Lani Fajardo CASE STUDY

12224026

Gemba Walk Towards

Lean Transformation
Reducing Lean Waste in a Laboratory Activity

ABOUT PACIFIC RESINS INC. THE GEMBA WALK

Go. See. Ask Why. Respect People.
Pacific Resins Inc. (PRI) is one of the leading
resin manufacturing company in the Philippines. The Gemba walk was conducted virtually via
PRI manufactures various synthetic resins to Zoom with Engr. Gracielle Perile, the Techno-
serve paint, printing ink, fiber glass reinforced Commercial Engineer, and Mr. Gerald Dionisio,
plastics and adhesive industries in the country the Technician. The Gemba walk lasted for five
and selected Asian countries. sessions (5 days) with two hours per session. It
was divided into sessions in able to observe the
It is the mission of PRI to consistently seek overall process of PPE, from receiving of
excellent customer satisfaction by addressing sample, preparing the test specimen, curing test,
their needs through expert technical guidance testing, data consolidation, and analysis.
and technical service. They aim to consistently Activities that are not covered by the Gemba
offer high-quality products that are also walk are the reporting, approval, and distribution
innovative and reasonably priced. As such, the of report. The following are the schedule of the
activities and strategies of each organisation’s zoom sessions:
department are aligned and based on this
mission. 20 March 2023 1:00-
3:00 PM (GMT +11)
The organization has established a 21 March 2023 2:30-
department called Techno-Commercial (TC). 4:30 PM (GMT +11)
This department has three main roles, that is to 22 March 2023 11:00-
provide technical assistance to its internal 1:00 PM (GMT +11)
customers which are the R&D Department and 27 March 2023 1:00-
Sales and Marketing Department, and provide 3:00 PM (GMT +11)
technical service to the company’s external 28 March 2023 2:30-
customers. 4:30 PM (GMT +11)

Part of the service of Techno-Commercial to

R&D Department is to conduct product
performance evaluation (PPE) on their
developmental products. This process aims to
assess the suitability of the developmental
product to its intended end-product in the market
before it is approved for production trial.
 THE PROCESS

Figure 1. Product Performance Evaluation Process

In general, the performance of reactive polyamide resins is assessed based on its two major
end-product applications, the clear epoxy-based adhesive and pigmented epoxy-based adhesive. The
PPE consists of different types of mechanical tests and curing tests. Based on what was observed,
and also based on the employees’ input during interview, these activities can basically be done in
parallel. However, due to some limitations like man power, conflict of work schedule with other PPE
schedules, availability of slot in the curing cabinet, schedule conflict, and others, the activities have to
be performed in series, as shown in Figure 1.

Address: Resins Inc. Compound, E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue corner Joe Borris St., Bagong Ilog, Pasig City, Philippines 1600
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +63 2 942 0891
LEAN WASTE AND TRANSFORMATION

In order to identify the potential lean waste lean waste in manufacturing because this will
in the process, it is necessary to first identify require extra work and consume extra
who the customer is, and what value to the resources, this approach will add value to the
customer. In this situation, the customer is the service of TC because the report can be
R&D Department, and the value to them may be delivered on time with reliable results.
considered as receiving high-quality PPE
results in a timely manner.
Waiting wastes were also
The following are the lean wastes that were identified in the different stages
identified in the Gemba walk: of the process. Time wasted
waiting for input from previous
According to the interview activity was observed in the
with the Techno-Commercial following activities:
Engineer, they often
experience getting erratic 1. The delegated task of preparing the test
results (with high standard specimen moulds.
deviation) in Test 3 only.
Other performance tests (Test In this process, the preparation of moulds is
1, 2, 4) often give consistent delegated to the technician. Waiting waste
and reliable results. appeared to be connected on how fast the
technician could finish the task and how
Although it can be considered that it is effective he manages his own work
common to have outlier data in a set of test schedule.
results, it can be considered a defect if its already
affecting the reliability or quality of the test 2. Waiting for the results of all tests to be used
in data analysis and reporting.
results. When this happens, the process will have
to be repeated until a conclusive result is
Due to some limitations, the various types of
obtained. Subsequently this waste could cause
testing had to be performed in series. However,
delay and contribute to waiting waste.
under ideal working conditions, these activities
could be performed in parallel. This lean waste
To eliminate or reduce this waste, the
could also be attributed on how the engineer
following recommendation may be considered:
would assign the workflow. As can be seen in
Figure 1, majority of the activities were assigned
1. Review and analyse the process from
sample preparation, treatment and testing to to the engineer. If this is also the case with other
identify where the inconsistent data may be PPE processes, the bulk of workload is assigned
attributed. to the engineer. This could result to multi-tasking,
2. Once the cause of inconsistent result is and according to Markovitz (2011), multitasking
identified, update and standardize the has been proven to slow workflow down and
procedure to endure the process is defect
increase the chances of defects.
free

