t need to
place it on standby anymore. I was able to place the roll onto the conveyor belt and then rush to do
everything else while the next roll was being rolled with paper.
When I first saw this machine being operated, I thought it was the simplest and easiest machine. It is
if everything is running smoothly, if the rolling machine don’t push the roll onto the conveyor belt,
and it needs to be done manually, then it becomes a little tricky and stressful. However, with
practice I got much better, and I think if I ever needed to I could operate the machine by myself.
27/11/2014 – PROCESS OF THE TWO SECTIONS OF THE TOILET PAPER MACHINE Here is a hand drawn sketch of the operation and its main components in order to create the
cylindrical cardboard roll (ready to be wrapped in toilet paper).
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Here is a hand drawn sketch of the remainder of the toilet paper operation and its main
components.
28/11/2014 – LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE
(PACKING) Today, we started off working on the facial tissue machine. As I previously mentioned before, this
machine is operated by two people, where one person is in charge of separating the long rows of
folded tissue which was fed from the machine, and then placing it onto a conveyer belt to be moved
throughout 3 sharp blades cutting the row into 5 smaller sections that is then packaged into each
individual tissue box. From here, the second worker grabs a stack of tissue boxes and places it neatly
into a cardboard carton, which is sealed through an external machine, then placed on a pallet until a
certain number is reached. Then, this pallet is shrink-wrapped and stored away until delivery.
I was operating the packing side of this machine. At first, the worker set me aside to watch how he
operates the machine for a short time, then he let me take over all of his operations and shadowed
me. As he was watching over me, he gave me a few tips on how I could improve my technique as
well as how I could save a few seconds in doing things here and there. My roles were to, pick the
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tissues boxes off the machine, placing it into a cardboard carton, and sealing it off using an external
machine, placing the sealed cardboard carton on a pallet, refilling the machine with its raw tissue
box packaging, and refilling the machine with the jumbo rolls when there are no more tissues being
fed through the conveyer belt. My main issue at first was grabbing 3 rows of 6 tissue boxes (18 tissue
boxes at one time) and placing it neatly into a cardboard carton. This was difficult for me as I had to
have very precise handling of holding 18 tissue boxes in my hands at any one time, as it needed to
be placed in a cardboard carton that was designed to perfectly fit 3x6 tissues in its length by width
dimensions. Meaning that there is no room for error and if it is not placed in accurately, then the
tissue boxes will not fit and it wastes a tremendous amount of time sorting the tissues boxes placing
the boxes in its correct location individually, instead of all at once. When operating this machine, I
found it to be very quick and challenging as I had many tasks to do in such a short amount of time, to
the point where I am constantly moving from one task to another at a jogging pace. Thus, the
worker stressed the importance of utilising my time efficiently and effectively so that the job is done
in a timely manner, every second counted. I wasn’t used to completing all the task at one time,
which meant that I prioritise certain tasks over others. This lead to particular tasks, such as refilling
the raw tissue box packaging in the machine, not being completed as I didn’t have time or the tissue
boxes falling off the machine as the machine was constantly running, ultimately wasting more time
picking up the tissue boxes off the ground. This was because I was wasting a lot of my time
incorrectly placing the tissue box into the carton.
18 Tissue boxes placed neatly into a cardboard carton
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Tissue boxes not placed correctly resulting in more time wasted in fixing up the boxes
to fit the cardboard carton
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Another example of tissue boxes being placed incorrectly
As the day was drawing to an end, the worker mentioned that he still thinks I need practice on this
machine. So he suggested that I spend the next day working with him again, so I can improve my
skills and reduce the amount of time I spend fixing my mistakes. This will allow me to complete all
my necessary tasks within the short amount of time I am given.
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WEEK 3
01/12/2014 – LEARNING HOW TO OPERATE MACHINES – FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE
(PACKING – PART 2) Today, we were operating the other facial tissue machine. The process is still the same, however this
machine manufactures a different set of facial tissue boxes, with different packaging and amount of
tissues inside. This machine sends out the tissue boxes in sets of 5 (instead of 6), and packing the
tissue boxes only required 30 (15 x 2 boxes) instead of the 36 (18 x 2 boxes) compared yesterday.
The worker told me that I should find this machine to be a little easier to handle as I will be holding
less tissue boxes, thus packing the tissue boxes by 15’s instead of 18’s.
Like yesterday, I was still having trouble at packing the tissue boxes into its cardboard carton
properly. Throughout the start of the day, I was dropping the tissue boxes into the cardboard carton
badly and it wasted a lot of time fixing my mistakes and re-placing the tissue boxes properly into the
cardboard carton. However, after a few hours, the worker demonstrated the technique of picking
and placing the tissue boxes into the cardboard carton again for a short few minutes, and soon
enough, after a few hours of practice, I was able to pack the tissue boxes into the carton perfectly,
about 80% of the time.
The worker on this machine told me that since I have the proper technique of handling the tissue
boxes now, I should improve over time, complete this task much quicker and thus, having more time
to do other tasks, such as refilling the machine with glue and the raw tissue box material. He also
mentioned that this machine is the slower of the two, as the amount of facial tissues within each
tissue box is close to double of what is in the tissue boxes of the other machine. Therefore, if I
needed to practice operating this machine, this machine would be best for starters.
Picking the tissue boxes off the machine
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Placing the tissue boxes into the cardboard carton
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02/12/2014 – OPERATING FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE TO PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS
DEMAND After being able to run this machine confidently, I was asked to continue operating this machine for
the next week or two, as Christmas was fast approaching, and a lot more orders were coming in for
Christmas supply. Not only did we have to keep up with our regular level of manufacturing output
for our normal stock, we now also had to manufacture the Christmas designed products. This meant
twice the amount of work, twice the amount of products needed to be produced in only a couple of
weeks. So Michael asked if I felt comfortable enough running the packing process of the tissue
machine by myself so that the factory can be prepared for the incoming demand. I gladly accepted,
but I requested to work on the slower machine as I don’t believe I could keep up with the faster
machine as of yet (as mentioned there were two facial tissue machines).
As I was operating the packing side of the facial tissue machine by myself, a few problems arose
within the process, and I was unsure on how to fix the problem, so I asked the worker who I was
working with, on how to fix the problem. She informed me that Michael is the one that fixes all
issues with the machines, so I then asked Michael if he could show me how to fix certain issues or
problems when they arose. The main issues that I found within the machine was that occasionally,
the facial tissues would not be perfectly straight along the belt after it has pushed from one belt to
another, and this leads to more problems occurring if not attended to within a matter of seconds.
The result of this problem could lead to the tissues piling up along a belt and eventually jam the
whole process or the machine will immediately stop if certain sensors are active.
The tissues being pushed from one belt to another
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The tissues pil ing up and eventually jamming/stopping the machine after tissues have
filed over from the "push"
Michael showed me how to fix this problem temporarily, which was to simply clear the belt, and
restart the machine through pressing a few buttons. Michael informed that this was a quick and easy
solution to the problem as it only takes a matter of seconds to get the machine up and running
again. He told me the importance of quick fixes within a manufacturing company as every moment
the machine is down, it will cost the business money in production, therefore, he didn’t recommend
me to find a permanent solution as of yet, and only suggested coming up with a lengthy permanent
solution if the problem is very critical or in my own time. He mentioned that since this machinery is
also a 2-man operation, it only costs the company more money in production as they have to pay for
two workers, and if one process of the machine isn’t working, then the partner cannot fulfil their
duties either. Therefore, throughout the rest of the day, I just kept this issue in mind, and took note
of it, for a later time, in order for me to investigate this problem further when I am not actually
operating the machine, but rather finding ways to optimise the manufacturing process as a whole.
To sum up, whenever a problem arises, I had to question to myself, “Is stopping the whole operation
to fix a certain part of a machine worth it, over a quick temporary solution for the remainder of the
day?” If yes, then we can proceed. If not, then we can fix the machine in our own time at the end of
the day (overtime).
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03/12/2014 – PROCESS AND SENSOR OPERATIONS OF THE FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE Today, was much the same as the past few days. I was simply just operating the facial tissue machine
again. Throughout operating the machine, I noticed the small things and looked into what makes up
the machine, and how the engineers would have designed or created this machine. More
specifically, I looked into the mechatronics side of the machine and the electronics.
Below is a simple overview of the entire facial tissue machine (birds eye view). The main
electronics/mechatronic items found within this system are the sensors. I paid close attention whilst
operating the machine on how each sensor functioned, and applied my knowledge from university
courses such as “Mechatronics Principles” and “Mechatronic Design”. I was able to see how the
sensors worked together simultaneously, as well as how they would be programmed in C (assuming
that the engineers who designed this machine used C as their main programming language).
c
Jumbo Roll Sensor
Conveyer Belt Cutting Blades
Pusher Boxing Machine
LEGEND / KEY
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04/12/2014 – EXPLANATION OF SENSORS From the birds overview yesterday, some sensors work together, and others work independently.
In this section, there are two sensors that work
together simultaneously. As the row of tissue paper moves along the conveyer belt, from the right to
the left of the image, the first sensor becomes active (meaning the sensor is picking up something).
Once the long row of tissue paper continues along the belt and reaches the end, it will activate both
sensors. As soon as both sensors are active, the pusher is activated and pushes the row of tissue
paper off the horizontal belt, onto the vertical belts to be fed through 3 sharp blades and cut into its
correct size.
In C programming, the code for these two sensors would look something like (assuming all sensors
and other initialisations have been done within the program):
if (a2dConvert8bit(1)>70 && a2dConvert8bit(2)>70)
{
Some function to activate the pusher here
}
The code above states that if the sensor in pin #1 AND pin #2 reads a value of greater than 70 (this
70 value is an arbitrary value, depending on sensor on reading distance), then run the code/function
within the { } brackets.
At the end of the vertical conveyer belts, after the
tissues have been cut into size, it reaches an independent sensor, which then activates a rotating
belt pusher after a certain amount of time delay (for the tissues to reach the pusher).
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The independent sensor is active, then runs the code that rotates the belt, pushing
the cut tissues into another belt
In C programming, the code for these this sensor would look something like (assuming all sensors
and other initialisations have been done within the program):
if (a2dConvert8bit(3)>70)
{
Pause function or time delay function
Some function to activate the pusher here
}
The code above states that if the sensor in pin #3 reads a value of greater than 70 (this 70 value is an
arbitrary value, depending on sensor on reading distance), then run the code/function within the { }
brackets (pausing for a short period, then activate the belt pusher).
At this stage, if the bottom sensor is active, then it will activate the pusher to push the
tissue to the next section, but if both sensors are active, then stop process as there is a problem
(such as the tissues jamming or clogging up the belt). Essentially, the sensor above acts as an
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emergency stop as it detects a problem. I will label the top sensor as sensor 4 and the bottom sensor
as sensor 5 to explain how they are programmed.
In C programming, the code for these two sensors would look something like (assuming all sensors
and other initialisations have been done within the program):
if (a2dConvert8bit(5)>70)
{
Some function to activate the pusher here
}
else if (a2dConvert8bit(4)>70 && a2dConvert8bit(5)>70)
{
break;
}
The code above states that if the sensor in pin #5 (bottom sensor) reads a value of greater than 70
(this 70 value is an arbitrary value, depending on sensor on reading distance), then run the
code/function within the { } brackets (activate the pusher). Otherwise, if the sensor in pin #4 AND
pin #5 reads a value of greater than 70 (or active), then break or end the function or exit the loop.
Moving further along the same belt, is another set of sensors which act in more or less the
same way as what was described previous section. The bottom sensor activates the pusher if it is
active, but if both the top and bottom sensors are active, then the processes along this belt will
immediately stop, resulting in the whole manufacturing process to stop.
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Example of the process stopping as the sensor picks up a problem (two sensors active)
The hidden sensor from the image above
At this section of the manufacturing process, once the pusher in the previous section
pushes the tissue into the blue section, the sensor becomes active and therefore activates the
pusher, but only if the bottom sensor is NOT active, as this means that the belt is clear. If the bottom
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sensor is active, then it means there is a tissue in front of it, and the top sensor will have to wait until
the belt moves the tissue further along the belt before the pusher can push the next tissue along. In
my explanation, the top sensor will be called sensor 6 and the bottom sensor will be called sensor 7.
