VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY NGUYỄN THÀNH MINH AN EMPERICAL STUDY ON REDUCING TRIM WASTE AT A CORRUGATED BOARD PRODUCTION COMPANY Major: Industrial Engineering Major code: 8520117 MASTER’S THESIS HO CHI MINH CITY, June 2024 THIS THESIS IS COMPLETED AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY – VNU-HCM Supervisor: Assoc. Đỗ Ngọc Hiền Examiner 1: Dr. Lê Song Thanh Quỳnh Examiner 2: Dr. Đặng Thanh Tuấn This master’s thesis is defended at HCM City University of Technology, VNU- HCM City on June 8th, 2024 Master’s Thesis Committee: 1.
Nguyễn Vạng Phúc Nguyên 2. Lê Song Thanh Quỳnh 4. Đặng Thanh Tuấn 5. Đỗ Ngọc Hiền Approval of the Chair of Master’s Thesis Committee and Dean of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering after the thesis being corrected (if any).
CHAIR OF THESIS COMMITTEE DEAN OF FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Independence – Freedom - Happiness THE TASK SHEET OF MASTER’S THESIS Full name: Nguyễn Thành Minh Student ID: 2270683 Date of birth: 26/02/2000 Place of birth: Phú Yên Major: Industrial Engineering Major ID: 8520177 I. THESIS TITLE (In Vietnamese): NGHIÊN CỨU CẮT GIẢM LÃNG PHÍ RẺO BIÊN TẠI NHÀ MÁY TẤM CARTON II. THESIS TITLE (In English): AN EMPERICAL STUDY ON REDUCING TRIM WASTE AT A CORRUGATED BOARD PRODUCTION COMPANY III. TASKS AND CONTENTS: Analyze and evaluate the production process at the company, to determine causes that creates trim waste.
Minimize trim waste by determine trim dimensions and reducing the number of exceeding-spec jobs through the application of a new production planning model that considers setup time. Evaluate the effectiveness of model through practical implementation. THESIS START DAY: 15/01/2024 V. THESIS COMPLETION DAY: 20/05/2024 VI.
Đỗ Ngọc Hiền Ho Chi Minh City, June 8th, 2024 SUPERVISOR HEAD OF DEPARTMENT (Full name and signature) (Full name and signature) DEAN OF FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING (Full name and signature) ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who contributed to the completion of this study. First and foremost, I extend my heartfelt thanks to Assoc. Đỗ Ngọc Hiền for the invaluable guidance, insightful feedback, and unwavering support throughout the entire research process. Your expertise and dedication have been instrumental in shaping this study.
I am also immensely grateful to the company where this study was conducted for providing the essential resources and facilities that made my research possible. To my family and friends, your encouragement and patience have been a source of strength and motivation throughout this journey. Your belief in me has been a constant source of inspiration. Thank you all for your support and contributions.
NGUYỄN THÀNH MINH iii ABSTRACT The increasing demand for environmentally friendly packaging, driven by industries such as e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food and beverage, has elevated the importance of the paper and paperboard packaging sector, particularly corrugated boards. Corrugated boards offer a sustainable alternative to non-biodegradable materials like plastic, boasting lightweight, specific stiffness, and strong properties crucial for safely transporting goods at reduced costs. However, the intensely competitive market and growing consumer demands necessitate continuous improvement and innovation in production processes and corrugated board design. A significant challenge in corrugated board manufacturing is minimizing trim waste, which results from variations between paper reel widths and specified board dimensions.
This material waste represents a major cost loss for many companies in the industry. Addressing this issue is intertwined with production planning, as planners must select paper rolls of different widths and allocate them effectively to job sequences. This study was conducted at a well-established corrugated board manufacturing company in Vietnam, where trim waste is a significant issue in the production process. The financial loss due to trim waste ranges from 850 million VND to 1,200 million VND per month.
This waste primarily results from production schedules, highlighting the need for a production scheduling model that minimizes trim waste while also considering operational costs. The results of this study demonstrate the potential for significant cost savings in the production process. This underscores the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in enhancing cost- effectiveness within corrugated box manufacturing. The novelty of this study lies in the application of a sequential heuristics algorithm for production scheduling in corrugated board manufacturing, simultaneously addressing both setup costs and trim costs - a focus not extensively covered in previous research.
Keywords: corrugated box manufacturing; production scheduling; genetic algorithm; paper reel allocation. iv TÓM TẮT LUẬN VĂN Với nhu cầu ngày càng tăng đối với bao bì thân thiện với môi trường, được thúc đẩy bởi các ngành như thương mại điện tử, dược phẩm, mỹ phẩm, thực phẩm và đồ uống, đã nâng cao tầm quan trọng của ngành bao bì giấy, đặc biệt là các tấm bìa carton gợn sóng. Tấm bìa carton gợn sóng cung cấp một giải pháp thay thế bền vững cho các vật liệu không phân hủy sinh học như nhựa, với các đặc tính nhẹ, độ cứng nhất định và độ bền cao, do đó, vận chuyển hàng hóa an toàn với chi phí thấp hơn. Tuy nhiên, thị trường cạnh tranh gay gắt và nhu cầu ngày càng cao của người tiêu dùng đòi hỏi sự cải tiến và đổi mới liên tục trong quy trình sản xuất và thiết kế bìa carton gợn sóng.
