SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT:

Senior design project (SDP) is a capstone engineering course for the duration of 2 semesters. It presents an opportunity to the students, graduating in Industrial Engineering specialty, to participate in a 'design team' that makes an attempt, in an unstructured problem solving situation, to solve a 'real life problem' that has 'open-ended' and 'alternative' solutions. Students work in a 'team' of 3 to 4 members under the supervision of at least one advisor.

Senior Design Project should be:-
  • Open ended design problem – the problem has many possible solutions. The best solution will be chosen based on the constraints.
  • Clear expected outcomes.
  • Moderate scope.
  • Can be accomplished within the time frame.
  • Customer oriented – if there is no external customer, the advisor can be the customer.
Senior Design Project (SDP) is not a plain research work or a faculty’s work assisted by students.

 

Every capstone design project should consider the following minimum requirements ( SDP should have the following items):
  • Real life problem: The project should reflect a real-life problem related to the industry (customer needs are specified).
  • Alternative solutions: At least two different solutions should be discussed and a comparison should be performed between the alternatives (Criteria-based decision making is used).
  • A system, component or process is devised.
  • Project management techniques are used.
  • Evidence of integrated team skills.
  • The work is based on the knowledge and skills acquired earlier course work.
  • Appropriate engineering standards are used.
  • Multiple quantitative and qualitative realistic constraints are considered.
  • Financial analysis is included.
  • Global economic, environmental and societal impacts are discussed.
  • Communication skills are demonstrated (written, oral and graphical).
  • Design activities are documented through portfolio, log book and modified and interim reports.
  • All referenced materials should be documented.
  • Professional ethics should be implemented.
  • A report should be written in clear English according to the given guideline and format.

 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completion of IE499, students should be able to:-
  • Identify client’s requirements (objectives, metrics and constraints).
  • Access information from variety of sources, and critically evaluate their quality, validity and accuracy.
  • Establish design requirements (functions, performance target and means of achievement).
  • Use modern computer-based or web-based project ,management tools for planning, prioritizing and scheduling task in design project.
  • Develop several design alternatives with pertaining realistic constraints.
  • Use appropriate engineering standards and knowledge gained from several earlier course work to design a system, component or process to meet customer needs.
  • Evaluate the final design with respect to the customer needs, realistic constraints and its impact in a global economic, environmental and societal context as compared to existing competitive design.
  • Communicate the design details and express thoughts clearly and concisely both orally and writing.
  • Demonstrate ability to achieve project objectives using independent, well organized and regularly reported multidisciplinary team management techniques that integrate, evaluate and different skills of team members.

 

TERM 0

WEEK

MILESTONE
4
  • Formation of Team. Each team consisting of maximum 4 students.
  • Start to think on a design project.
  • Identify Supervisor.
10 Submission of Project Proposal to SDP Committee.

TERM 1

WEEK

MILESTONE
1-12
  • Attending Design Workshops.
  • Consultation with the project supervisor/co-supervisor on the preparation of the progress report. The consultation should be scheduled and documented(record of meetings).
3 Submission of Project final Proposal to SDP Committee
6 Submission of Intermediate Report to SDP Committee
12 Submission of Progress Report to SDP Committee.
14 Evaluation by examination committee – Progress report and Progress Report Presentation.

TERM 2

WEEK

MILESTONE
1-12 Each group should work on their project and prepare the final report. The consultation with project supervisor/co-supervisor should be scheduled and documented(record of meetings).
10 Each team to submit draft of final project report to SDP committee for checking the format of the report and also ensuring the requirement Capstone project is satisfied.
11 Each team is to submit the Project Abstract & photos to the SDP committee for Posters.
12 Once approved by the SDP committee and project supervisor, each team is to submit the final project report (4 copies) to SDP committee for examination.
13 Project evaluation by examination committee – Final report and Project Presentation.
14 Each team to make corrections on the final report based on comments from examination committee & submit the hardbound final report to SDP Coordinator.


  1. Optimization and algorithm
  2. Stochastic and simulation
  3. quality control
  4. supply chain managements
  5. cost and risk analysis
  6. Ergonomics and safety
  7. System analysis
  8. Engineering Management
  9. Manufacturing
  10. Operations research
  11. Reliability engineering