In C programming, the code for these two sensors would look something like (assuming all sensors
and other initialisations have been done within the program):
if (a2dConvert8bit(6)>70 && a2dConvert8bit(7)<70)
{
Some function to activate the pusher here
}
else if (a2dConvert8bit(6)>70 && a2dConvert8bit(7)>70)
{
Some function that does nothing, or don’t activate the pusher
}
The code above states that if the sensor in pin #6 (top sensor) reads a value of greater than 70 (this
70 value is an arbitrary value, depending on sensor on reading distance) AND the sensor in pin #7
(bottom sensor) reads a value of less than 70, then run the code/function within the { } brackets
(activate the pusher). Otherwise, if both the sensors read a value of greater than 70 (or active), then
don’t activate the pusher and wait until sensor in pin #7 goes a further distance along the belt until
the sensor reads a value less than 70.
An example will be shown in the next section, in which the two sensors work the same way.
This section works the same way as the section mentioned above. Once the tissue
reaches the blue section, the bottom sensor becomes active, and pushes the tissue along to the
green section if the following sensor is not active. If the sensor above is still active, the tissue will
have to wait until the value of that sensor becomes smaller or moves along the belt in the real
world.
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Both sensors are active, therefore the tissue will have to wait until the other tissue
moves along the belt
These last two sensors work independently, but do the
same job. Ultimately, once the sensor sees the tissue moving along the belt, a presser will be
activated to flatten the tissue stack so that when the pusher will pushes the tissue into the grey
section (boxing machine) the stack will not tip over. This machine basically puts the tissues into an
individual box.
In C programming, the code for these sensors would look something like (assuming all sensors and
other initialisations have been done within the program):
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if (a2dConvert8bit(8)>70)
{
Some function to activate the presser here
Some function to activate the pusher here
}
The code above states that if the sensor in pin #8 reads a value of greater than 70 (this 70 value is an
arbitrary value, depending on sensor on reading distance), then run the code/function within the { }
brackets (activate the presser, then the belt pusher).
When the sensor is active, the presser presses down the stack of tissues so that it is
flat, so that when it is being pushed into the boxing machine, the stack will not tip
over
In conclusion for today, the machine will not function efficiently and effective without the use of all
these sensors. These sensors play a critical role in the operation and the timing of each process
within the production, as well as providing emergency stops whenever an error is detected. Without
the use of the sensors, this process would not be as autonomous as it is currently, meaning more
labour work would be required for certain sections of the production. The functionality of these
sensors is part of what a mechanical engineer must consider when designing specific machinery to
ensure that the manufacturing process (in this case) is as efficient and effective as it can be.
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05/12/2014 – OPERATING FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE TO PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS
DEMAND Since today was Friday, I just wanted to work on the facial machine without thinking of anything
else. So today was pretty much the same as the previous days. Started the day by placing 2 new rolls
of jumbo raw material and then set up my station and got a pallet ready to stack the finished
cartons. Once the other worker was ready she turned on the machine and I just got to work.
Once I started it didn’t take me long to get into a routine, and everything was basically repetitive
work. Since I wasn’t too focused on the issues of the machine, or coming up with better operating
practices, I was able to relax and work. After a while the work did get a bit tedious and a bit too
repetitive. It was basically refill, grab, pack, seal and place on pallet. So I started to test myself
throughout the day, by trying to complete a task within a certain amount of time. By testing myself I
was able to see myself improve on the speed in which I can operate the machine, and also saw
myself slowly improving on my packing skills. I found it to be good practice for the faster facial tissue
machine if I ever needed to operate that. By the end of the day I had fun, setting these little goals
and challenges for myself. It was a nice change to not focus too much on improving the system, and
actually just working on it with my full attention.
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WEEK 4
08/12/2014 – LECTURE ABOUT MECHANICAL COMPONENTS As we have manufactured more than enough stock to meet the current demands for the Christmas
season, Michael is only planning to operate one of the facial tissue machines for the meantime. He
said that during this time, it would be a good opportunity for me to explore the problems of the
facial tissue machine and come up with possible solutions as I now have knowledge of how the
machine operates. He said that if we need more stock as Christmas approaches, I may need to
operate on the machine for another week, but for now, there should be enough stock to meet the
current and future (at least for the next week) demands.
Today, Michael gave me a quick lecture about the logic behind some mechanical components and
why we do certain things in a particular way, similar to what was taught in the course “Mechanical
Design”. The first thing that he let me look at was a screw keyway. He questioned me on what was
the most optimum position for the setscrews in relation to a keyway on drive shafts. From what I
learnt from the course, generally, there is 1 screw on the key, and another 90 degrees to that. The
reason being was to axial movement along the horizontal and vertical planes if there is a loose fit
and to keep the key from slipping.
An example of a keyway on a machine
Another small component that Michael showed me was a “spring washer”. He told me that these
spring washers were generally better for mechanical applications in which there are two
components sandwiching each other. The purpose of it over a normal washer is that is applies force
upon each sandwiching component. However, over time, the spring washer will be as flat as a
normal washer, thus needs replacing.
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The spring washer taken out of a blade sharpener
As many of the machinery at the factory is driven by belts, he also mentioned the importance of belt
tensioning. He said, that if the belts aren’t properly tensioned, the system will not operate properly.
An analogy that he mentioned was, how can a teacher do their job if they are not allowed to teach
someone? Therefore, how can a belt work if it isn’t being driven by its core component? Thus, the
belt must always have enough tension so that it will not slip relative to the pulley under the most
demanding conditions. He then personally showed me how to go about re-tensioning a belt, as well
as what is acceptable. He started by shutting off the conveyer/machine, then pushed against the belt
to find out if there is any play. If there is any play, then the belt has to be tightened until play is
eliminated. He also mentioned that you can check to see how much tension another belt is in, if it
has the same function, as a reference.
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Michael checking if the belts are tensioned properly
We also replaced a belt in a machine, as one of the belts became bent and folded due to the
misalignment of the pulley and slipping of the belt. Again, when we replaced the belt with a new
one, we properly tensioned the belt with reference to the other belts and tested the machine to
make sure that the belt was aligned properly so that the belt does not move out of place.
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09/12/2014 – ANOTHER LECTURE ABOUT MECHANICAL COMPONENTS Today, Michael told spoke to me about general machinery and housekeeping of the factory. A rule of
thumb for all factories is to keep the place as clean as possible, not only for OH&S standards, but
also, it improves the life of a machinery. As the factory is such a large space, there is lots of dirt and
dust that accumulates throughout the factory within a short period. Michael generally says, that we
should be cleaning our workspace at least twice a day, once before operation and at the end of the
day. This involves sweeping the floors, keeping your work tables or work area clean so that there is
no tripping hazards, but most importantly, keeping dust and dirt away from the machinery as that
can impact how they operate. One immediate example is that all the manufacturing processes
adopts the use of sensors. Therefore, if the sensors aren’t clear of dust, then it will affect how well it
detects an object. By keeping dust away from the machinery, there are lots of benefits to this, such
as a longer life due to less heat and improving production quality.
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This is how dusty the machinery gets when it is left over the weekend
Cleaning the machinery makes problems much more visible as well. When we were looking at the
cutting blades, we were able to find the blade sharpeners very worn down and in need of a new
blade sharpener.
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Visible image of the blade sharpeners making contact with the blades, thus keeping
the blade sharp. These sharpeners are connected to an air compressor, which allows
the sharpeners to move forward, making contact with the blades whenever the cutting
blades have become blunt or back, where it is not m aking contact with the blades.
Here is an image of the worn down blade sharpener.
From the image, the blade sharpener is no longer flat. This tells us two things. Firstly, the blade
sharpener was not aligned or correctly positioned as you can see bumps on the sharpener and the
surface is no longer smooth. Secondly, the blade sharpener needs to be replaced as it will no longer
sharpen the blade consistently and evenly. Therefore, Michael showed me how to replace the blade
sharpeners.
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Here is an image of what a good blade sharpener should look l ike. An even surface
which will make contact with the cutting blades, thus sharpening the blades evenly
and consistently.
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After replacing the sharpeners, we were able to test them by putting them in contact with the
blades that is marked with a red marker (just so we can visually see and a good indication if the
blades are being sharpened). From the image above, we can see that blades 1, 3 and 5 are being
sharpened when blades 2 and 4 are not (there is still a red mark where the sharpening should be).
Once the sharpeners are positioned properly, we placed the blades under its bench and through its
cut-out holes. These blades also have to be carefully positioned back into its correct location, as if it
is not, the extremely sharp blades will cut through the metal bench.
The application of this machine is so that when a long sheet of tissue paper moves along the belts, it
goes through each blade which cuts them into their appropriate tissue paper size.
10/12/2014 – METHOD OF IMPROVING THE OPERATION OF FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE After spending several weeks on hands-on maintenance and operations of the machinery, Michael
felt that I had enough knowledge and understanding of the process and production side of the facial
tissue machines, thus telling me to begin to think of ways to improve the process and method of the
production, and try to find ways to eliminate any errors that there may be when the operator is
working on the machine.
Some methods that Michael suggested me to look into were how fast we can react to problems
which occur. At the moment, Michael has been fixing any problems within the machine after a
problem arises, but sometimes he has a lot of tasks to do at once, so it is hard for him to fix the
problem straight away. Therefore, he wanted me to find a solution where the workers can fix the
problem when they occur instead, of relying solely on him. I suggested a more proactive approach to
the problem, meaning finding any clues for early detection of problems to reduce its likelihood of
the problem occurring. I told him that if something problematic seems to be occurring within one
area, we can set up a video camera in the area to record what actually happens when a problem
arises, thus allowing the workers and I to quickly review what happened if we missed something,
and therefore easily solve any problems that arises or even preventing the problem from seeing the
signs of a problem arising. Many of the problems within the manufacturing process happens within a
split second, and most of the time, the operators tend to ignore how it happened or miss what
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happened as they have many tasks to do at once, but they seem to be more focused on quickly
resolving the problem when it happens, to quickly get on with where they left off. Being able to
show the workers when exactly the problems occurs and the reason why it occurs, will allow them to
see first-hand the exact causes of the problems and early signs on how to detect when a problem is
going to occur rather letting it occur then fixing it. If the operator sees the fault, it makes
troubleshooting much easier and therefore they can quickly resolve any issue without the need for
calling in a senior engineer (Michael).
11/12/2014 – TESTING OUT USING A CAMERA TO SEE HOW EFFECTIVE THE METHOD
IS IN REGARDS TO SOLVING MANUFACTURING FAILURES / PROBLEMS One problem that I found today by setting up a camera was that the machine which pushes out the
sealed tissue boxes occasionally pushes the boxes too far that it knocks the other boxes over,
creating a domino-like effect resulting in products dropping to the floor and damaging it.
From the video we were able to determine that before the products began dropping to the floor, the
stack of boxes actually were leaning on an angle, and after a while this is what started the domino
effect and all tip over as more and more tissue boxes are being pushed out by the machine.
By reviewing the video tape with the workers they can now see first-hand what they should be
looking out for. So when they start seeing signs of an arising issue, such as the boxes coming out at
an angle, they will know that something is wrong with the machine, and if they don’t fix is right away
it will cause a domino effect that results in all the boxes dropping to the floor and damaging it. Now
with this knowledge the workers can be more proactive in fixing the machine, and it will result in a
reduction of damaged goods. Michael even showed the workers how to fix this problem now that he
knew that they could easily fix it before the problem escalated. The easy solution to this problem
was to adjust the air pressure that was going through to the pushing plate, and/or readjusting the
angle at which the plate is set at, as the plate and screw for adjusting the air pressure often moves
over time whilst the machine is operating due to the small vibrations.
12/12/2014 – ADDING A “FLAP” TO THE PROBLEM I decided to go a little further and was thinking of ways to lower the occurrence (or eliminate) of this
issue as through the typical manufacturing operations and its vibrations, this will most likely happen
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again in due time. I came up with the idea of adding a “flap” to the metal side panels of the machine
(see below).
I told Michael that I wanted to design a flap like mechanism in CATIA/Solidworks to attach to the
machine to eliminate this problem. However, Michael being the resourceful and cost-effective
engineer came up with an alternative solution which involved placing rejected cardboard packaging
around the edges of the metals panels. This helps prevent the tissue boxes from being pushed over
as the flap loosely grips the boxes as it comes out, but also thin enough to go back into its place so
that the boxes don’t fall back.
Here is an example of the flap loosely gripping the boxes as it comes out (below)
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Here is an example of the flap going back into its place and prevents the boxes from falling back
(below)
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We added these “flaps” to all of the packaging/boxing machines as it was a huge improvement in
terms of the occurrence of this problem.
