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



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


if (a2dConvert8bit(3)>70)

{

Pause function or time delay function


}

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.




{


}

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.



if (a2dConvert8bit(6)>70 && a2dConvert8bit(7)<70)

{


}

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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{

Some function to activate the presser 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







- Adjust plate angle - Create some form

of resistance so the boxes don’t push too far, but also doesn’t fall back


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


1/2.8” GigE PoE Roller Shutter

$315 USD

Cricket CR-POE-13S2C-CS

Sony IMX129 CMOS


1/3” Fast Ethernet PoE

Roller Shutter

$299 USD

Cricket CR-POE20S2C-CS-B

Sony IMX 140 CMOS


1/2.8” Fast Ethernet PoE

Roller Shutter

$329 USD

Cricket CR-POR-20S3C-CR-B

Sony IMX185 CMOS


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)


Glue supplier Allow for up to 1 weeks for the adhesive glue to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)


Carton supplier Allow for up to 1 weeks for the packaging carton boxes to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)


Tape supplier Allow for up to 1 weeks for the tape to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)


Shrink wrap supplier

Allow for up to 1 weeks for the shrink wrap to arrive at the factory (if out of stock)


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).



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


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


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








- Adjust plate angle

- Create some form of resistance so the boxes don’t push too far, but also doesn’t fall back


The tissue boxes are not being sealed

- Glue properties - Glue melting temperature - Thickness of the glue - Metal side panels are too wide apart


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


- 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


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.













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



When the facial tissues are


-Tipping of facial tissues


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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



When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, it tips over or jams the machine


-Tipping of facial tissues along the conveyer belts -Jamming of the machine


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:


When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, the pushing plate



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.



The tissue paper moves non-uniformly

Cutting blade dragging tissues behind and difference


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






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:



- 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


After suggested actions:





9 2 5 90 - Resharpen cutting blades

- Reposition the cutting blade sharpeners as it may not be sharpening certain areas of the blade


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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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.







- Reposition the gluing arm of the boxing machine


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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.











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



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up and down simultaneously

not properly connected

of machine


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.








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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.






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:



- Poor positioning of the package holder -Small mechanism not opening


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:







After suggested actions:


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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.








- 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.






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


When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer


-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


When the facial tissues are being pushed along the conveyer belt, the pushing plate sometimes also pushes the following tissue



9 9

4 0

6 6

216 0

-Redesign the pusher plate OR -Slow down the conveyer belts





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




9 9

8 2

5 5

360 90

- Reposition the cutting blade sharpeners as it may not be sharpening certain areas of the blade






- Compressed air tubes


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





3 3

9 6

9 9

243 162

- Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir





6 4

7 0

2 2

84 0

- Change melting temperature of the glue reservoir






8 8

5 1

8 8

320 64

- Reconnect the air tubes to the pusher arms



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8 8

4 1

4 1

128 8

- Carefully look through the boxes from supplier to see if there are curved/faulty packages





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





8 8

5 0

2 2

60 0

- Adjust the height of the sealing / tape machine


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









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









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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Task

/ A

ctiv

ity

9/02

/201

516

/02/

2015

23/0

2/20

152/

03/2

015

9/03

/201

516

/03/

2015

23/0

3/20

156/

04/2

015

13/0

4/20

1520

/04/

2015

27/0

4/20

154/

05/2

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11/0

5/20

15

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ith

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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


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


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.

thien minh dang - engineering log book (s3330850)

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