PROJECT ABSTRACT

1
The Al-Nahdi Medical Company (NMC) Distribution Centre is one of the largest pharmaceutical distribution centers in the Middle East. Its process flow includes a Semi-Automated System constructed by SCHAFER Company. Unfortunately, when manual activities are combined with these automated operations, many concerns arise in terms of safety and health, resulting in injuries, accidents, and health issues for workers overtime, affecting productivity, job efficiency, and process time for the DC. To avoid this type of problem, applying a systematic ergonomic (Human Factor) approach to the NMC distribution Center helps improve working conditions, work tools, and work processes to eliminate physical injuries and accidents in any manner. This project aims to analyze the current process and activities of Al-Nahdi Distribution Centre, study the root causes behind the injuries and accidents of the repetitive tasks at the DC, recommend solutions to reduce injuries and accidents of the workers due to repetitive tasks when delivering items to customers, and increase the productivity and performance of the workers. To achieve these objectives Risk Assessment and Management approach was used to analyze the situations. Furthermore, different analysis tools were used to analyze the data which resulted in determining the most problematic area in the NMC DC. Risk Assessment and Management Tool for Manual Handling Proactively tool (RAMP) was used to assess the overall MSD risk and identify high-risk tasks by analyzing the environmental factors and awkward postures according to the RAMP assessments. It was found that noises, awkward postures, lifting, pushing, and pulling are the most concerning factors in the Decanting area. Finally, a set of improvements for increasing workers' safety in the Decanting area were recommended. Index Terms: Nahdi Medical Company (NMC), Distribution Center (DC), Risk Assessment and Management Tool for Manual Handling Proactively (RAMP), Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD).
2
The market's requirements evolve at a rapid pace. This implies that a company must adapt to fulfill demands on a regular basis. The inventory system at Saudi Air Navigation Services was created to predict spare part demand using the same approach regardless of spare part category which was resulting in either overstock or stockout. Therefore, the challenge was to find an accurate forecasting method and to identify factors of effective management of spare parts. The DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify) framework was utilized to facilitate solving the problem. After analyzing the data, three forecasting methods were identified and the SBA (Syntetos and Boylan Approximation) method was chosen to develop the forecasting model. Furthermore, dashboards were created to provide an easy way to visualize the demand level of each classification. Finally, developing an integrated web-based inventory management and a periodic review system are recommended for the long-term improvements. Index terms – Intermittent demand, Forecasting, Spare Parts, DMADV, Syntetos and Boylan Approximation, Power BI.
3
Vendor management is concerned with the management of relationships between a company and its vendors, who supply the company with products and services. Selecting vendors, negotiating contracts, controlling costs, decreasing vendor-related risks, and assuring service delivery are all part of vendor management. This research focuses on the procurement department at Saudi Ground Services (SGS), a company that is responsible for the efficient, safe, and professional management of passengers and aircraft on Saudi Arabian airports. The procurement department is responsible for developing the company's buying policies and procedures. An effective vendor management process is required for any procurement operation. However, the company was not performing effective benchmarks for a sustainable vendor relationship due to an ineffective vendor selection approach, unstructured datasheets, and an ineffective communication with vendors. The goal of the project was to improve aspects of the vendor management process while also reducing the risk of vendor management failure. The team offered an integrated method to enhance the company's vendor management process. A product supply risk assessment, a vendor selection system, and a continuous improvement plan were all part of the integrated framework. Excel was used to automate the system's procedures. As an outcome, the company is more likely to have more productive vendor relationships, increased efficiency, enhanced security processes and risks, and less data entry errors. Key words: Vendor Management, Vendor Relationship Management, Procurement Department, Supply Risk Assessment, Vendor Selection, Integrated Framework.
4
Warranty spare parts inventory management requires a distinctive approach that diverges from traditional products’ inventory management systems. A well-managed inventory policy necessitates covering all spare parts activities within the company, including identifying demand patterns, classification, and forecasting. AlSalem Johnson Controls is considered one of the leading businesses that provide heat, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Currently, the company focuses on prioritizing and enhancing its after-sales management and services. One of the main facets of after-sales services is providing warranty spare parts to customers. The main challenge here is the incompatibility between market demand and the company’s spare parts supply. In addition, the company does not have adequate measures that reflect the warranty service performance. This paper aims to establish an inventory management system that improves the replenishment process and service level. To achieve the objective, the warranty requests from 2018 to 2021 were used to establish a two-dimensional classification (ABC – FSN) according to the part’s value and movement. Additionally, the warranty spare parts’ demand pattern was analyzed to implement a suitable forecasting method: Syntetos and Boylan Approximation. A key performance indicator was established to measure the service level based on the On Time in Full (OTIF) concept to maintain the methods implemented. Index Terms- Warranty, spare parts, classification, forecast, Johnson Controls International (JCI), ABC, FSN, service level, on time in full (OTIF), Syntetos and Boylan (SBA).
5
The rapid growth of e-commerce has driven many Logistics Service Providers (LSP) to strengthen their performance to satisfy clients’ demands and meet consumers’ expectations. Zajil is a Saudi logistics company that faces many challenges regarding delivery performance and customer satisfaction. These challenges mainly arise from operational difficulties such as unorganized working environments and software complications. To increase the delivery performance of Zajil, this paper analyzes the root factors that affect delivery, and then assesses their impact on overall organizational performance. In addition, the research seeks to draw recommendations of different methods and techniques which aim to satisfy Zajil’s needs. A questionnaire was conducted and distributed to official logistics professionals, with the purpose of testing several variables affecting LSP’s delivery obtained from literature. The results were processed and analyzed using factor analysis, which analyzes a large data set and clusters them into key factors. This was performed using SPSS Statistics by IBM and concluded by identifying four main factors affecting delivery performance. Results revealed that system dynamics, operational improvement, serviceability and courier competency had the most impact on Zajil’s delivery performance. Each of the mentioned factors consisted of two to three variables that further describe the root problem. Courier competency consists of professional attitude and route optimization, while the serviceability factor includes sufficient software and communication. The operational improvement has mishandling parcels and scheduling of operations as its variables and finally, system dynamics include payment method, time of delivery and process standardization. Furthermore, three alternative approaches for the sorting process were designed and trialed, and a standardization of the second alternative was created to reduce mishandling and damaged parcels. In addition, a trial of route optimization through Google Maps was conducted, and satisfactory results were received, hence, it was recommended that Zajil enforces the use of Google Maps on couriers. Also, implementing delivery scheduling chatbots to increase successful deliveries is encouraged to improve customer satisfaction. Finally, using address-validation technology will reduce redundant trips to wrong addresses. Key words: Logistics, LSP, Factor Analysis, Delivery Performance, Parcels, Logistics Hub