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WEEK 5
15/12/2014 – FMEA OF FACIAL TISSUE MACHINE PROBLEM After implementing all these changes to the facial tissue machine (packaging / boxing area), I created
a FMEA table in order to show the improvements of machine in terms of a risk priority number
score.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
Tissue boxes are coming out of the machine at an angle causing tipping of boxes
- Pusher arm pushes the boxes too much
- Angle of pusher plate is too much
- Compressed air tubes may be incorrectly installed
Damaged tissue boxes / Quality control
8 7 7 392 - Adjust air pressure going through pressure plate
- Adjust plate angle - Create some form
of resistance so the boxes don’t push too far, but also doesn’t fall back
- Educate operators on why this problem is occurring
After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
Tissue boxes are coming out of the machine at an angle causing tipping of boxes
- Pusher arm pushes the boxes too much
- Angle of pusher plate is too much
- Compressed air tubes may be incorrectly installed
Damaged tissue boxes / Quality control
8 2 2 32 - Adjust air pressure going through pressure plate
- Adjust plate angle - Create some form
of resistance so the boxes don’t push too far, but also doesn’t fall back
- Educate operators on why this problem is occurring
As can be seen from the two FMEA tables above, we have dramatically improved the machine (RPN
from 392 down to 32). This is done by reducing the occurrence of the problem (from 7 to 2) by
readjusting the air pressure going through the pressure plate and readjusting the angle of the plate.
Additionally, Michael and I came up with the idea of using a cardboard flap to resist the boxes from
coming out at too much of an angle, as well as resisting the boxes from falling back. The RPN was
also reduced through the detection (from 7 to 2) of this problem. As I explained the problem and
showed the operator the footage of the problem, the operator can now easily detect when the
problem is about to happen before it actually does in order to prevent the problem from occurring.
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16/12/2014 – PROBLEM OF THE CARDBOARD PAPER FLAP ON THE FACIAL TISSUE
MACHINE Towards the end of the day, after adopting and testing the use of Michael’s cardboard paper flap
idea for a few days, I noticed some wear on the cardboard paper (see below).
Over time, the cardboard paper had obvious wear to it. The cardboard flaps were ripping and
stopped working as intended. An easier way to explain why this happens is, imagine a piece of paper
that is being folded. Then you repeatedly fold along that same line over 100 times. Eventually, the
paper would lose its structural integrity and become weaker and weaker to the point where it
eventually rips and is no longer useful. This is the same case scenario. So in terms of the cardboard
flap’s functionality, it works as intended, but only for a few days. The material of the cardboard
paper was too weak and yields too easily, so Michael assigned me to work on this problem
tomorrow.
17/12/2014 – CONCEPT IDEAS OF DESIGNING A FLAP FOR THE FACIAL TISSUE
MACHINE Today, I looked closely at the machine to see my limitations on where I can mount the flap and drew
up some concept sketches on how I can implement the idea. From what I’ve learnt in the past few
days with the cardboard flap, the addition of the flap actually does improve the functionality of the
machine. However, it needed to be made out of a material much stronger than cardboard paper.
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Here is one of the concepts that I drew up as an idea
This is rather a cheap and cost effective method, using something similar to a flap door. However, it
is not as effective as the previous drawn up concept because even though the flaps resist the boxes’
dramatic movements, it is more prone to movements due to the way it is mounted/implemented
within the system.
Another concept I came up is shown below
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The concept sketch I drew is basically a solid frame with bristles attached to it, similar to a dustpan.
The only thing that is in contact with the tissue boxes are the bristles, and since the bristles are in-
line with the tissue boxes, there is minimal stress and wear. The idea of using bristles is good
because it is also thin enough so that the tissue boxes are resisted from too much movement by the
bristles while also resisting the tissue boxes from falling back. I showed this concept drawing to
Michael, and he liked the idea of this concept over the first one. He told me to get it made and
implement it within the machine whenever I can.
18/12/2014 – MEASURING THE WORK AREA FOR CREATION OF THE FLAP / CREATING
A PLAN FOR MAKING THE PART I measured parts on the machine itself so I can get a good idea of the dimensions required for this
3D part as well as the mounting requirements in order for this part to be implemented within the
machine.
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Measuring how long the mounting arm can be
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Measuring how long the front attachment arm will be
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Taking note of all the measurements
Today I also did a bit of research on where I can buy a bristle attachment for part/assembly. The best
attachment to suit this application was from a seller on eBay.
Bristle attachment image from eBay
The dimension of the bristle attachment was 100mm long, and the bristles itself was 20mm wide. Its
attachment mechanism was basically a slot in piece. I drew up the measurements of the
attachments below, after contacting the seller for these details. However, the seller noted that these
measurements were estimations from using a ruler, and I won’t know the exact measurements until
I receive the product if I needed any fine/detailed accurate measurements.
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Slot in attachment of the bristles
19/12/2014 – RESEARCH ON 3D PRINTING MATERIALS I thought a 3D printed version of the flap was more than adequate to be used within the
implementation of machine. When I think of 3D printing applications, as a reference, I think of legos
in terms of their material properties and what they can do. After all, the original legos were made
from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a common material used in 3D printing. Throughout my
research, the other alternative (and more common) material used in many 3D printing applications is
polylactic acid (PLA). Some 3D printers are even PLA and ABS capable. This mainly depends on the
melting temperature of the filament within the printing nozzle as well as the filament diameter to fit
within the nozzle (check each 3D printer capability).
For my research, I took note of some pros and cons for both 3D printing filament material.
Polylactic Acid (PLA)
Pros Cons
Can be printed on a cold surface More environmental-friendly Shiner and smoother appearance No harmful fumes during printing Higher 3D printer speed More detailed models
Can deform because of heat
Less sturdy than ABS
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)
Pros Cons
Very sturdy and hard Suitable for machine or car parts Higher melting point Longer lifespan
Made out of oil
Less environmental-friendly than PLA
Need ventilation due to hot plastic fumes whilst printing
More difficult to print
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Not suitable for using with food
From these pros and cons, it made it quite clear which type of material I should be using. I decided
to use ABS for 3D printing this part because ABS is suitable for machines due to its longer lifespan,
strength, a higher melting point, and the appearance of the part is not a big concern as long as it
does what it meant to do.
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WEEK 6
22/12/2014 – 3D MODELLING OF THE FLAP MECHANISM Today I started the design of the bristle attachment on CATIA.
The requirements for this part was that I needed to create the work piece with reference to the
machine (the maximum allowable measurements of this part can be seen on my entry 2 days ago
(18/12/2014). From this information, I made the general shape of the part (eg. the mounting
mechanism).
This was my original design
Additionally, I needed to work with the seller’s details of the bristle attachment and the slot in
attachment, so I needed to do a bit of a modification to my initial design as the bristle attachment
was longer than expected (100mm), whilst keeping the correct mounting size and have enough
clearance for anything else in the machine.
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This was the design modified in order to accommodate for the 100mm length of the
bristle attachment
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Below are some renders of the part, ready to be printed
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Below is 3D drawing of the part
23/12/2014 – 3D PRINTING OF THE DESIGNED FLAP MECHANISM Today, I went to RMIT to print out the part on one of the 3D printers. Here are some pictures of the
part being made and final prototype.
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This is the final draft product that was created based on the measurements that the seller of the
bristle attachment gave me and on the product page. Once the bristle attachment arrives at the
factory, it should be able to slot into this 3D printed piece and the part should work as intended.
Otherwise, the dimensions of the 3D model can easily be changed to accommodate for the bristle
attachment and reprinted.
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The 3D printed part mounted in its position, ready to be used once the bristle
attachment arrives
The bristle attachment was bought from a seller in Hong Kong, and is expected to arrive at the
factory in approximately 3 weeks.
24/12/2014 TILL 05/01/2015 – FACTORY CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR
PERIOD No work done during this time as it is a holiday
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WEEK 7
05/01/2015 – RESEARCHING/IMPLEMENTING THE VIDEO RECORDING After Michael saw how effective the video recording was, he asked me to look into finding cheap
video recording cameras which are small, and can be easily placed around a machine without
interfering with the worker’s productivity. It also has to be of high enough quality so that we can
clearly see the source of the problem. In addition to this, he asked me to look at the location of
placing the cameras to get the best results for areas that are/seem to be problematic, whilst also
minimising the amount of cameras needed.
The main advantage of this method, is that the camera is placed, and left, so that I can spend time
reviewing the videos in my own time, and still be able to do other work on other tasks that Michael
has assigned to me. Another great advantage to using a camera is for workplace safety. They could
be placed near dangerous machines in order to monitor the automated processes safely, while also
protecting employees from harm as the camera will complete the monitoring in these dangerous
locations instead of employees.
When researching for cameras I came across a lot of different options, and realised that there are
many different types of cameras for different situations. I have to make sure that when choosing an
appropriate camera I need to take the camera specifications into consideration while also choosing a
camera at a cheap enough cost. The camera specifications which I had to consider was things like
megapixels, frame rate and interface. There was also the sensor attributes in which I had to take into
consideration, this included sensory type, Chroma, sensory format and readout method.
Product Name and
Model
Sensory Type
Chroma Max
Resolution Max FPS
Sensory Format
Interface Shutter Price
Blackfly BFLY-PGE-14S2C-CS
Sony IMX104 CMOS
Colour 1296x1032 60 FPS
1/3” GigE PoE Roller Shutter
$295 USD
Blackfly BFLY-PGE-23S2C-CS
Sony IMX136 CMOS
Colour 1920x1200 27 FPS
1/2.8” GigE PoE Roller Shutter
$315 USD
Cricket CR-POE-13S2C-CS
Sony IMX129 CMOS
Colour 1280x1024 60 FPS
1/3” Fast Ethernet PoE
Roller Shutter
$299 USD
Cricket CR-POE20S2C-CS-B
Sony IMX 140 CMOS
Colour 1920x1080 60 FPS
1/2.8” Fast Ethernet PoE
Roller Shutter
$329 USD
Cricket CR-POR-20S3C-CR-B
Sony IMX185 CMOS
Colour 1920x1080 60 FPS
1/2” Fast Ethernet PoE
Roller Shutter
$349 USD
Firefly MV FMVU-13S2C-CS
Sony IMX035 CMOS
Colour 1328X1048 23 FPS
1/3” USB 2.0 Roller Shutter
$325 USD
Flea 3 FL3-U3-13S2C-CS
Sony IMX35 CMOS
Colour 1328X1948 120 FPS
1/3” USB 3.0 Roller Shutter
$525 USD
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When filtering the different camera options, I decided to only look at the Sensory Type CMOS as it
has been increasingly used in the industrial sector. The other option was CCD sensors, the draw back
on these options is that they draw more power and have a slower data-throughput sped. CMOS is
also a better options as they are able to have a fast continuous-shooting mode, which is necessary
for the company’s need.
In regards to the Shutter type, I decided to filter the options to only the cameras which have a Roller
Shutter. The reason for this is because a Roller Shutter is best used when using a CMOS Sensor. They
advantages are the fast frame rates and the overlapping behaviour which is found in a Roller shutter.
Diagram demonstrating time delay between rows of pixels in a roller shutter readout
mode with a CMOS camera
After reviewing the different options, I showed Michael of these results and explained the benefits
of using each one. In the end he believed that the cheaper option out of all of them would be best,
which is the Blackfly BFLY-PGE-14S2C-CS. However, rather than purchasing the camera immediately,
he thought it would be best if he did some research himself and to see if you could get a better price
elsewhere. He found the information I provided to be useful as a starting point on where to look,
and the different considerations he needs to keep in mind when looking.
For the time being, I set up a single video camera at the operator’s workplace, mainly at the facial
tissue packaging machine as the operator has mentioned a few problems within the last few weeks.
06/01/2015 – SHADOWING OPERATOR AND REVIEWING THE SUPPLIES Today, Michael wanted me to get a better idea of the company as a whole. So he asked me to look
into each individual component which makes up the company. Starting from, what raw materials are
needed to make the products, then look at the machinery requirements to make the products, the
worker’s needs, the client’s needs and the company’s overall objectives. From this information, I can
get a better idea of what the purpose of the company and its goals.
Input/Supplies
Supplied/Owned by
Purpose/Process Quality Control Output
Unprocessed Jumbo Tissue Roll
Tissue supplier
The main raw material of the operation. This is where the tissue paper comes from.
