A systems study on the production department of Nation Ceramics Manufacturing, Incorporated

• Main Authors: Lim, Kenrick Go, Lim, Marc Chester Co
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2001
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/12035
• Institution: De La Salle University

Executive Summary. Nation Ceramics Manufacturing, Incorporated (NCMI) is a wholly owned company, which produces genuine vitreous china sanitary wares in the Philippines. Their brand has been in the market since 1986 and their plant is situated in Biñan, Laguna. They currently hold a 3% market share in the sanitary wares manufacturing industry, which only has a handful of companies competing with each other. The main products of the company are those which are aimed at the masses. Their target market are of those in the mass housing projects for the poor. Their prices are very economical but quality is not overlooked. The system study that was conducted on NCMI lead to the problem, which was costing them Php 128,222 per month due to the increase of units that were found to be completely defective or needing to be reworked. This is turn increases the production cost of the company because of the losses they have been incurring. They are having a hard time since these defects usually crop up after the wares have already been fired. This gives the company little chance to save some of the units before it could be cooked. Their reject rate currently stands at 2.06% exceeding the standard of 1% while their rework rate is at 27.86% that has a standard of 5%. With the study, the causes of the problem were identified. Two root causes were traced to the problem, which contributed to it 80.81% of the time. These were due to raw material inconsistency and the negligence of the workers in stacking up the unfinished wares. There were several alternatives that were generate to solve the problem, but the final proposed system was first to put up several signboards on several divisions of the production area namely: casting and glazing sections to remind the workers of their duties and responsibilities. The next was to use leather matting in the stacking of the wares to eliminate unnecessary contact between the wares. The last was to hire a chemical engineer to facilitate the testing to be done on the raw materials to check whether or not they would be suitable for use. The new system would reduce the two causes that were identified to be the major contributors of the problem. It would save the company Php 737,746, which is a significant amount considering the fact that they were already loosing as much as 1.5 million pesos. They would be able to have a more efficient production system by reducing their wastes. The new system can also be easily incorporated into the company's present set-up and does not further complicate the problem.