6
Batterjee Pharmaceutical Factory develops and manufactures medications and healthcare supplements, it consists of four departments, engineering, warehouse, quality control, and production. The factory’s employees work with chemical substances and have direct involvement with machines for most of their working hours. However, the factory does not have the knowledge of the potential risks associated with pharmaceutical manufacturing that may occur to its employees. The main reason for the factory’s problem is the lack of implementation of the risk assessment in its safety management system. The aim of this project is to analyze the current situation of the factory in order to generate multiple alternative solutions for the problem. The optimum solution was chosen using the decision matrix method, which was a qualitative risk assessment matrix. The hazards were assessed using several methods: safety inspection checklists, questionnaire, observations, measurements, RULA, and REBA assessments. Applying the risk assessment showed that the most common hazards in the factory were under ergonomics. Furthermore, preventive actions for each hazard were recommended, thus, the safety procedures at the factory would be enhanced. Finally, areas of improvement were determined for future projects. Key Words – risk assessment, safety management system, pharmaceutical manufacturing, workplace hazards.
7
One of the most critical aspects of the service industry is the need for hospitality. Delivering services to customers at the right time and in high quality is challenging. This project studies the housekeeping services in Staybridge Suites Hotel, which deals with challenges in managing the Quality of Service (QoS). Since there is no standard procedure for serving customers and the staff is required to perform manual tasks, miscommunications between staff present lead to long waiting times. This problem results in frequent complaints regarding the services, which leads to a bad reputation, low customer retention, and improper utilization of resources. The project aims to identify the QoS's root causes and standardize the housekeeping management process. To achieve these objectives, DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control) methodology was accomplished. As a result, some of the significant factors that affect the waiting time are manual task allocation, seasonal workload, and lack of supervision. Therefore, an automated preventive solution was proposed regarding the scheduling procedure to decrease the service waiting time. Index Terms- Housekeeping (HK), Staybridge Suites Hotel, Waiting time, Manual task allocation, DMAIC, Quality of Service (QoS), Automation.
8
Recently, a pioneer in the production industry SADAFCO has invested predominantly in automating the pallet handling procedures at their milk factory. With the new automation transition carried out, a great opportunity arises for utilizing lean management tools to improve the current automated processes before the commercialization stage. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) will be used as a performance metric for different types of operational losses and indicate system improvements in the new automated system, with a target OEE of 85%. This project follows the DMADV methodology to analyze the whole automated pallet handling system and utilizes Lean tools to find potential areas of improvement, identify waste elements and propose solutions to improve processes and reduce associated waste, with the purpose of achieving SADAFCO’s OEE target. The project's outcomes are presented as documented solutions that address the losses encountered in the system, which have shown a 12.8% increase in the system’s OEE. Index Terms: Automation, Dairy Industry, Industry 4.0, Lean Tools, OEE, Pallet Handling, Single-minute Exchange of Die SMED, Value Stream Mapping VSM, Waste Elimination.
1
The cold chain logistics industry has grown rapidly due to the high demand for temperature- sensitive perishable products. These products represent a serious delivery concern attributable to their product characteristics. Panda Retail Company is one of the companies that encounters many challenges regarding the cold chain logistics field. These challenges emerged from the fact that Panda dispatches chilled and frozen items from Riyadh’s Distribution center (DC) only. Consequently, the lead time of the trips between Riyadh’s DC and the stores is increased. One effect of this long lead time is raising the total transportation cost. The project objectives are to find and prioritize factors that affect Panda’s transportation system for chilled and frozen items and identify the most significant ones. After that, alternative solutions were proposed to improve the process of delivering chilled and frozen items from the main warehouses to various stores. To achieve proposed objectives, critical success factors (CFS) affecting Panda’s transportation system for chilled and frozen items were identified with the help of literature reviews and further validated by the company’s expert to understand the company’s requirements. CFSs weights were determined using Best-Worst-Method (BWM). The results of BWM were used in VIekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR) method to rank the performance indicators. The three highest ranks performance indicators were considered as alternative solutions. For further technical analysis, a comparison between DMAIC, lean logistics, and PDCA were made, the evaluation results showed that DMAIC is the most favorable method. DMAIC is instrumental in providing a systematic framework. Throughout the DMAIC phases the given data was analyzed and used to build simulation models with Arena software for the three highest ranks performance indicators. The results showed that ‘using multi-temperature compactors inside the truck’ is the most applicable performance indicator. After choosing the best performance indicator, coordinated scheduling of delivery was suggested to the company to coordinate the transportation process of chilled and frozen items. As well as, a well-structured control plan was conducted to ensure that the selected solution will be implemented successfully and to sustain benefits through the standardization of the process. Finally, the impact of the selected performance indicator was discussed in terms of economic, societal, environmental, and professional aspects.
2