1. Cut the protective plastic only when it is ready to be used in order to prevent dust
Overall, produce/manufacture facial tissue boxes at a
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2. Check for no damages when unloading from shipping freight
3. Reject any ripped sections of the jumbo roll
high production rate in order to meet the customer’s demands
Tissue Processing / Folding Machine
Factory owned
This is where is the tissue is folded and cut into its correct quantity (eg. A tissue box has 200 facial tissues)
1. Ensure that the tissue stacks are folded properly and flattened so it can move through the belts with less chance of tipping
2. Ensure that the correct amount of tissues are within a stack depending on the type of product
Conveyer Belts / Pulleys
Factory owned
Moves the tissues from A to B
1. Ensure the belts are properly tensioned and all belts move uniformly to prevent machine jamming/stoppage
Cutting Blades Table
Factory owned
To cut the long folded row of facial tissue into 6 individually sized tissue stacks ready to be packaged
1. Ensure that the blades are sharpened enough to cut the facial tissues neatly without any rips
Flat Tissue Boxes
Box supplier
The raw material of the tissue box packaging, to used used with the packaging/boxing machine
1. When placed within the packaging/boxing machine, the colours are generally shuffled in order for more colour variety for the end user
Packaging / Boxing Machine
Factory owned
The machine that puts the individually sized tissue stacks into their packaging
1. Constant maintenance checks for the machine so that the machine runs smoothly
Adhesive Glue
Glue supplier
To seal the sides of the tissue box packaging
1. Ensure that the glue has the correct melting temperature and seals the boxes at an acceptable standard
Packaging Carton Boxes
Carton supplier
To place the facial tissue boxes into the carton for shipping (eg. 30 facial tissue boxes within a carton)
Sealing / Tape Machine
Factory owned
This is what the carton goes through to be sealed
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Tape Tape supplier
Raw material used to seal the carton
Pallets Factory owned
Pallets are stacked well and placed within the factory in order to save inventory space and easily accessible for delivery
1. Storing the pallets in a safe location where it cannot be damaged by water or any external variants
Shrink wrap machine
Factory owned
Used to shrink wrap the cartons that was placed on a pallet, ready for delivery and avoids tipping and ensures that the cartons will not be damaged
1. Ensure that the shrink wrap has correct tensioning when operating to ensure that the products on the pallet have minimal movement upon transport
Shrink wrap Shrink wrap supplier
The raw material to be used with the shrink wrap machine
Cleaning / air tools
Factory owned
General maintenance purposes
Air compressor
Factory owned
Many of the machines require an air compressor in order to function
1. Turning off the air compressor during breaks so that the air compressor will not overheat, especially in summer.
07/01/2015 – PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE FACIAL TISSUE OPERATIONS Continuing from the previous table, we look into the people involved in the manufacturing process
of the facial tissue machine, their requirements and who is directly affected if the requirements are
not met.
People Involved Requirements Directly affects if requirements not met
Factory owner Ensure that revenue is made, factory is operating as expected and customer demands are met
Machine operators and customers
Buyer / Wholesaler / Customer
Satisfied with the quality of the product and possible feedback
Machine Operator(s)
Ensure all products passes the quality inspection
Customers
Administration Creates an invoice for all orders and keeps a record of it in the factory’s
Truck drivers and customers
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system. Directs the truck driver on where to deliver the products
Truck driver To deliver the products locally
Customers
Tissue supplier Allow for up to 4 weeks for the unprocessed jumbo tissue roll to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)
Machine operator and customers
Box supplier Allow for up to 4 weeks for the flat tissue boxes to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)
Machine operator and customers
Glue supplier Allow for up to 1 weeks for the adhesive glue to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)
Machine operator and customers
Carton supplier Allow for up to 1 weeks for the packaging carton boxes to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)
Machine operator and customers
Tape supplier Allow for up to 1 weeks for the tape to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)
Machine operator and customers
Shrink wrap supplier
Allow for up to 1 weeks for the shrink wrap to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)
Machine operator and customers
After collecting this information, Michael stressed that the importance of this task was to show me
how each component of the business affects one another. If one component is delayed, it will have
an effect on the other areas as well. This is why, when it comes to supplies, it must be planned out
according to the future needs so that when it comes time for production, the raw materials are
ready to be used. When it comes time for the production, the machines must be working effectively
so that the goods can be produced on time as per the client’s requirements, and so that it can be
delivered to them in a timely manner. Therefore, doing this exercise was important for me to see the
impact of planning ahead of time and knowing what will be affected if one component cannot meet
its requirements.
08/01/2015 – MANUFACTURING TO MEET CUSTOMER’S DEMANDS IN AN CONSTANT
CYCLE As I have compiled a table of people involved in the facial tissue operations/procedure, Michael
today wanted to give me some very important pointers on maintaining a stable supply and demand
for any manufacturing company. He started off by saying, many manufacturing companies have died
from having too much inventory sitting in the warehouse than from having too few many sales.
Therefore, when Michael started this company, he firmly believed that the long term health of the
company was far more important than immediate growth. Growth will come in time as their
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products get distributed to everyone. He was quite confident that as soon as the product gets in the
hands of an individual, the product would speak for itself through the high quality manufacturing
operations and quality assurances. When he initially started the company, he wasn’t sure about the
quantity of production and inventory risk. Therefore, he did this on a “just-in-time” basis until he had
enough data for predicting the order demand of each product that comes in on a weekly basis. This
way, the company would have all the orders handled smoothly and still be able to hold enough
inventory stock (only a few pallets of each product) for unintended events such as a once off order
or if a machine had broken down.
He also went on to expand on his previous statement about the long term health of the company by
limiting who the factory distributes their products to. Initially, it seemed rather odd to me how
limiting the sales of a product could benefit the long term health of the company. It made no sense
to me. That was until Michael explained his constant cycle of supply and demand to me. Basically,
the factory only sells their products to wholesalers. His explanation was rather simple. The reason
why he only sells to wholesalers is because they are the ones that order a large quantity at a given
time and on a weekly or fortnightly basis. It is better to cater for these individuals than compared to
the public who would only order a few cartons at a time on, a monthly or quarterly basis. The cost of
production runs more efficiently when an order is made in bulk and frequent. However, when there
are enquiries from the public, he refers them onto his wholesaling clients as it becomes more
beneficial for his company and as well as his wholesaling clients. By doing this, in the long run, it will
mean that their orders will increase to meet their new demand, thus we are able to sell our products
in bulk more frequently to our clients. If we catered to the public’s needs, the wholesalers that we
sell to would not make any money on our products as the public can find it cheaper elsewhere. Thus,
it would ultimately destroy the frequency of orders coming out of the factory. You want to act in
good faith, meaning you don’t want to take customers away from your clients because that will
result in your clients going elsewhere for their supply and ending the constant cycle of supply and
demand. Finally, Michael went back to the point about how important noting all the people involved
in each process and how they can directly affect one another if they aren’t thought out well.
Below is a graph to better visualise the ongoing cycle.
09/01/2015 – FAILURE MODE EFFECTS ANALYSIS (FMEA) After collecting sufficient video footage of the operations in the manufacturing process of the facial
tissues, I used a FMEA table to easily identify and evaluate the potential failures of a process. This
table is a logical table that helps establish the impact of the failure, and identify and prioritise the
actions for each individual problem based on its severity, occurrence, detection and risk priority
Austwide Paper
Products
Wholesalers
End Consumer
Company produces
products to meet
wholesalers
demand
Wholesalers sell
products to meet
end consumers
demand
Consumer returns
to wholesaler to
stock up on supply
Wholesaler
purchases more
products to replenish
their supply
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number (RPN = Severity x Occurrence x Detection). Severity [S] is based off a score between 1
representing the least safety concern and 10 representing the most dangerous safety concern.
Additionally, in terms of scoring severity, I also included the element of severity towards the
company, meaning if this problem continues, how much the company will be affected in terms of
manufacturing cost and quality. Occurrence [O] is based off a score between 1 representing the
lowest occurrence and 10 representing the most occurrence (or a significantly high occurrence).
Detection [D] is based off a score between 1 representing the highest chance of detection and 10
representing the lowest chance of detection. These three factors are all multiplied together,
ultimately provides us with a risk priority number score (RPN).
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
Tissue Processing / Folding Machine
Tissue paper is not being folded neatly, and sometimes crooked
Dirt trapped within suction wheel
Unusable tissue paper as it will not be able to go through the belts / Quality control
7 8 2 112 Use of air spray and other tools in order to unclog the trapped dirt within the suction wheel holes
Conveyer Belts / Pulleys
When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, it tips over or jams the machine
-Incorrect positioning of the sensors
-Tipping of facial tissues along the conveyer belts -Jamming of the machine
9 2 6 108 Reposition the sensor so that the timing and accuracy of the pushing plate is adequate
When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, the pushing plate sometimes also pushes the following tissue
-Conveyer belts moving too fast -Not enough clearance between the facial tissue and the pusher plate
-Jamming of the machine
9 4 6 216 -Redesign the pusher plate OR -Slow down the conveyer belts
Cutting Blades Table
The tissue paper moves non-uniformly along the belts
Cutting blade dragging tissues behind and difference in belt tensioning
Jamming of the system
9 8 5 360 Maintenance of the surfaces of the blade (try to make all the blade surfaces similar or equal to another) Re-tensioning the individual belts
The tissue paper is not being cut
- Blunt cutting blades
- Jamming of the system
9 8 5 360 - Reposition the cutting blade sharpeners as
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- Bad positioning of cutting blades in terms of height - Bad positioning of blade sharpeners
- Damaged goods of tissue paper
it may not be sharpening certain areas of the blade
- Reposition the height of the cutting blade as it may be not tall enough to cut through the height of the tissue paper
Packaging / Boxing Machine
Tissue boxes are coming out of the machine at an angle causing tipping of boxes
- Pusher arm pushes the boxes too much
- Angle of pusher plate is too much
- Compressed air tubes may be incorrectly installed
Damaged tissue boxes / Quality control
8 7 7 392 - Adjust air pressure going through pressure plate
- Adjust plate angle
- Create some form of resistance so the boxes don’t push too far, but also doesn’t fall back
- Educate operators on why this problem is occurring
The tissue boxes are not being sealed
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue - Metal side panels are too wide apart
- Damaged goods of tissue paper
3 9 9 243 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Tighten metal side panels
The machine gets dirty quite often on the metal side panels
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue
- Damaged goods of overall product
6 7 2 84 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Reposition the gluing arm of the
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boxing machine
- General maintenance and cleaning of the boxing machine
One of the pusher arms does not go up at the same as the other. These pusher arms are soppose to go up and down simultaneously
- Dust floating around factory clogging up the mechanism - Compressed air tubes are not properly connected
- Damaged goods of overall product - Jamming of machine
8 5 8 320 - Reconnect the air tubes to the pusher arms
- Disassembly of the pusher arms in order to clean out all the clogged dust
- Spray lubrication on the mechanism so the pusher arms can move smoothly
The machine is becoming jammed
- Manufacturing faults from supplier - Operators filling up the tissue box holder too high
- Damaged goods - Jamming of machine
8 4 4 128 - Carefully look through the boxes from supplier to see if there are curved/faulty packages
- Set a clear maximum limit of how many tissue boxes the operator can refill the machine with
The tissue boxes are not being folded properly
- Poor positioning of the package holder -Small mechanism not opening the box before the facial tissues are pushed in
- Damaged goods - Poor quality control
6 6 6 216 - Reposition the location of the package holder so that the small mechanism makes contact with the packaging
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to slightly open the box when facial tissues are being pushed in
Sealing / Tape Machine
The box gets stuck within the sealing / tape machine
- Belts are not making enough/too much contact with the box
- Slows down manufacturing processes / jamming
8 5 2 60 - Adjust the height of the sealing / tape machine
- Ensure that the belts are properly tensioned
This table is the starting point and will be filled out as we look into each individual problem within
the next few weeks for each focused area and apply our suggested actions to them. After we have
completed and solved all the problems that we have found in our video footage and experiences, we
will review this table at a later date to see the improvements in terms of the severity, occurrence,
detection and finally the risk priority number.
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WEEK 8
12/01/2015 – REAL LIFE BENCHMARKS (BEFORE) As the previous FMEA table provides a good indication of the performance of each machine and the
severity, occurrence and detection of each manufacturing problems/flaws, the numbers are given an
arbitrary score from 0 to 10. These numbers however do not show a direct or correlating value in
terms of how the machine has been improved from a manufacturing standpoint. To give a scale to
this, I created a table with some real life benchmarks and factors so that we can see a clear obvious
performance improvement (or reduction) of the overall machinery and manufacturing operations
after completing the suggested actions FMEA table fully.
No. of operators
Hours worked
Average Cost for workers per hour ($)
Average Cost for workers per day ($)
Average cost for used invention per day ($)
Average cost for factory overheads per day ($)
Machinery downtime (minutes)
Machinery output (Pallets)
Average selling price per pallet
Average selling price of all pallets per day
2 8 26 416 x y 61 10 a 10a
This table provides an average value for each of these factors. For privacy reasons, each individual’s
pay was assumed to be $26 per hour, as an average amount earned, according to Michael. The
operators work from 8am till 5pm with a total of 1 hour break. This means that 8 hours of work is
completed in a day per operator. The average cost for inventory and factory overheads per day is
pretty much self-explanatory. However, I am unable to provide production cost and final product
cost as this information is confidential. Therefore, I gave each category an algebraic value instead.
