Reducing of Waste in Filling Processes A Case Study of Medicinal Products for Human Factory

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to : 1) reduce the quantity of waste caused by errors in filling processes and 2) improve the quality in filling processes of ready-made medicines in the factory as a  case of study by applying the operational approach of Six Sigma projects, including Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) for five steps.  First, the methods started from “Define” step by studying waste problem which occurred from errors of filling processes, defining the goal, setting scope of modification and building a team for brainstorming. Second, problem condition was measured in “Measure” step by collecting data about waste sorting. Third, “Analyze” step was brainstorming the causes of waste to make cause and effect diagram, coupled with analyzing Failure Mode and Effect Analyze process (FMEA) by estimating the severity of effect, the probabilities of effect and therefore the ability of error identification. Then Risk Priority Number was calculated to reduce score to less than 100. Fourth, “Improve” step was performed by adding examination process into filling processes and training how to work properly. Finally, “Control” step was performed by creating waste database as the history for solving problems in the future, making documents about controlling filling processes to make filling have the highest efficiency and comparing waste data before and after modification.

The results of this study indicated that: 1) the quantity of waste occurrence was reduced from 71 boxes (0.033 percentage) to 2 boxes (0.002 percentage) moreover average quantity of waste was reduced from 6 boxes per month to 1 box per 3 months and 2) value of waste after filling-processes modification of ready-made medicines in the factory was reduced to 93.662 percentage.