Continuous improvement (CI) is considered a critical success factor in today’s evolving manufacturing industries. Savola United Sugar Company’s Manufacturing Excellence (SME) department has established a CI implementation plan in all its plant departments. However, the department has shown an inability to achieve its set target relative to CI, with no sufficient improvements evident as per the plan pillars’ assessment. The SME pillar that is focused on in this project is the Focused Improvement (FI) pillar. Therefore, the aim of this project is to design a CI framework that can be applied to all plant departments, which would improve the current level of achievement of the FI pillar. The project focused on implementation on a single department, which is the Utilities department. DMAIC methodology was used to design the framework. Interviews were conducted to determine the gaps in FI pillar achievement, and the answers were analyzed using a thematic analysis to determine the key themes and issues. Then, the results were analyzed using an interrelationship diagram to find the relationships between the issues and determine the root causes. The main themes that resulted and were therefore the focus of the framework were employee development, losses, and communication. After that, a DMAIC framework targeting the improvement of losses and employee development was designed. Lastly, dashboards using Microsoft Excel were created for the implementation of the framework and to achieve communication. The dashboards were utilized by the Utilities department to apply the framework. A training plan was applied using the employee development dashboard, while a loss reduction project was initiated using the losses dashboard. After implementation, a reassessment of the FI pillar showed an increase from 11.7% to 22.65%. Since the score reached the company’s monthly target increase, the framework can be implemented on other departments to achieve company-wide improvements in achievement of the FI pillar.
3
Managing inventories is a crucial part of every retail industry. Keeping and delivering the right amount at the right time to the right place is challenging for every inventory planner. Nahdi Medical Company (NMC) is a leading chain of Saudi retail pharmacies that manages and activates a nationwide network in 145 cities and villages across the Kingdom. NMC is one of the retailers that face out-of-stock issues resulting from the replenishment process. The replenishment process starts from the demand forecasting operations until the required Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) are delivered to stores. Therefore, the paper aims to study the company's current replenishment planning process to examine the root causes behind the out-of-stock issue and recommend alternative solutions to enhance the process. The DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) methodology is used to ensure positive change and continuous improvement to achieve the objectives. This paper suggests two solutions to increase the on-shelf availability (OSA) by 2% to 7%; by implementing a two-level order frequency model and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
4
Establishing standards to maintain a machine’s basic conditions is necessary to ensure a continuous flow of production processes. Afia International Company (AIC) is one of the market leaders of the edible oil industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The factory faces obstacles in terms of unplanned production line stoppages. The project customer, the production department, needs to reduce the stoppages. To investigate the problem, a root cause analysis was conducted revealing many factors that are categorized under four sections: method, machine, man, and material. Among the four generated solutions, Autonomous Maintenance (AM) was selected as it is an organizational change approach proven to deal with machine stoppages effectively. AM aims to increase operators’ skills and ownership to maintain machine basic conditions through standards establishment. The data were collected using qualitative and quantitative methods. Based on the data collection and analysis, Line A and C were selected for the implementation due to their highest contribution in availability time loss. Before the implementation, a foundation step was established which resulted in the formation of AM team and their roles, structured support from other departments, identification of operators’ training needs, and development of audits. The project focuses on implementing the first three steps of AM: performing initial cleaning, addressing source of contamination and hard to reach areas and establishing cleaning and checking standards. In the first step, deep machine cleaning was performed, creation of ownership layout, and application of lean tools and tags. In the second step, the source of contamination and hard to reach areas were collected for further improvement. In the third step, CIL work standards and visual management tools were created. Performing AM tasks for six weeks contributed to significant improvement in the stoppages time, breakdowns, and minor stoppages where they showed a reduction by 179.1, 395.5, and 33.6 minutes, respectively. As a result, there was an increase in the availability rate by 2%, in the OEE by 4% and in the operators’ skill level. For long-lasting improvement, it is recommended to complete AM steps and to adopt a reward system that will motivate the operators to be more involved.
5
COVID-19 is a viral infection that resulted in a pandemic that started in 2020. Countries worldwide and Saudi Arabia were affected by the virus. An initial survey directed to adults in Saudi Arabia indicated that 23% of consumers faced product stockouts in the peak of the pandemic. This paper aims to identify the effect of COVID-19 on the Saudi market by investigating the product(s) or sector(s) that had the most stockouts and suggest contingency solutions to soothe the negative effect of any future pandemic-like situations. Data was collected through a survey (directed to customers) and interviews (conducted with sellers). The survey was analyzed using Excel and the interviews were analyzed using a content analysis method. The results from this analysis were used in a gap analysis to validate the data collected from customers. The validation showed that the sector having the highest stockouts was the poultry sector. The sector was then analyzed, and interviews were conducted with experts in that sector to identify the problems that their companies faced during the pandemic’s peak. The problems were expressed as risk factors and were prioritized in RPN-RSV matrix. The results showed that the most significant risks were related to the infection of workers, obtaining transportation permits, disruptions in the supply chain, and having expired stock. A list of mitigation strategies was obtained from previous literature where the similarity of both situations was validated. Each strategy was discussed in the situation of the Saudi market and was allocated to the risk factor where it can be applied. The sector’s experts were asked to rank the best strategy for each risk. Based on the findings, it is suggested to apply the “Training and Communication” strategy in reducing the risks of workers infection and obtaining transportation permits. Also, “Proactive Business Continuity Plan” strategy should be facilitated to eliminate the likelihood of workers infection, while “Collaborative Management” strategy can be utilized to reduce the risk of obtaining transportation permits and disruptions in the supply chain. Finally, “Information Management” strategy should be followed to minimize “expires stock” risk.
6