The following statement is true:
∑ 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒𝑠 > ∑ 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑠
> 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠 + 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 + 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑠
10 × 𝑎 > 416 + 𝑥 + 𝑦
This essentially means that the company is making a profit as the sales of the facial tissues is greater
than the cost of production.
The machinery downtime is calculated in minutes. This accounts for any problems within the
machinery that needs to be dealt, and/or if there are any machinery stoppages/downtime. The final,
most important factor that must be looked at, is the machinery output, or how much tissue boxes
are made within a day. Both the machinery downtime and machinery output has been reviewed
from the video footages that were recorded within the past few days. These test sample for these
values are found from an average over a week span (5 days). Here is the 5 day sample:
Day Machinery Downtime / Problems (minutes)
Monday 64
Tuesday 59
Wednesday 55
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Thursday 71
Friday 56
Overall
Total 305
Average 61
These problems take up, on average 61 minutes of work time within a day. Although some problems
may seem to be an easy fix that can take no more than 5 minutes to fix, it all adds up within a work
day. This 61 minutes of resolving problems is quite significant considering it is 1 hour out of 8 of the
working hours. I will look into the problems deeper when I review the video footages of each
problem in detail and propose a suggested action in order to resolve these problems and lower this
machinery downtime value within the next few days.
When I review these real life factors after completing my FMEA table, I expect to see the machinery
downtime go down, so that there are less problems with the overall manufacturing process and an
increase in the machinery output, so that more facial tissue boxes are being produced within the
same time frame.
13/01/2015 – TISSUE PROCESSING / FOLDING MACHINE PROBLEM The suction wheel sometimes gets clogged up as there is so much dirt floating around the factory
that it gets in the holes of the wheel, eventually clogging up the suction wheel and therefore cannot
hold the tissue in tension. This ultimately causes the unprocessed tissue to be folded loosely or even
crooked as the paper is rotated and folded past this suction wheel which is no longer holding the
paper in a tight grip as it normally should.
For this problem, when the machine operators had finished their day’s work, I manually used an air
compressor spray gun to spray within each hole in an attempt to get rid of as much trapped dust as
possible within each of these holes. Additionally, I also used a small pick-like tool to pick out the hard
to get trapped dust which the air spray was not able to push out. This process was quite tedious as it
required me to look into each individual hole to see if it was clogged.
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For this problem, getting rid of the trapped dust within the suction wheel, I did a failure mode
effects analysis for this specific problem.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
Tissue paper is not being folded neatly, and sometimes crooked
Dirt trapped within suction wheel
Unusable tissue paper as it will not be able to go through the belts / Quality control
7 8 2 112 Use of air spray and other tools in order to unclog the trapped dirt within the suction wheel holes
After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
Tissue paper is not being folded neatly, and sometimes crooked
Dirt trapped within suction wheel
Unusable tissue paper as it will not be able to go through the belts / Quality control
7 2 2 28 Use of air spray and other tools in order to unclog the trapped dirt within the suction wheel holes
By doing the completed action, we can see that the RPN went from 112 down to 28. The severity is
scored 7 because during manufacturing, the tissue paper moves fast. Thus, when this problem
arises, it wastes a lot of tissue paper as the rows of tissue paper is rejected due to quality control
issues. The occurrence went from 8 to 2 because with the completed action, there is no clogged dust
within the suction wheel holes which ultimately solves this problem. However, it is almost
impossible to get rid of all the dust floating around the factory. Therefore, once the problems occurs
again after a few months, this maintenance is necessary. The detection of this problem remains the
same with a score of 2.
14/01/2015 – CONVEYER BELTS / PULLEY PROBLEM In this problem, the sensors are not working as intended. This leads to the pusher plate pushing the
facial tissues into the next conveyer belt in an unsatisfactory way, resulting in the tissue paper being
knocked over, collapsing and leaving loose separated tissues to move along the conveyer belts. This
means that the manufacturing process could be jammed if it gets on the next set of sensors, or even
1 or 2 single tissues being pushed into a tissue box which is then packaged.
The accuracy of these sensors are dependent on several factors. The two main factors in this
scenario are timing and positioning of the sensor. As the conveyer belts are constantly moving, every
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split second counts whenever the pusher is activated and if the sensor is out of place, even by 1 or 2
millimetres, it will cause either tipping of the facial tissues or even jamming the machine.
The image above shows Michael readjusting the sensor’s position
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
When the facial tissues are
-Incorrect positioning of the sensors
-Tipping of facial tissues
9 2 6 108 Reposition the sensor so that the timing and accuracy of the pushing plate is adequate
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being pushed along the conveyer belt, it tips over or jams the machine
along the conveyer belts -Jamming of the machine
After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, it tips over or jams the machine
-Incorrect positioning of the sensors
-Tipping of facial tissues along the conveyer belts -Jamming of the machine
9 0 6 0 Reposition the sensor so that the timing and accuracy of the pushing plate is adequate
Once the sensor has been positioned correctly, this problem does not occur (score of 0) anymore.
This means that the RPN score is 0. Beforehand, the occurrence was low (score of 2), as the sensor
was off by approximately 1 millimetre from the perfect positioning. This just goes to show how
sensitive some of these factors are when operating in any manufacturing processes. Generally, in
any manufacturing processes, there are manufacturing tolerances in the final product due to many
real life factors and inaccuracies that occurs in real life. This is one of the manufacturing factors that
we have to do deal with in the manufacturing process.
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15/01/2015 – CONVEYER BELTS / PULLEY PROBLEM
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There are two problems that I can immediately recognise within the two images above. Firstly, the
reason why the problem above happens is because as the pusher plate is pushing the individual
facial tissues onto the next conveyer belt, the following facial tissues are still being moved along the
previous conveyer belt, and as the pusher plate is quite large, it also pushes the next set of facial
tissues, ultimately resulting in what can be seen in the first image, where the facial tissue does not
move along the belt straight and jamming up the whole manufacturing process. The second image
also shows this.
Here is a representation of how large the pusher plate is compared to the facial tissues moving along
the conveyer belt.
From the image above, there is very little clearance between the pusher arm and the individual facial
tissues, especially as they are moving along the conveyer belt. One of the suggested solution for this
problem could be to slow down the conveyer belt speed in order for the pusher plate to push the
tissues which is moving at a slower speed. However, I didn’t quite like this solution as it slows down
the manufacturing process. So I decided to redesign the pusher plate, and basically make it’s width a
bit smaller, so there is more clearance between the plate and the tissue. This way, we can keep the
usual high volume manufacturing process, while also solving the problem. I will apply this suggested
action after work, or tomorrow when this machine is not operating.
Here is a FMEA table of this problem as of now:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, the pushing plate
-Conveyer belts moving too fast -Not enough clearance between the facial tissue and the pusher plate
-Jamming of the machine
9 4 6 216 -Redesign the pusher plate OR -Slow down the conveyer belts
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sometimes also pushes the following tissue
16/01/2015 – CONVEYER BELTS / PULLEY PROBLEM (DISASSEMBLY)
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Today was rather a short day. The machine was not in use for the first half of the day as the
company only needed to fulfil a small order towards the end of the day with this particular machine.
So I was able to have a look at the pushing plate and its whole assembly to see if there was a better
or easier way to approach yesterday’s problem. Michael and I disassembled the pusher arm
completely and he also gave me a short lecture on some of the mechanical components that makes
up this assembly. This gave me a better overview on the specific components within this single
assembly, such as the compressed air tubes making it possible for the pusher arm to push the tissues
along the conveyer belt, as well as move up and down. To conclude, Michael gave me the pusher
plate in order for me to measure, and redesign this part so that it would improve the manufacturing
process and eliminate the problem mentioned yesterday.
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WEEK 9
19/01/2015 – DESIGNING AN IMPROVED PART OF THE PUSHER PLATE IN 3D
MODELLING SOFTWARE Today, I designed a concept of the part on CATIA as a 3D part, ready to be printed. I measured the
original plate and created the 3D part. Then I used this design as a reference and slightly modified
the part to implement the improvements (changing the width of the pusher arm to be smaller to
eliminate the problem mentioned a few days ago).
I measured the original part’s dimensions.
Measuring the thickness of the pusher plate
Measuring the diameter of the mounting holes
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Measuring the edge of the plate to the edge of the mounting holes
Here is a summary of all the necessary dimensions on the pusher plate.
When I started 3D modelling this part, I gave a bit of clearance to some measurements (a few
millimetres) on the 3D model as a few extra or less millimetres would not have changed much for
this certain application, for example I gave a bit more head room for the mounting holes as it was
originally measured 6.3 millimetres in diameter, which was then 3D modelled to 7 millimetres.
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Here is a 3D drawing of the original pusher arm with its correct dimensions in mm.
Here is a 3D drawing of the updated pusher arm part with its dimensions in mm. It is basically
thinner on the edges of the part so that there is more clearance for the when the pushing plate
pushes the tissues to the next conveyer belt.
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Here are some 3D renders of the part
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20/01/2015 – PRINTING THE PART ON A 3D PRINTER Today, I went to RMIT to print out the part on one of the 3D printers. Here are some pictures of the
part being made.
One issue that occurred when printing this part, was that whilst printing, the part fell over, and the
printer continued printing / placing material down as if the part was still standing. The part took 4
hours total to print, so I let the printer print the part whilst I was away. When I came back, I was
faced with the image below. This made me reconsider the initial orientation of the part, and how it is
printed on a certain axis, where in this case, the thin edge didn’t have enough structural integrity,
resulting in a tipped over, incomplete part, and quite a bit of wasted material.
Additionally, I initially tried to hollow out the part in order to reduce print time and saving printing
material. Although, after this fail print, the part felt a bit too flimsy and I didn’t think it had enough
structural integrity to be able to push a tissue stack. Therefore, I printed the original part without it
being hollowed out.
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After printing off the part, I went back to work and compared this 3D printed pusher plate with the
original metal pusher plate. Here are some images of the difference in size of the pusher plates.
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Here are some images of the part being implemented in the machine. As the part was printed using
ABS plastics, it is also suitable to use as a machinery part (final part), and would function just as well
as the original metal plate.
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The 3D printed part pushing a stack of facial tissues onto the next conveyer belt
21/01/2015 – SICK Did not go to work today. I wasn’t feeling well.
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22/01/2015 – CUTTING BLADE TABLE PROBLEM Non-uniform movements along the cutting blade table (IMG_0006 from new)
Today, I looked at the problem within the cutting blade table area. From the images above, as the
row of tissue paper moves along the individual belts to be cut in its individual sizes, the row of tissue
paper comes out non-uniformly.
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This eventually causes the process to stop as the individual tissue is not in line with the others and
not in its correct position. From the image above, as the row of tissues are being pushed into the
next section of the process, the stack of tissue that is out of place will cause jamming in the process
as the pusher cannot get that particular tissue stack through the correct hole, ultimately blocking off
the next incoming row of tissue paper to pass through.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The tissue paper moves non-uniformly
Cutting blade dragging tissues behind and difference
Jamming of the system
9 8 5 360 Maintenance of the surfaces of the blade (try to make all the blade surfaces similar or equal to another)
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along the belts
in belt tensioning
Re-tensioning the individual belts
After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The tissue paper moves non-uniformly along the belts
Cutting blade dragging tissues behind and difference in belt tensioning
Jamming of the system
9 2 5 90 Maintenance of the surfaces of the blade (try to make all the blade surfaces similar or equal to another) Re-tensioning the individual belts
The RPN score went from 360 to 90. By completing the suggested actions, I was able to lower the
occurrence of this problem from 8 to 2. The severity is scored 9 because firstly there are cutting
blades under the table as a safety issue and secondly, the stoppage of an entire manufacturing
process in order to unjam the machine is quite time consuming and costly towards to company.
Detection is scored reasonably with 5 because even though it is very likely to detect when this
problem occurs, it is still extremely hard to react to this problem as the tissue paper moves from one
section to another within a matter of seconds, meaning there is only a few second window to
prevent this jamming.
23/01/2015 – CUTTING BLADE TABLE PROBLEM
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The problem that I am reviewing today is again within the cutting blade table. As the row of tissue
paper is moving along the belts in order to be cut, the row of tissue paper does not get cut and jams
the machine where the cutting blades are. Thus resulting in uncut/unprocessed paper and jamming
the machine at the cutting blades.