Alternatively, while the above-mentioned According to Markovitz (2011), one way to

recommendation has not yet been ensure that the flow of process is flowing is to
implemented, it may be considered to increase apply the 4D (Do, Delegate, Designate, Discard).
the sample size of the test specimen for Test 3 This practice is also applicable to this case, in
to obtain a more conclusive set of data. order to keep the flow moving towards successful
Although this approach may be considered as delivery of value to the customer.
LEAN WASTE AND TRANSFORMATION

CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change is often necessary for a business
to stay current and continue delivering value to
3. Idle time between the process customers. Thus, it is important that the above-
of report approval and report mentioned recommendations for change to be
distribution understood and recognized by both the
company’s executives and employees.

In order to successfully implement the

recommended process changes, it is important
According to the TC engineer, there were
to be guided by a change management model.
times that there would be some delays due to the For the implementation of the above-mentioned
need for clarifications on the report and changes, ADKAR model is suitable for the
sometimes there would be additional test trials needs due to its people-focused approach.
based on the input of the manager.
Awareness - To increase the likelihood that
One way of eliminating or reducing this lean employees will accept and prepare for the
change, clearly communicate the reason and
waste, is to have a daily stand-up meeting to
plans well in advance.
update the manager and the whole team of the
status and results of the tests. In this way, the
Desire - prevent resistance by working with the
issues would be managed at the early stage of team and encouraging them to participate in
discussion. Give emphasis on how the change
the process.
will benefit them personally in their work.
Knowledge – to build knowledge, employees
According to Majerus (2017), it need to have training, education, experience
and access to information. It is necessary that
is a lean waste to have highly
the changes in process be documented for
paid engineer complete tasks future reference.
that technician could perform
well. This lean waste is
Ability – It is important to practise and evaluate
applicable to some of the the change in the process in order to convert
knowledge to skill. Monitor the employees
activities in the process of
during the start of change implementation and
PPE. provide constructive feedback.

In this process, the activity of preparation of

Reinforcement – to ensure that employees do
not revert to old activities, it is needed to monitor
test specimens for clear and pigmented
the change for a certain period of time and
adhesive is being done by the engineer. encourage employees to keep following the
However, with proper training, the technician new activity.
could perform this activity properly.
References:
Majerus, N., 2017. Leveraging Lean Principles in R&D: The
Addressing this waste by dedicating the experience of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company shows
technician to do the preparation of test how applying to Lean principles to R&D can improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of new product development.
specimen, a significant amount of time would be Research-Technology Management, 60(2), pp.17-25.
unloaded from the workload of the engineer. In
this way, the engineer would be able to maximize Markovitz, D., 2011. A factory of one: Applying lean
principles to banish waste and improve your personal
his time and effort for other activities that require performance. CRC Press.
engineering skills. This would subsequently
Walters, L.M., Nickerson, M.A. and Hall, L.A., 2020.
reduce the impact of multitasking and the waiting Improving the 1040 process by applying lean principles: A
waste. case study. The TQM Journal, 32(2), pp.249-267.