The rate of improvement accelerates when performance is measured and reported. KPIs are a group of quantifiable measurements that are employed to evaluate an organization's performance. The United Sugar Company (USC), the project customer, needs to improve the KPIs' current measurement. The data obtained from the current KPIs is unsupportive for further analysis, inaccurate, and not assigned to specific activities, making the KPIs vague to the shop floor team. The project aims to analyze the current KPIs and increase the traceability of KPIs-related problems. After analyzing three alternatives, the Operationalization of KPIs methodology was chosen to be implemented. Operationalization of KPIs is an innovative methodology designed to make the KPIs tangible for the shop floor level and present the results immediately in a recognizable way that is clear for the shop floor team and top management to track and trace problems. The team narrowed down the scope by working only on the OEE KPIs based on the KPIs analysis. However, two means are used to trace the causes of problems related to the OEE KPI: collecting data by analyzing the losses and wastes and collecting related information using surveys and interviews. Furthermore, implementing the project has three phases: OEE Filling Sheet, VPM Board, and Educational Video. Firstly, the OEE Filling Sheet is a sheet designed and built by the project team using Microsoft Excel. This sheet includes details about the causes of the OEE-related problems, and it will be filled in by the operators daily at the end of each shift to trace the problems that happened during the shift. Secondly, a VPM board is made to reflect the results of the OEE Filling Sheet. Thirdly, an educational video is made for the workers to guide them in filling the OEE Filling Sheet. Therefore, the video's primary purpose is to standardize filling out the sheet among all workers. This project results in increasing the capability of tracing back the OEE-related problems as the OEE Filling Sheet includes details related to the reported problem. Also, by improving the traceability and trackability of the OEE results, some improvement areas appeared. The organization has detected several problems for future improvement projects since problems became easily located and identified.
7
Quantum is a Business-to-Business (B2B) company that provides marketing services to brands with its e-process integration via e-commerce partners. This research proposes a new service which aims to distribute the samples in-store. This project's primary goal is to assess the new in-store business model's performance compared to the current e-commerce sampling model. The main challenge in designing the new system process is the huge mass of data starving for valuable knowledge. The process divided into two phases: identifying the customer mix strategy phase and the planning for the distribution of samples phase. In the first phase, clustering and pattern extraction from big data is essential for customer segmentation and targeting decision making. Accordingly, a two-stage unsupervised machine learning algorithm is used, which first focused on customers demographic clustering using the Hierarchical Average Linkage method then preferences clustering using K-modes with K = 15. In both stages, clustering methods were compared according to the Silhouette index and the cost (level of scalability), respectively, to reach the optimum clustering results. After identifying the customer segments, the targeting mechanism was developed to match the client (brand) requirements. The perceptual map positioning method is used to allocate the sample into. convenience stores. In the second phase, the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem CVRP model will optimize the number of routes for the third-party logistics 3PL fleet vehicles.
8
One of the biggest challenges for supply chain management is the unbalanced supply with demand. Several causes give rise to this challenge leading to poor supply chain resilience and ineffective inventory management. Effective inventory strategies and supply chain management reduce the symptoms of this issue. Ahmad Kasim Al-Amoudi Group (AKA) is a large retailer that provides automotive paints. AKA suffers from the inconsistency between supply and demand, which in turn increases the levels of. inventory shortages and overstocks. Also, AKA’s poor supply chain resilience prevents it from effectively responding to the extreme case of COVID-19. This project aims to. improve AKA inventory management and supply chain resilience by resolving the roo causes of unbalanced supply with demand and reduce the Bullwhip Effect by applying more accurate forecasting methods. The project maps the AKA supply chain process. and assesses the associated risks. It measures the Bullwhip Effect across AKA supply chain. Moreover, it assesses AKA supply chain resilience with some appropriate key metrics. Furthermore, it measures AKA’s performance during the extreme case of COVID-19. The project followed the DMADV methodology to propose solutions for AKA. The designed solution contains an effective ARIMA-based forecasting method with MAPE equal to 24%. Also, it includes an appropriate inventory strategy with the proper service level of 76% to avoid inventory shortage and overstock. Moreover, the solution provides a dashboard that assesses the built inventory model’s efficiency and tracks AKA’s performance. The dashboard shows that the built inventory model increases the inventory turnover by 44 % in 1st period of 2019. Additionally, the designed solution. improves the AKA supply chain resilience.
9
Saudi Electricity Company is an electricity provider for consumers in KSA. It generates, transmits, and distributes the electricity in KSA through 45 power generation plants in the country. Energy is a valuable resource, and it is needed all the time to finish any work needed in our daily life. Therefore, the utility strives to provide a solid grid to provide stable energy for consumers at any time. Besides, the utility wants people to move more of their consumption to the off-peak and grey periods to balance usage during the day, pay for the expense of running generators throughout the off-peak period, make the grid more stable and reduce demand fluctuation. Based on the project's problem of resource instability during power generation due to demand fluctuations. Therefore, the project's objectives were to use industry 4.0 technologies in smart meters, smooth demand fluctuations by limiting usage at peak hours and assess the adopted methodology's effect on generator running cost. Accordingly, three alternatives were generated and evaluated. The chosen alternative for the project is demand-side management, specifically the Time-of-Use (TOU) program approach. The TOU program focuses on smoothing the grid's demand by shifting unnecessary load from peak periods to off and grey periods. The project was completed using the following methodology, studying the existing situation, picking the program to be used, analysing historical data, and assessing program feasibility. After that, establish tariffs and clustering, and a program to do a cost analysis and identify the impacts. To see the results for TOU implementation, the experiment is done for four houses in Jeddah city for two clusters to outline the shifted amount from each house and see the impact on bill price. Time-of-Use design included a planned period hour with pricing tariff design for two different clusters. The results show that in the winter season, the On-peak period decreased by 1.11 percent, while the Off-peak and Gray periods increased by 1.8 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. Furthermore, the findings show that reducing consumption at peak hours minimizes the consumer's overall bill. The proposed solution decreased production during the company's peak hours, lowering generating costs.
10