Before suggested actions:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The tissue paper is not being cut
- Blunt cutting blades - Bad positioning of cutting blades in terms of height - Bad positioning of blade sharpeners
- Jamming of the system - Damaged goods of tissue paper
9 8 5 360 - Reposition the cutting blade sharpeners as it may not be sharpening certain areas of the blade
- Reposition the height of the cutting blade as it may be not tall enough to cut through the height of the tissue paper
After suggested actions:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The tissue paper is not being cut
- Blunt cutting blades - Bad positioning of cutting blades in terms of height - Bad positioning of blade sharpeners
- Jamming of the system - Damaged goods of tissue paper
9 2 5 90 - Resharpen cutting blades
- Reposition the cutting blade sharpeners as it may not be sharpening certain areas of the blade
- Reposition the height of the cutting blade as it may be not tall enough to cut through the height of the tissue paper
This problem is similar to yesterday’s problem in terms of its severity and detection for the same
reason as mentioned previously. The occurrence and reason for the problem is however quite
different. Earlier within the company, Michael mentioned briefly about this particular problem and
how to reposition the blade sharpeners and cutting blades. I will not go through this again in detail,
however, the main idea behind testing if the blade sharpeners were in its correct position is by
marking the cutting blades with a sharpie and then putting it in contact with one another. If the
mark is gone, then the blade is being sharpened at that location. If not, then it is not being
sharpened at all.
By completing these suggested actions, I was able to lower the RPN from 360 down to 90 by
lowering the occurrence of this problem from 8 to 2.
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WEEK 10
26/01/2015 – AUSTRALIA DAY No work today due to public holiday, Australia Day
27/01/2015 – PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM The glue sometimes does not seal the sides of the facial tissue boxes
When the facial tissue boxes come out of the boxing machine, some tissue boxes do not get sealed.
This may be due to several factors including the melting temperature and the properties of the glue.
The glue can be leaky and not as thick as we would like.
Here is a closer image of the unsealed tissue box.
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Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The tissue boxes are not being sealed
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue - Metal side panels are too wide apart
- Damaged goods of tissue paper
3 9 9 243 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Tighten metal side panels
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After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The tissue boxes are not being sealed
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue - Metal side panels are too wide apart
- Damaged goods of tissue paper
3 6 9 162 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Tighten metal side panels
Even though the severity isn’t too high for this problem, it is still costing the company due to
damaged goods. We cannot ship the product if it isn’t properly sealed and does not meet customer
requirements. The detection is very hard to detect as once glue arm makes contact with the box, this
is basically the end of the process ready for packing, so it is almost unavoidable to prevent this
problem before it happens unless the machine is working flawlessly.
What I was able to do is reduce the occurrence of this problem (from 9 to 6) by changing the melting
temperature of the glue reservoir, ultimately melting the glue and changing the thickness of the glue
that will be used for the sealing of the box. However, I was not satisfied with this result, because the
RPN score was still quite high at 162. So I did some research on other adhesive glue products in
which the company could test and gave Michael a list of other adhesive glue products to use instead
of our current glue to hopefully reduce this problem even further.
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28/01/2015 - PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM The machine gets dirty quite quickly, leaving glue residue on the machine. Ultimately causing the
scratch marks on the packaging of the tissue boxes, lowering the overall quality of the product.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The machine gets dirty quite often on the metal side panels
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue
- Damaged goods of overall product
6 7 2 84 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Reposition the gluing arm of the boxing machine
- General maintenance and cleaning of the boxing machine
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After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The machine gets dirty quite often on the metal side panels
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue
- Damaged goods of overall product
4 0 2 0 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Reposition the gluing arm of the boxing machine
- General maintenance and cleaning of the boxing machine
Going through the suggested actions, the RPN went from 84 down to 0, ultimately eliminating the
problem. I started with the general maintenance and cleaning of the boxing machine. This lowers
the severity of the problem as the effects (boxes being damaged) is reduced due to less/if not any
glue residue is stuck to the metal side panels. However, the biggest reduction in the RPN came the
occurrence when repositioning the glue arm of the boxing machine. Prior to the action, the arm
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would hit the edge of the packaging folds, resulting in some glue residue to be on the outside of the
boxes. With the gluing arm properly positioned, the occurrence of this problem would go down to a
score of 1. This is due to the temperature of the glue and its thickness. It can be leaky and not as
thick, resulting in the image below. Here is one exaggerated example of the problem as I was
repositioning the gluing arm.
As can be seen from the image above, glue is leaking from box, which ultimately leaves glue residue
on the metal side panels when the box makes contact with it. In the long run, this glue residue builds
up and sticks to the machine, leading to the machine eventually being jammed due to the build-up
of glue.
Lastly, by testing around with the melting temperature of the glue, I was able to eliminate this
problem completely, as the occurrence score goes down to 0. As the RPN value is based on severity
times occurrence times detection, if one of these factors equal 0, then the RPN would be 0
(4x0x2=0).
Below is an image of the result. The metal side panels which holds the tissue boxes no longer gets
any glue residue over time as there is no build-up of glue.
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29/01/2015 - PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM Here is another problem within the boxing machine. Sometimes one of the pusher arm does not go
up quick enough or at the same time as the other, therefore, only pushing one side of the box and
jamming the machine.
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The images above shows the box being pushed, with one arm up and one arm down. It shows the
tissue box eventually jamming the machine.
The reason for this problem is most likely due to all the dust floating around the factory or the
compressed air tubes are not properly connected to these pusher arms.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
One of the pusher arms does not go up at the same as the other. These pusher arms are soppose to go up and down simultaneously
- Dust floating around factory clogging up the mechanism - Compressed air tubes are not properly connected
- Damaged goods of overall product - Jamming of machine
8 5 8 320 - Reconnect the air tubes to the pusher arms
- Disassembly of the pusher arms in order to clean out all the clogged dust
- Spray lubrication on the mechanism so the pusher arms can move smoothly
After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
One of the pusher arms does not go up at the same as the other. These pusher arms are soppose to go
- Dust floating around factory clogging up the mechanism - Compressed air tubes are
- Damaged goods of overall product - Jamming
8 1 8 64 - Reconnect the air tubes to the pusher arms
- Disassembly of the pusher arms in order to clean out all the clogged dust
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up and down simultaneously
not properly connected
of machine
- Spray lubrication on the mechanism so the pusher arms can move smoothly
The RPN score went from 320 down to 64. The severity score is 8 due to damaged goods. However,
if not attended to quickly, the tissue boxes will be pushed unevenly and continue to be pushed
unevenly, resulting in a constant flow of damaged goods as this is an autonomous process and
possibly jamming the machine. For any manufacturing company, damage goods is a loss to the
company and stoppage of machines due to jamming is also a loss. In terms of detection, it is quite
easy to see this happening, but the window to react is within a matter of seconds, so the detection
score is also 8.
The significant change in RPN came in the occurrence, going from 5 down to 1 by completing the
suggested actions of reconnecting the tube, and reassembling the pusher arm. This almost
eliminates the problem entirely (score of 1 for occurrence), however, the dust floating around the
factory is almost impossible to get rid of. The lubrication spray on the pusher arm also helps to
reduce the occurrence of this problem.
30/01/2015 - PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM
This sort of jamming within the machine is due to the raw tissue boxes being curved when put in the
machine. The raw packaging is supposed to be placed flat within the machine. The curved packaging
may be due to a few reasons. Firstly, the packaging could be shipped badly from our suppliers.
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This is how the boxes arrive to the company. Occasionally, the operators would open up a box and
find a few non-flat packages. These curved packages must be either bent back to be flat as possible,
but generally our company just discards the rejected packages due to quality control. Sometimes the
slightest curve within the packages may be unseen to the machine operator, as the operator refills
the machine with the packages in large handfuls (sandwiching the curved package). Therefore, when
the curved package reaches the bottom of the holder, ready to be used, it causes jamming within
the machine.
Another possible reason for this problem occurring is due to how the operator refills the machine.
Sometimes, the operator carelessly loads up the machine with too many packages, thus the
packages at the bottom of the holder becomes curved due to the huge load acting upon it. Below is
an image of how many packages the machine should hold at once.
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Here is a drawn up sketch to further explain the huge load acting upon the raw tissue boxes. If you
look at the lower area, the stacked boxes eventually turn “u” shaped, which results in the very first
image of this heading.
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Additionally, here is another problem which may occur due to this problem:
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As can be seen from the image above, the flat tissue boxes are being held by 4 small round pieces of
metal. The reason why it is held like this, is so that the suction cups are able to pick up the flat tissue
boxes for the manufacturing process. Since it is only being held by 4 of these round objects, there
isn’t much support in the middle of the flat boxes. This means that the lower half of the tissue boxes
will eventually curve and become u-shaped as the load of the tissue boxes on the top half is putting
high force upon the stacked flat boxes. Eventually, if the machine is loaded with enough flat tissue
boxes, the lower flat boxes will just fall through, and all the stacked boxes will follow. When this
happens, the whole manufacturing process is at halt as the machine operators need to re-bend the
curved boxes and reload the flat tissue box holder.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The machine is becoming jammed
- Manufacturing faults from supplier - Operators filling up the tissue box holder too high
- Damaged goods - Jamming of machine
8 4 4 128 - Carefully look through the boxes from supplier to see if there are curved/faulty packages
- Set a clear maximum limit of how many tissue boxes the operator can refill the machine with
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After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The machine is becoming jammed
- Manufacturing faults from supplier - Operators filling up the tissue box holder too high
- Damaged goods - Jamming of machine
8 1 1 8 - Carefully look through the boxes from supplier to see if there are curved/faulty packages
- Set a clear maximum limit of how many tissue boxes the operator can refill the machine with
After completing the suggested actions, I was able to educate to the operator the cause of this
problem by showing him the footage that was recorded and made him more aware of how
damaging curved boxes can be if placed within the machine or if the machine is loaded with too
many raw tissue boxes. This lowers the occurrence of the problem from 4 to 1 and improves the
detection of the operator using the machine from 4 to 1. In turn, this results in the RPN score going
from 128 down to 8.
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WEEK 11
02/02/2015 – PACKAGING / BOXING MACHINE PROBLEM Here is some footage of the tissue boxes not being folded properly. The reason for this is that when
the facial tissues is being pushed into its packaging, there is a small mechanism that opens up the
packaging slightly so that there is more head room for the tissue to pushes into the box without
hitting any of the sides of the box.
Here is an example of the small mechanism not opening up box below
Here is an example of the small mechanism opening the box below
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This is what happens to the final result when the problem occurs
As can be seen from the image above, the final product is not folded properly on the side of the
tissue box, thus the glue is missing contact with the necessary folds and makes contact with the
facial tissues on the inside instead.
Before suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The tissue boxes are not being folded properly
- Poor positioning of the package holder -Small mechanism not opening the box before the facial tissues are pushed in
- Damaged goods - Poor quality control
6 6 6 216 - Reposition the location of the package holder so that the small mechanism makes contact with the packaging to slightly open the box when facial tissues are being pushed in
After completed action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The tissue boxes are not being folded properly
- Poor positioning of the package holder -Small mechanism not opening
- Damaged goods - Poor quality control
6 0 6 0 - Reposition the location of the package holder so that the small mechanism makes contact with the packaging to slightly open the box when
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the box before the facial tissues are pushed in
facial tissues are being pushed in
By completing the suggested actions, I was able to eliminate the occurrence this problem. Thus, the
RPN went from 216 down to 0. As mentioned previously in the sensor problem, the positioning of
the package holder is one of the more sensitive factors that must be placed precisely, otherwise it
won’t function as intended.
03/02/2015 – SEALING / TAPE MACHINE PROBLEM Today, I looked over a problem with the sealing/tape machine. Sometimes, the box gets stuck within
the sealing / tape machine. I saw the video footage and it was quite obvious to me as to why this is
the problem, but was probably not as obvious to the operator.
Before suggested actions:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
The box gets stuck within the sealing / tape machine
- Belts are not making enough/too much contact with the box
- Slows down manufacturing processes / jamming
8 5 2 60 - Adjust the height of the sealing / tape machine
- Ensure that the belts are properly tensioned
After suggested actions:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
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The box gets stuck within the sealing / tape machine
- Belts are not making enough/too much contact with the box
- Slows down manufacturing processes / jamming
8 0 2 0 - Adjust the height of the sealing / tape machine
- Ensure that the belts are properly tensioned
This problem was merely due to the operator’s adjustment of the height of the sealing / tape
machine when changing packing boxes. As the factory goes through many different products with
different packaging boxes that have different dimensions, the machines must be also adjusted
accordingly. Sometimes, the machine is improperly adjusted and problems like this arises, in which
the operator does not know the cause of it and needs help to fix the problem.
