Using Lean Six Sigma to Increase Efficiency of a Grain Receipt Process of a Brazilian Agroindustry Cooperative

Abstract

Due to the competitiveness of companies to increase market share, they have been more and more interested in topics related to cost reduction, process efficiency, new customers and continuous improvement. Considering this scenario, this study conducted analyses and implemented improvements using the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology in a grain receipt process of a Brazilian agroindustrial cooperative to increase its profitability and consolidate a culture of continuous improvement in the cooperative. With the DMAIC steps, the Project Charter was used to describe the opportunities, to define the team and the macro schedule of the project; then SIPOC was used to understand the process, its inputs and outputs; the Requirements Tree was used to listen to the voice of the customer/business; Y Stratification was used to divide the work fronts; Process Mapping was used to identify the activities that do not add values; Cause and Effect Diagram and Matrix were used to identify and prioritize root causes; FMEA to analyze the risks and failure modes; and 5 Whys to generate an action plan, improvements were implemented in the bulk terminal that reduced the truck waiting time by 40 min for grain unloading; the quantity of truck inside the bulk terminal were also controlled with the upper limit of 60 trucks and the lower limit of 40 vehicles, so that the grain receipt process could improve its efficiency.