Al Salem Johnson Controls (ASJC) is a company that provides integrated solutions incorporating heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. One of ASJC warehouses in Jeddah is the spare parts warehouse which is poorly managed and has a low-performance level. It consists of large number of obsolete parts, inconsistent labels, uncategorized shelves, and poor storing procedures. This project focuses on exploring and identifying the barriers affecting spare parts warehouse performance and implements Lean Warehouse Management (LWM) practices. Based on the literature review, the barriers and their improvement solutions have been specified. The Best Worst Method (BWM) was used to weight the barriers, then Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was applied to rank the performance improvement solutions. The main warehouse processes were illustrated by creating the process mapping followed by waste analysis, which discussed the six waste types ranked by applying the TOPSIS technique. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) method was implemented to accomplish the project objectives using the optimum methodology, which started by identifying the driver barrier using an Interrelationship diagram, as the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) was created for current and improved situations. After that, the. 5S mythology was followed with its five steps: in sorting the obsolete spare parts were tagged and moved to the three floors storage area, for set in order the spare parts were clustered based on ABC classification, supplier, and weights. The cleaning plan was created in shine step, where cleaning schedule, monthly color code, standard route map, and First In First Out (FIFO) rule were developed in standardized step. In the last step, sustain, audit checklist, audit instructor, and action plan were discussed. In order to connect the spare parts’ locations with their labels, Barcode technology was introduced to the warehouse system. All methods and techniques used in this project resulted in organizing the spare parts warehouse and then standardized the. achieved improvements, which are the reduction in the inbound value-added time by 24% and 32% for the outbound process.
1
E-health is defined as using the information and communication technology in the health sector services. Mawid mobile application is one of the electronic services that were launched in 2017 by the Saudi Ministry of Health. Mawid provides the service of booking a reservation in the healthcare sector. This research investigated the effectiveness of the Mawid application. Also, an online survey and usability test had conducted, data had analyzed using SPSS software, privacy & security had assessed and a focus group was made to generate the possible improvements. Moreover, the findings of the usability test revealed that females were faster than males while using the Mawid application, Age of the participant is considering as the most affecting factor on the performance. Finally, technical gaps had found. Along with, the results of the online survey indicated that the most participants were satisfied with their experience using Mawid. Furthermore, the privacy and security level were acceptable.
2
Time is a valuable resource for production industries; therefore, it is important to find ways to eliminate time waste during production processes. One of Unilever’s home care production lines has shown to have a prolonged changeover time, which negatively impacted the overall line effectiveness (OLE) level. Therefore, the aim of this project is to study and improve the changeover process in this production line where multiple workers are responsible for performing it. In order to achieve this, worker process charts and spaghetti diagrams were used to understand the current process. After that the non-value adding activities were identified and eliminated through the 5-whys analysis. Lastly and most importantly, the Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology was applied and task rescheduling was performed to streamline the process. Our results show that it is possible through this approach to reduce the changeover time by 19.2% and subsequently raise the OLE level. However, it also uncovered what alterations to the line are needed to further reduce the changeover time.
3
This project studies the supply chain (SC) department in AFIA International Company (AIC). The difficulties being faced in AIC are not being able to track, measure, and monitor the performance of all its supply chain departments. Therefore, department contributions cannot be seen and identified directly within AIC's overall performance, which obstructs any improvement that can be done. This project aims to understand the current processes at AIC, develop KPIs for all the SC departments and link them to the main SC KPIs, and build a dashboard for the KPI SC system at AIC.. By following the PuMP methodology, the team fullfiled the objectives and obtained succesful results. The main output of this project is represented in the whole KPIs system which was developed for AIC and involved the KPIs objectives, calculations, targets, and dashboards. This output will have an impact on AIC on different levels, economically, socially, environmentally, and professionally.
4
Al Salem Johnson Controls (ASJC) for air conditioning units is facing a significant issue in their warehouse distribution process. The warehouse team lacks systematic planning for the distribution process. Therefore, the project’s objectives are to optimize the distribution process and minimize its cost. Among three alternatives, the chosen alternative seeks to enhance the distribution process’s performance by applying shipment consolidation, identifying shipping zones, and finding the optimal charge basis when assigning orders to 3PL. A practical model is created to act as an automatic planner for the distribution process. The output of the model is summarized in two daily reports, one for the optimal delivery plan for the fleet trucks, and the other is for the least cost of 3PL. After testing the model, the results show a 10% increase in the vehicle fill rate, a 23% reduction in the number of trips, and a 20% reduction in the 3PL cost.
5
Inbound Logistics (IL) is a key component to the supply chain. Binzager Unilever Factory’s IL Team is working towards reducing operational losses which were comprising 53% of the total losses of the factory. This project contributes to this goal through improving the materials flow operations by applying DMAIC Methodology. By focusing on the outer cases replenishment, the root causes of having excess materials at the line side and having outers feeding as the highest NVAA among the packaging materials were identified. Furthermore, three alternative systems were introduced, which were focused on transforming the current materials movement in the factory from a push to a pull system. Based on the evaluation, E-Kanban Control System through Power BI and Traffic Lights was selected since it satisfies the customers' requirements. Finally, the impact of implementing the system was studied followed by a discussion of the project's contribution to solving the problem statement and future recommendations.
6
Nahdi is a pharmaceutical company that operates a nationwide network in 125 cities and villages across the Kingdom. This research project studies the inventory in Nahdi, which is facing difficulties in managing the slow-moving items (SMI) that leads to an overstock situation. Consequently, the total overstock value represents 30% of the total inventory as per the company. This problem results in lost sales opportunities, tied cash flow, and improper utilization of inventory space. The project aims to identify the root causes of the problem, develop proper criteria, and to recommend solutions for the short and long term. To achieve these objectives the DMAIC methodology was used. The results of the project show four primary factors that influence overstock value, which are store area, new item, core list, and promotions. Based on these factors, two plans were suggested to reduce the current overstock value. Moreover, to avoid having overstocked items preventive solutions were proposed regarding new items, core list, and promotions.
7
Saudi Arabian Glass Company (SAGCO) is a glass manufacturer. This paper aims to increase the efficiency of production line No.4, which is one of the most valuable lines at SAGCO, the production line was running with an efficiency of 76%, this percentage is less than the desired efficiency that was specified by the company. To improve the efficiency, the IS machine was selected. The OEE of the machine was improved by applying the TPM approach, which was the solution selected out of three alternatives. Data was analysed and used to calculate the OEE of the machine and to identify the major losses. The two major losses were set up loss and adjustment loss, the causes behind these losses were due to the long changeover time of job change process and the need of adjustment the glass temperature. After solving these causes, the OEE of the machine was increased by 1%.