The RPN score went from 60 down to 0 as the occurrence was eliminated, and the problem is gone.
The severity in this problem is quite high due to the many moving belts and pulleys, in which
someone can easily get their hand trapped within the machine as can be seen from the image
below. This is why I explained the importance of adjusting the machines, especially ones which have
a safety hazard, which they must think about their actions before doing, as worse case scenarios do
happen if they are not careful in what they are doing.
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04/02/2015 – TESTING NEW ADHESIVE GLUE PRODUCTS As Michael and I wasn’t too impressed with the RPN score for the problem of the tissue boxes not
sealing properly, the company ordered two different types of adhesive glues.
Henkel adhesive melts (Left) and Advanced Adhesives glue (our current used glu e)
(Right)
Chan Sieh Hot Melt Adhesive
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Henkel adhesive melts (Left) and Advanced Adhesives glue (our current used glue)
(Right)
Chan Sieh Hot Melt Adhesive
The two new glues were from Henkel and Chan Sieh. We ordered 1 of each just to use as a test to
see how well they perform compared to our current glue. The reason why these two glues were
chosen was firstly, from their description, it fit the application. Secondly, it had a similar melting
temperature to our current glue of approximately 220 degrees Celsius. Today, I tested both the glues
to find the perfect melting temperature for our application of sealing the tissue boxes.
Throughout testing these new glues, occasionally the tissue boxes still would not seal. Sometimes,
the tissue boxes would not seal one side, but would seal the other. This left my wondering why this
was the case when both of the glue reservoirs were set to the same temperature. I then used a
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temperature laser sensor gun to check the real life temperature of the glue that was sitting in the
reservoir. It turns out, that even though both glue reservoirs were set to 200 degrees Celsius, the
real world readings of the glue itself was 203 degrees Celsius for the right side reservoir and 214
degrees Celsius for the left side reservoir. The 203 degrees Celsius reservoir seemed reasonable for
when the machine’s melting temperature was set to 200 degrees, however 214 degrees was quite
the distance. Thus, to get the temperature to match the reservoir on the right, I lowered the
machine’s melting temperature setting for the left reservoir down to 190 degrees Celsius.
This shows that even though the machine’s melting temperature is set to 200 degrees, in real life, it
may be different due to the inefficiency of the heat coils/machine and real world factors, and thus
we must accommodate for this.
I told Michael this, and it was a general oversight by him to assume that the glue is 200 degrees
when it was set on the machine (or within reason) without testing. He said, over time, this is what
happens to the components within the machine, and over time, it becomes more and more
inefficient, so we must fix them or compensate for this.
Back to the problem of the glue not sealing properly, I drew a table of the real life melting
temperature of each glue for a perfect seal, then I readjusted the melting temperature dial to
compensate. All of the glues now worked well as expected and were able to seal the tissue boxes
100% of the time. As this was the case, when I considered the cost of each glue, the choice was
rather obvious in which would be best for the company.
Glue Real Life Melting Temperature Cost per kg
Advanced Adhesives 220 8
Henkel 230 10
Chan Sieh 200 7
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From the table above, we were able to save $1 per kg on the adhesive glue by now adopting the
Chan Sieh adhesive glue. Although $1 doesn’t seem to be too much of a difference when compared
to our usual glue, in the long run, it all adds up. For example, a bag of Chan Sieh adhesive glue is 25
kg. This works out to be a savings of $25 PER SACK of glue that does the job just as well. In the long
run, obviously the company will use multiple sacks of adhesive glue, thus multiply the savings by x
(an arbitrary value which represents how many adhesive glue sacks that is ordered). Obviously, the
savings become an even bigger deal.
Here is a review of the FMEA table with glue temperature recalibrations as one of the completed
actions.
After suggested action:
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Completed actions
The tissue boxes are not being sealed
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue - Metal side panels are too wide apart
- Damaged goods of tissue paper
3 0 9 0 - Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Tighten metal side panels
- READJUST GLUE TEMPERATURE
By finding out that the glue reservoirs were not actually the same in real life, we were able to adjust
the machine’s melting temperature so that it would have the perfect melting temperature for both
sides of the glue reservoirs thus creating perfect seal on the tissue boxes 100% of the time. This
ultimately eliminates the occurrence of this problem thus resulting in the new RPN score of 0.
Additionally, I managed to save the company money by using a cheap glue adhesive which performs
just as well as our current glue.
05/02/2015 – NEW / IMPROVED PROCESS FAILURE MODE EFFECTS ANALYSIS Here is a review of the FMEA table with the old values and the new values in order to see all the
improvements that were made.
Problem Cause Effects S O D RPN Suggested actions
Tissue Processing / Folding Machine
Tissue paper is not being folded neatly, and sometimes crooked
Dirt trapped within suction wheel
Unusable tissue paper as it will not be able to go through the belts / Quality control
7 7
8 2
2 2
112 28
Use of air spray and other tools in order to unclog the trapped dirt within the suction wheel holes
Conveyer Belts / Pulleys
When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer
-Incorrect positioning of the sensors
-Tipping of facial tissues along the conveyer belts
9 9
2 0
6 6
108 0
Reposition the sensor so that the timing and accuracy of the pushing plate is adequate
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belt, it tips over or jams the machine
-Jamming of the machine
When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, the pushing plate sometimes also pushes the following tissue
-Conveyer belts moving too fast -Not enough clearance between the facial tissue and the pusher plate
-Jamming of the machine
9 9
4 0
6 6
216 0
-Redesign the pusher plate OR -Slow down the conveyer belts
Cutting Blades Table
The tissue paper moves non-uniformly along the belts
Cutting blade dragging tissues behind and difference in belt tensioning
Jamming of the system
9 9
8 2
5 5
360 90
Maintenance of the surfaces of the blade (try to make all the blade surfaces similar or equal to another) Re-tensioning the individual belts
The tissue paper is not being cut
- Blunt cutting blades - Bad positioning of cutting blades in terms of height - Bad positioning of blade sharpeners
- Jamming of the system - Damaged goods of tissue paper
9 9
8 2
5 5
360 90
- Reposition the cutting blade sharpeners as it may not be sharpening certain areas of the blade
- Reposition the height of the cutting blade as it may be not tall enough to cut through the height of the tissue paper
Packaging / Boxing Machine
Tissue boxes are coming out of the machine at an angle causing tipping of boxes
- Pusher arm pushes the boxes too much
- Angle of pusher plate is too much
- Compressed air tubes
Damaged tissue boxes / Quality control
8 8
7 2
7 2
392 32
- Adjust air pressure going through pressure plate
- Adjust plate angle
- Create some form of resistance so
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may be incorrectly installed
the boxes don’t push too far, but also doesn’t fall back
- Educate operators on why this problem is occurring
The tissue boxes are not being sealed
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue - Metal side panels are too wide apart
- Damaged goods of tissue paper
3 3
9 6
9 9
243 162
- Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Tighten metal side panels
The machine gets dirty quite often on the metal side panels
- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue
- Damaged goods of overall product
6 4
7 0
2 2
84 0
- Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir
- Reposition the gluing arm of the boxing machine
- General maintenance and cleaning of the boxing machine
One of the pusher arms does not go up at the same as the other. These pusher arms are soppose to go up and down simultaneously
- Dust floating around factory clogging up the mechanism - Compressed air tubes are not properly connected
- Damaged goods of overall product - Jamming of machine
8 8
5 1
8 8
320 64
- Reconnect the air tubes to the pusher arms
- Disassembly of the pusher arms in order to clean out all the clogged dust
- Spray lubrication on the mechanism so the pusher arms can move smoothly
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The machine is becoming jammed
- Manufacturing faults from supplier - Operators filling up the tissue box holder too high
- Damaged goods - Jamming of machine
8 8
4 1
4 1
128 8
- Carefully look through the boxes from supplier to see if there are curved/faulty packages
- Set a clear maximum limit of how many tissue boxes the operator can refill the machine with
The tissue boxes are not being folded properly
- Poor positioning of the package holder -Small mechanism not opening the box before the facial tissues are pushed in
- Damaged goods - Poor quality control
6 6
6 0
6 6
216 0
- Reposition the location of the package holder so that the small mechanism makes contact with the packaging to slightly open the box when facial tissues are being pushed in
Sealing / Tape Machine
The box gets stuck within the sealing / tape machine
- Belts are not making enough/too much contact with the box
- Slows down manufacturing processes / jamming
8 8
5 0
2 2
60 0
- Adjust the height of the sealing / tape machine
- Ensure that the belts are properly tensioned
The table above shows the original FMEA table, alongside with the improved RPN values after
completing the suggested actions (orange and bolded values). In many circumstances, the RPN score
was reduced dramatically through improvements within severity, occurrence and detection values.
Therefore, the RPN value (multiple of all three of these factors) are lowered, resulting in an
improvement within the manufacturing processes. Some problem’s RPN score even went down to 0
by eliminating either the severity, the occurrence or the detection, which ultimately resulted in the
problem being permanently solved (RPN=0). Most of the problems occurred within the packaging /
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boxing machine. This shows that this specific machine is not as efficient as the other machinery
within the manufacturing process of the facial tissues.
These values may not seem like much for now as they are just arbitrary benchmark values made in
order to score the improvements to see all the incremental improvements made. Tomorrow I will
review the real life benchmarks to see the effects of all the improvements made within the
manufacturing process from a manufacturing standpoint and a business standpoint, including the
benefits, production rates and cost/prices.
06/02/2015 – REAL LIFE BENCHMARKS (AFTER) Realistically, after all the improvements that were completed within this manufacturing process,
here is the review of the previously shown real life benchmarks table.
This is the old table before any suggested actions were completed:
No. of operators
Hours worked
Average Cost for workers per hour ($)
Average Cost for workers per day ($)
Average cost for used invention per day ($)
Average cost for factory overheads per day ($)
Machinery downtime (minutes)
Machinery output (Pallets)
Average selling price per pallet
Average selling price of all pallets per day
2 8 26 416 x y 61 10 a 10a
This is the new table after the suggested actions (from the FMEA table) were completed:
No. of operators
Hours worked
Average Cost for workers per hour ($)
Average Cost for workers per day ($)
Average cost for used invention per day ($)
Average cost for factory overheads per day ($)
Machinery downtime (minutes)
Machinery output (Pallets)
Average selling price per pallet
Average selling price of all pallets per day
2 8 26 416 x y 29 11.5 a 11.5a
As can be seen from the two tables above, and the comparison of before and after, the costs of
many of the factors pretty much remain the same. However, the biggest change here is how often
the machinery stoppages are. As can be seen from the two tables above, the machinery downtime
have been greatly reduced from 61 down to 29. This means that less problems that were reviewed
are either less severe, occur less, or there is a higher chance to detect the problem (FMEA table)
than when I started the FMEA table. This just goes to show how effective all the individual
improvements to certain problems were with regards to the overall manufacturing processes of the
machine as we were able to reduce the downtime of machinery by more than half. Additionally, as
there has been less problems occurring, the operators were able to push out 1.5 more pallets in a
day compared to before. The machinery downtime and machinery output have a close correlation. If
the machinery downtime is reduced, the machinery output increases, meaning more production of
facial tissues, ultimately resulting in the company gaining more money, for the same amount of
money that is put into this process (operators, inventory cost and overheads). As can be seen, the
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company now makes an additional $1.5a compared to before all the improvements. This means the
company makes 1.5a more profit than before, meaning they get more value for what they pay for in
production costs, and in the long run, they make more money in general. For example, within a
week, the company now manufactures an extra 7.5 pallets compared to before. For reference, the
company used to make 10 pallets within a day. This means that now, the operators are able to
provide the company with close to an extra day’s worth of manufacturing within a span of a week
compared to before.
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WEEK 12
09/02/2015 – NEW PROCESS, NEW PRODUCT After the company had arranged a deal with Chemist Warehouse and Official AFL, we were set to
produce a promotion facial tissue line with the designs of each AFL team on individual boxes. The
reason why Chemist Warehouse approached the company to begin with was because they wanted a
company that was confident and have had experiences working with other large corporations such
as the Reject Shop. Therefore, the company already had experience with completing bulk orders
within a timely manner.
Much like all promotional products and new clients, we have to change our process and operations
to fit their order into the schedule while also maintaining our current customer orders. Due to the
large order set by Chemist Warehouse, this involved planning ahead of time, and delegating time
and resources effectively.
