Contribution to the improvement of the Ecuadorian chifle production process using the Kanban Method

Abstract

The Kanban strategy allows better control of the process and its resources, reducing costs and achieving efficient results. The objective was to organize the process of the Ecuadorian chifle production by perfecting communication between each operation. The methodology had a mixed approach, applied in 3 phases: Analysis of the production process for chifle manufacturing, analysis of indicators and an improvement proposal based on Kanban where techniques and tools were developed to improve the process. As results, it was found that the manual peeling operation constitutes a bottleneck, as it takes longer (96 min) and the work of two operators. The total process has a current efficiency of 69.89%; With the proposal, by employing two operators, it achieves an efficiency of 78.53% and with 4 operators, 99%. In conclusion, the application of the Kanban method determined the appropriate number of workers and increased efficiency to cover costs and improve operational flow.