1
The study was carried out at Sunbulah food and pastry factory based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It aimed to reduce the weight variation found in the spring roll production line by 20% using Six Sigma, DMAIC approach. The five phases of DMAIC, define, measure, analyse, improve and control have been applied to achieve the target. The problem was defined and approved by Sunbulah management. The performance of the spring roll line was measured to be operating at a level of -0.05 sigma with 48.1% production defects. Analysis was conducted on potential causes of the problem, and the following three main factors were identified: the temperature of the rollers, roller/feeder distance and the shifts. A set of alternatives were suggested to improve the performance of the line which were: changing the location of the weighting system, redesigning workload and providing night shift supervision. Also, standard operating procedures were prepared to control the process. Finally, the implementation of the solution would lead to an estimation of 60% reduction in production defects related to weight variation in spring roll sheets.
Index Terms—Sunbulah, six sigma, weight variation
2
A Distribution Center (DC) is an important link in the supply chain where products are temporarily stored and retrieved in order to fulfill customer's orders. The proper functioning of the DC process is essential for operational improvements and overall logistic supply chain improvements. The purpose of this project was to conduct a case study on enhancing warehouses management for Al- Kabli main DC in Jeddah. Al-Kabli is one of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) distribution companies that offers sweets and biscuits. The project has focused on the main DC activities receiving, storing, picking, setup, and shipping. The main objective is to expose the challenges in current situation and recommend solutions to improve the efficiency. Lean Six Sigma methodology was selected as a framework for the whole project. The results of mapping the inbound and outbound operation by using Value Stream Mapping (VSM) revealed that total throughput time for the inbound operation is 8.68 hours with 40.8% non-value-added (NVA) activities time. Where it is 8.7 hours for the outbound operation with 70.7% is considered as NVA activity time. Searching- traveling time that is considered as a NVA activity took almost 76% of the whole outbound operation time due to the random storage of stocks inside the DC. Alternatives were studied and proposed by implementing multiple industrial engineering tools. Class-based storage method was recommended to be implemented in the DC which will have a huge impact on the whole DC operations. Long traveled distances and NVA activities were reduced by the proposed solutions. The results show that 79% of the NVA time was reduced in the inbound operation and 55% reduction in the NVA time of the outbound operation. The reduction in the time spent on NVA activities allows for preparing more orders therefore, increasing the revenue of the DC by 200% per day. This project can conclude that the efficiency of Al-Kabli DC can be increased by implementing the proposed recommendations that are given. Multiple files were built to analyze, recommend solution, and maintain the efficiency by updating it continually.
Index terms: distribution center, lean six sigma, efficiency, inbound and outbound operations
3
Healthcare sector is a dynamic changing environment with unpredicted events which would negatively impact the quality of services delivered to patients. Many variables and factors play a critical role in controlling the patient flow through the different departments in the healthcare sector. ED is considered the most critical unit within the entire healthcare sector. The execution of this project took place at the Emergency Department (ED), of King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The main issue lies in the ED of KAUH is that the percentage of LWBS patients with acuity level 3 (Urgent) has an average waiting time exceeding Canadian Triage Acuity Scale CTAS which is adopted by KAUH. The data obtained for this project was based on the ED archives for the year of 2018 obtained from the hospital manager. Data were analyzed and validated to acquire accurate information of the patient's flow within the department. A conceptual discrete event simulation model was developed using Arena Software to capture the actual representation of patients flow in the department and to identify areas for improvement. Decision variables were manipulated in order to generate different scenarios to observe which variable is mostly affecting patients average waiting time. The results showed that by assigning two beds from the fast track area and one bed from the observation area, the average waiting time for patient with acuity level 3 has been reduced by 32%. Overall, the objectives of this project have been achieved on time, which contributed to meet patient’s satisfaction as well as providing future improvements opportunities along with further developments.
Index Terms — Emergency department, King Abdulaziz university hospital, Canadian triage acuity scale, Simulation model, Patient flow
4
Unilever is a multinational company that sells fast moving consumer goods, that is also trying to reach a world class manufacturing through increasing and maintaining its production efficiency. This project aims to increase the efficiency of one of the money generating lines at Binzagr Unilever in Jeddah which is the Personal Care Liquid line (L8) which was running at 52% the Overall Line Efficiency (OLE). This was done through several steps, firstly, observations were conducted to identify the major type of loss which was the minor stoppages (MS). Secondly, eliminate these minor stoppages by using lean manufacturing tools (5W’s + 1H, 5-Whys, and 5G’s), and the seven steps to attack those minor stoppages that is adopted from the world-class manufacturing methodology. Lastly, the objectives and requirements of this project were successfully achieved by reducing the time waste due to minor stoppages in L8 by a total of 10 min/shift which is equivalent to a reduction of MS by 2.4%. Furthermore, the Mean Time between Minor Stoppages (MTBMS) was reduced by 2.3 min and that saved for the company around 805 SAR/Shift. Finally, OLE has increased by 12% (from 52% to 64%), but the real contribution of the MS improvement was 2.4% out of the 12%.
Index Terms— Efficiency, Lean manufacturing, Minor Stoppages (MS), Overall Line Efficiency (OLE), World Class Manufacturing (WCM).
5
Reducing company wastes is considered an important factor for business continuity. This project discusses different waste aspects at Arabian Chemical Company (ACC) that is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ACC faced several types of waste which led to time, cost, and effort issues meanly due to two types of waste. Firstly, inventory waste which include: more than 23.43% waste of raw materials, 11.96% inventory of unsold finished goods, and 10.64% waste of maintenance and repair operations. Secondly, over processing which had a waste of 15.54% in the form of chips and defects storing, grinding, and applied recycling processed. The aim behind this project is to reduce different types of waste in production lines at ACC and to try to minimize those wastes by finding the best solutions using Lean Six Sigma technique (DMAIC). This effective technique contributed to improve the overall waste issues at ACC, since the waste rate was reduced from 61.57% to 34.14%. Finally, the project provided solutions to minimize both types of waste leading to cost savings as well as providing more efficient work environment.
6