Michael gave me an estimate on shipping dates and arrangements and I had to propose a timeline to
Michael so that each task would follow one another with minimal time wasting. The company was
given 1 week to complete a sample batch which were to be provided to “Official AFL” in order to
confirm the quality of the product and the packaging requirements before mass production. After
the sample batch has been approved, final mass production will be done for the product. Much like
what we did in our final year project scheduling, I used a Gantt chart to illustrate the start and finish
dates of this project, to prepare for when the company has to order a large batch from our suppliers.
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Page 128 of 139
According to the Gantt chart, all of the AFL promotional products should be complete in the week of
11 May 2015 – 15 May 2015 (assuming all goes well). Michael also said that if the products do well,
the company may even have another deal to manufacture NRL promotional products after the
completion of the AFL promotional products.
Additionally, when dealing with a large companies such as Chemist Warehouse and the AFL, there
are many rules and guidelines that we had to follow in regards to manufacturing a new product.
Much like Apple, when they design a new product, the supplying companies must agree to keep the
confidentiality of the product until the product has been officially distributed to the retailers and for
sale to the general public. This is a similar case and one of the restrictions that our company had to
deal with when agreeing to manufacturing these new products.
10/02/2015 – MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF PROMOTIONAL AFL PRODUCTS
(SAMPLE) Today, we worked on manufacturing the sample batch of AFL printed to give to Official AFL for
approval.
After receiving the sample products it was evident to us that the dimensions of the box was different
to our usual products. Therefore, Michael had to readjust the machines so that the dimensions of
the tissues fitted the dimensions of the box. For example, generally, the output within the machine
is 5; for the AFL printed designs, we needed the output to be 4 in order to fit with their 4x3 (15
tissue boxes) packing carton. Below is an image of this. This is different to our usual packaging,
which is 18x2 (36 tissue boxes within a packing carton).
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This is how our usual tissue boxes (15 x 2 high) are packed.
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Additionally, as these packing cartons are different in dimensions, the sealing machine height had to
be adjusted as well. The height on the AFL packing cartons aren’t as tall as our usual packing cartons.
Within the delivery box of the sample products, Michael also received a draft of the dimensions of
the tissue paper required to fit into the boxes. This made Michael’s job slightly easier, as he didn’t
have to measure it himself. He used these dimensions to adjust the sizes of the tissue stacks as they
come out of the machine.
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As this was our first sample to show to Chemist Warehouse/AFL, I was in charge of the quality
control for these products as well as helping the machine operator with the manufacturing
operations.
Here are some of the completed sample products:
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11/02/2015 – CYCLE TIME OF TASKS FOR MANUFACTURING AFL PROMOTIONAL
PRODUCTS Some of the products are quite different from our usual facial tissue boxes as the machine output
quantity comes out faster, the size carton box and the dimensions of the packaging box is much
different than our standard. This means that there had to be slight alterations to the machine and its
processes.
Today, I look into each task that is required in this manufacturing process of the AFL products, score
the importance value of the task out of 10, how often the task is done out of 10, how long each
process takes on average (in seconds),
Process task Importance value Frequency Cycle time (sec) Additional Notes
Clean machines / maintenance
6/10 6/10 500 Usually done after jumbo rolls are reloaded
Reload raw jumbo rolls into the tissue processor
10/10 2/10 300
Restock boxing machine with flat tissue boxes
10/10 10/10 120
Open up packaging carton
10/10 10/10 10
Placing tissue boxes within the carton
10/10 10/10 20
Pushing a full carton through the sealing / tape machine
10/10 10/10 5
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Maintaining X amount of cartons in area ready to be used
8/10 6/10 120 Done so that operators have a supply nearby instead of walking from A to B every time to pick this item up
Maintaining X amount of glue sacks in area ready to be used
9/10 2/10 300 Done so that operators have a supply nearby instead of walking from A to B every time to pick this item up
Sort for different prints
6/10 4/10 300 Done so that when customers open up a sealed carton, they can see multiple colours, giving variety to consumers more options and designs
Maintaining X amount of flat tissue boxes in area ready to be used
7/10 10/10 60 Done so that operators have a supply nearby instead of walking from A to B every time to pick this item up
Refilling glue in the packaging / boxing machine
10/10 7/10 100
Placing sealed cartons from the belt on a pallet
10/10 10/10 80
Quality checking each tissue box
8/10 9/10 3 Self-explanatory
Reject unsatisfactory tissue boxes and
9/10 4/10 15 Self-explanatory
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replacing with a new one
From the table above, an importance value of 10/10 is a MANDATORY TASK (highlighted in red) in
order to manufacture. The only way this 10/10 importance value can be changed was if there was a
drastic change in the manufacturing process, such as replacing whole new manufacturing process
automated equipment.
For this process and from the table, there was a lot of walking “from A to B” to restock the supply in
the area. I thought this was very time consuming, and the operator was having quite a hard time
dealing with so many tasks at once as well as keeping up manufacturing. The reason that this
manufacturing process has sped up was because the facial tissue boxes came out of the machine 4
high to accommodate for the changed size of the carton (usually, it came out of the packaging
machine 5 or 6 high depending on the product).
Example of the machine pushing out 5 tissue boxes at once for the original packaging
Additionally, when the operator picks up the tissue boxes, usually he picks up the tissue boxes in
multiples of 5x3 or 6x3 to place into a carton of 5x3x2 or 6x3x2. When operating on this product, he
picks up the tissue boxes from the machine in the multiple of 4x3 to place into a carton of 4x3x1.
This means that whenever the operator places the tissue boxes (4x3) into the carton once (4x3x1),
he needs to push it through the sealing/taping machine and open up the next carton, ready for
tissue boxes to be packaged in them. Normally, when the operator places the tissue boxes (5x3) into
a carton, he can do this action twice (5x3x2) before setting up the next carton. Additionally, this
means that double the amount of cartons needs to be placed on the pallet as well, thus making the
frequency on the table double the amount of the usual process. For these many reasons, the
machine operator of the tissue processing machine had to slow down the output of this particular
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machine so that the operator in charge of the packaging area could cope. At this point, half of the
day was gone and only 13 pallets of facial tissues were manufactured.
Number of machine operators required: 2
Cost per day of operators (assuming $26/hr): 2x26x8 = $416
Number of pallets of facial tissues manufactured: 11 / half day = 22 / full day
Labour cost per pallet = 416/22 = $18.90
After analysing this table above, I noticed many of the non-mandatory tasks were mainly
maintaining raw stock within the area, so that the operator didn’t have to constantly move from A to
B to get it. So towards the end of the day, I helped with the manufacturing operations by doing these
“maintaining” tasks. This meant that the operator in charge of packaging didn’t have to move so
much and was able to stay within his area. Additionally, the operator in charge of the tissue
processing machine was able to speed up the manufacturing process, ultimately resulting the
packaging operator to manufacture more facial tissue boxes. I told Michael that in order for the AFL
promotional products to be printed efficiently, it would be require 1 more worker. Michael then
called one of his workers so that they could work tomorrow, meaning that we would now have 3
machine operators to help manufacture for tomorrow.
12/02/2015 – CYCLE TIME OF TASKS FOR MANUFACTURING AFL PROMOTIONAL
PRODUCTS REVISED Today, we had 3 operators manufacturing the AFL printed facial tissue boxes. Before work started,
Michael moved a second sealing/taping machine within the area so the second packaging operator
could also help with the packaging whenever possible.
Below is the new layout of the facial tissue work area from a birds eye view.
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Jumbo Roll Worker
Conveyer Belt Cutting Blades
Pusher Boxing Machine
Tape/Sealing Machine Pallet with finished goods
Pallet with raw tissue boxes Pallet with raw cardboard boxes
LEGEND / KEY
Packaging Operator
2 Area
Packaging Operator
1 Area
Tissue Processing Area
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From the image above, the main difference between the old and new layout is that another
sealing/taping machine was placed in “operator 2’s” area. The general idea was operator 1 stayed in
“area 1” and did the nearby tasks such as packaging the tissue boxes, whilst operator 2 was in a
more flexible open area (area 2) and did all the other tasks such as maintaining the raw supply in the
area and placing the sealed cartons onto the pallets. Operator 2 could also help in packaging the
tissue boxes as he also had a sealing machine nearby.
This resulted in the operator of the tissue processing machine to increase the output of the machine
and push more tissues down to the packaging area to manufacture more facial tissue boxes. In terms
of raw numbers, here are the results:
Number of machine operators required: 3
Cost per day of operators (assuming $26/hr): 3x26x8 = $624
Number of pallets of facial tissues manufactured: 48 / full day
Labour cost per pallet = 624/48 = $13.00
From the table above, it can be seen that adding an extra operator to this manufacturing process is
much more efficient for the business as the labour cost to manufacture one pallet went from $18.90
down to $13.00 each. This is a 30% difference in the labour cost per pallet compared to yesterday’s
operation. This also makes sense that it would be a more efficient process because usually it takes
two operators for this manufacturing process – one for the tissue processing, and one for packaging.
With the additional packaging operator, the tissue processing operator can increase the output to
close to double, so that a second operator can also help with packaging (and any other tasks),
effectively minimising cost as the company can pay for the tissue processing operator once in one
day, instead of twice over two days. Therefore, the company really only pays for 1 packager to
effectively double production in a span of a day, instead of paying for two operators (tissue
processing operator and packaging operator) in a span of two days.
13/02/2015 - FACTORY DEPARTMENTS – RECEPTION AND ADMINISTRATION Today I spent the whole day learning the business aspect of the company by shadowing the
receptionist, Carmen, who also takes care of some of the admin side. For this particular day I had to
come to work half an hour earlier so I can see everything that she did. She starts the day by arriving
earlier to get everything in the factory set up ready for the workers. This involved opening the doors,
turning on the main power to the building, turning on the machines and putting the kettle on for
them. She showed me exactly where all of the switches are, and said that she found it better for her
to do all this setup so when the workers come in they can just start work straight away and they do
not have to wait for the machines to get ready.
After all the workers have arrived and they have begun working, she heads to the reception office
and starts her work in there. Her main responsibilities in reception involves responding to emails,
answering the phones, taking orders from customers, creating and printing all the tax invoices for
the day’s delivery and ordering supplies. They use MYOB for all business transactions, I have never
used this before but she informed me that most small - medium businesses use MYOB as their main
business program. She went through how to use this program, in particularly how to create, printing
and emailing a tax invoice, as well as ordering new supplies by using MYOB. At the start of the day
she needs to print and prepare all the tax invoices for the day, so the delivery driver can pick them
up, load up the truck and go to deliver. Most of the customers are wholesalers or small shops, but
Carmen informed me that they also have one major client which is The Reject Shop. The Reject Shop
have a regular order, but needs to be completed and delivered on the same days each week, that
means that all other orders must be planned out so they can be delivered appropriately. This means
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that they often get orders from their customers either weekly, or when they are in desperate need
of supply. If they are away of an order in advance, they will plan the week so all orders around the
same area are delivered on the same day. I am not very interested in the business aspect of
companies, but it was still a good to watch how it is done so I have some knowledge about how it
works.
Another component of her work relates to admin, more specifically managing and receiving
payments and also organising and preparing all the paperwork for all international supply orders.
With the payments this involves ensuring that all the customers have paid the correct amount,
inputting the payment into MYOB and at the end of the day banking all the payments received via
cheque or cash. Carmen is also in charge of receiving all the bills, storing them in the correct location
for the account manager to pay for them, and then collecting all paid bills and filling them away
properly. Most of the raw material for the factory is imported in from overseas, in particularly all the
paper raw material. So whenever the office manager has placed an order, the invoice is sent to us
via the post and includes different paperwork which needs to be sorted through. When she receives
this in the mail she must sort through them, make sure they have everything, and scan all the
relevant documents which needs to be sent out to the logistics company who will pick up the order
from the docks and deliver it to the factory. She also needs to fill out all the forms for the bank to
approve the money transfer to the international company. I never realised that there were so much
paperwork involved in organising supplies, and in the admin/reception side in general.
It was nice to watch how the office side of the factory operated, but it is very different to the work
that I am used to and I don’t think I can see myself doing this side of work in the future. With that
being said, it was still a good experience to have witnessed this side, so I know a little bit about what
happens in the office.
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WEEK 13
16/02/2015 – AFTER 12 WEEKS… After completing my 12 weeks of engineering experience at the company, Michael offered me a
position at the company. The position was titled “Junior Engineer & Machine Operator”. My
responsibilities were more or less the same as the work I have already completed, which is being
responsible for carrying out the factory and machinery maintenance, resolving breakdowns and
working closely with Michael for implementing new ideas, improvements and installations within
each individual manufacturing process. Additionally, I was set to operate the machinery more often
and had to be prepared for taking on the responsibility and learn how to do other areas within the
factory if a co-worker was unable to work that day.