Một thách thức lớn trong sản xuất bìa carton gợn sóng là giảm thiểu lãng phí rẻo biên, phát sinh từ sự khác biệt giữa chiều rộng cuộn giấy (nguyên vật liệu chính) và kích thước tấm bìa được chỉ định. Lãng phí rẻo biên đã gây thất thoát khoản chi phí lớn cho nhiều công ty trong ngành. Giải quyết vấn đề này gắn liền với kế hoạch sản xuất, khi các nhân viên lập kế hoạch phải lựa chọn cuộn giấy có chiều rộng khác nhau và phân bổ chúng một cách hiệu quả cho các chuỗi đơn hàng. Luận văn này được thực hiện tại một công ty sản xuất bìa carton gợn sóng lâu đời ở Việt Nam, khi mà lãng phí rẻo biên là một vấn đề đáng kể trong quá trình sản xuất.
Mức tổn thất do lãng phí này dao động từ 850 triệu VND đến 1.200 triệu VND mỗi tháng. Theo kết quả phân tích nguyên nhân, lãng phí rẻo biên này chủ yếu xuất phát từ lịch sản xuất. Do đó, luận văn tập trung xây dựng một mô hình lập lịch sản xuất. Kết quả của nghiên cứu khi áp dụng giải thuật di truyền trong việc lập kế hoạch sản xuất cho thấy tiềm năng tiết kiệm chi phí đáng kể trong quy trình sản xuất.
Điều này nhấn mạnh hiệu quả của thuật toán được đề xuất trong việc nâng cao hiệu quả chi phí trong sản xuất bìa carton gợn sóng. Điểm mới lạ của nghiên cứu này nằm ở việc đồng thời giải quyết cả chi phí thiết lập và chi phí rẻo biên - một vấn đề chưa được nghiên cứu sâu rộng trong các nghiên cứu trước đây. Từ khóa: bìa carton gợn sóng, điều độ sản xuất, giải thuật di truyền,… v THE COMMITMENT OF THE THESIS’S AUTHOR I, Nguyễn Thành Minh, hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own original research. I affirm that all the sources and references used have been properly acknowledged and cited.
I am committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and ethics throughout the research and writing process. This thesis has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to any other institution for a degree or any other qualification. I take full responsibility for the content and conclusions presented in this thesis. NGUYỄN THÀNH MINH vi TABLE OF CONTENT THE TASK SHEET OF MASTER’S THESIS.
iv TÓM TẮT LUẬN VĂN. v THE COMMITMENT OF THE THESIS’S AUTHOR. vi TABLE OF CONTENT. vii TABLE OF FIGURES.
ix TABLE OF TABLES. x TABLE OF ABBREVIATION .3 Thesis scope and limitations. LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY .2 Pearson correlation testing.1 Introduction to the company .2 Corrugated board and corrugating process .3 Waste from production line .1 Corrugating waste analysis .2 Trim waste description. PRODUCTION SCHEDULING MODEL .1 Current scheduling procedure .2 Developing Production Scheduling Model .4 Numerical Experiment & Discussion .5 Implementation and standardization.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK .2 Limitation and future work. 65 viii TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Example of main products .3 Corrugated board structure .4 Corrugated board production process .5 Illustration of corrugator machine .6 Example of peeling waste .7 Example of defect waste .8 Example of trim waste .9 The proportion of corrugating waste components (%) .10 Target for each waste component .11 Slitter scorer creates trim waste .12 Correlation analysis between trim waste and average trim dimension .13 Descriptive statistics, control chart, and process capability for company’s trim dimension.14 5-Whys analysis to find root causes .1 The current scheduling procedure .3 The improvement of objective value after each interation.4 Comparision of Trim Cost (VND) .5 Comparison of Average Trim Dimension (mm) .6 Comparison of Setup Cost (VND) .7 Comparison of Number of Setup .8 Comparison of Total Cost (VND) .9 Comparision of trim dimension before and after. 27 ix TABLE OF TABLES Table 4.1 Input data of 1st working shift. 21 x TABLE OF ABBREVIATION Words Explanation GA Genetic Algorithm ES job Exceeding-spec job xi CHAPTER 1.1 Thesis rationale The corrugated board packaging industry is a sector that involves the production and utilization of corrugated cardboard materials for packaging purposes.
Corrugated board, often simply called corrugated board, is used for making corrugated boxes, and it is composed of two flat outer sheets (liners or facings) of puncture-resistant paper with a central layer of corrugated paper (fluted paper or “medium”) that gives the packaging resistance to crushing, and protection of the contents of the packaging [1]. These parts are bonded by starch adhesives derived from corn, wheat or potatoes [1]. In Vietnam, the corrugated board packaging industry has experienced significant growth in recent years, driven by various factors such as the expansion of manufacturing and export- oriented industries, the rise of e-commerce, and increasing consumer demand for environmentally friendly packaging goods. Because of the dynamic market of the packaging industry, companies in the field employ various strategies to enhance competitive advantages, including mergers and acquisitions, cost reduction, partnerships, joint ventures, license agreements, and new product launches.
One of the most important operational strategies these companies is to minimize material waste. Among various types of material waste, trim waste stands out as a priority because of its significant proportion in material waste during the production process. Trim waste during production process, generated due to variations between the width of paper reels and the specified dimensions of cardboard. This material waste represents a major cost loss for many companies in the industry.
Addressing this issue is closely tied to the production plan, as planners must select paper rolls from a variety of rolls with different widths and allocate them to the production sequence of jobs. This process closely resembles the well- known one-dimensional cutting stock problem [2]. Numerous endeavours have been made to solve the trimming problem, focusing on the utilization of computer models, heuristic approaches [3-7]. However, the production planning for corrugated boards is exceptionally intricate for several reasons.
Firstly, the nature of the products, which are bulky and vulnerable to weather damage, necessitate an efficient production schedule to ensure timely delivery and minimize spoilage [8]. Secondly, there exists a critical need to carefully balance setup losses against those incurred due to trim waste. This delicate balance poses a significant challenge in the corrugated board manufacturing industry, yet this aspect remains relatively unexplored in 1 current research endeavors.