The aim of this project is to optimize manpower at the packaging section and increasing productivity of Serac A line at Afia International Company in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The number of workers in the packaging area was not based on engineering concepts. The company has six semi-automated lines where labor cost consumes a big amount of the factory’s budget. The method adopted for manpower optimization was a combination of time study techniques, Arena simulation, and lean tools. The results showed that there is a decrease in the number of workers by 66% which will result in more than 2,000,000 SR annual savings. On the other hand, Serac A line was suffering from low productivity rate in the early months of 2018, the method adopted was define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) which results an increase in productivity by 14.8%.
7
Poor communication between Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and suppliers is considered as a significant issue that reflect negatively on the success of the enterprises in Saudi Arabia. It prevents SMEs from selecting the appropriate supplier that satisfy their requirements from variety of suppliers. Lack of information sharing between suppliers and SMEs is the main cause of the poor communication. SMEs need to receive specified products information from suppliers to facilitate ordering process. Suppliers are also suffering from bargaining power of suppliers where some suppliers lack the opportunity to appear in the market and serve lots of SMEs. The aim of this project is to facilitate the communication management between suppliers and SMEs in Jeddah. By implementing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) which is a concept that allows the company to share information with others electronically, GMSR Company was established, which provides a supply chain solution for SMEs in Jeddah. The service provided by the company is represented by GMSR platform which grants suppliers the opportunity to sale their products to SMEs. GMSR designed for both SMEs and suppliers to enhance communication among them. GMSR platform spots light on five categories: beauty centers, flower shops, eyeglasses shops, mobile and stationaries stores that face high communication problems compared with the rest of the categories. Better communication infrastructure is one of the main advantages in integrating GMSR. It works much faster than old communications methods. Integrating GMSR can be a significant source for business to maintain their operations from different aspects such as process tracking and flow of data. GMSR leads businesses to operate in an effective manner through creating links between SMEs and suppliers.
8
This project examines if there is a gap in employment skills among graduating female engineering students and employers in Saudi Arabia. It aims to qualify female engineering students for the job market and satisfy employers demand. A primary data was collected using two forms of online questionnaires, one for the students from different universities and one for employers from different fields. The findings revealed that there is one major gap in the basic skills which includes foreign language (English), computer technical skills, communication. The researchers recommended Work-Integrated Learning Program (WILP) that links the theoretical studying with the problem based learning to enhance their skills level.
9
Warehousing is part of a logistic system where any type of raw materials, semi-finished goods or finished goods, is stored in a warehouse for a period.  StyrenPack factory lacks a good warehouse management system to effectively track items throughout the system and allocate the products. Besides, it does not have an optimum layout configuration which leads to insufficient storage area. This study deals with exploration of different engineering techniques to have a well-functioning warehouse. Also, it aims to maximize the usage of a storage area and avoid the randomization storage. In order to achieve these objectives, three alternative solutions are proposed based on case studies and articles were read in the literature review. Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process and decision Matrix the best solution was chosen to solve the problem in this project. The best alternative includes applying several tools which are 5S, Activity-Based Costing, and barcode system to achieve the set objectives of this project. For collecting the needed data, a number of interviews was conducted, and historical data was collected to analyze the current situation and make further decision. After implementation, the results showed 85% space utilization and the performance of order picking incremental by 25%. Furthermore, barcode system was recommended to help in tracking the availability of product in the warehouse which can increase the effectiveness by 70%.
1
Frequent delays in baggage claim process for passengers arriving to King Abdul-Aziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia that exceed the standard time of International Air Transport Association (IATA) were studied and analyzed in this project. This delay is negatively affecting the passengers’ satisfactory level due to the extra time they have to wait after their trip. Moreover, passengers’ plans might be effected and rescheduled accordingly. This delay also distracts the airport from achieving good economic performance as well as scoring high ranking among other competing international airports. Six-Sigma methodology with five phases namely; Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) was used to solve the problem and ensure passengers' satisfaction. In each phase a detailed analysis was conducted and implemented using several standard engineering techniques such as cause and effect diagram and Pareto chart. The proposed solution of the problem using DMAIC was categorized with taking into consideration the requirement and constraints of KAIA into short term, medium term and long term solution. In the short term solution required optimization of delayed flights was proposed. In medium term solution baggage delivery service was proposed. Finally in the long term solution new airport building (facility) should be used to solve the airport layout problem.
2
Improving company productivity consider an important factor for business continuity. This project discusses Al-Gharbia plastic bags factory case that located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al-Gharbia faces three major problems that lead to reduce the factory productivity which are; more than 10% of the production rate becomes a waste, disorganized in process inventory, and environmental health hazards. The aim behind this project is to minimize those problems and find the best solution using Lean Six Sigma technique (DMAIC). This effective technique contributed to improve the overall factory productivity, since it reduced the waste rate where it becomes 8.9%. Moreover, getting more organized workplace that best utilize the factory space where around 68.6% of the used space is saved. In other words, only 31.2% of this space is used and 63% of the total work in process inventory space is utilized. Finally, provide solutions and forms to maintain safe work environment.
3
Congestion prevents countries from development, economic and urban growth. The growth of a population induces more congestion problems. Jeddah is the most congested in KSA. The Ministry of Transportation aims to support free flow and quick service accessibility for citizens. This project will enhance the Ministry of Transportation’s mission by providing as effective evaluation and proposing appropriate solutions to the most congested road in Jeddah (King Fahad Road). The Level of Service method (LOS) was implemented on King Fahad Road, which indicates the road status by using rating systems typically from A (best) to F (worst). The segment Level of Service was F which means failure flow rate at peak hours. After proper analysis of the root causes, four proposed solutions are recommended. These solutions were divided by the time horizon of the implementation: short-term and long-term solutions. In the short-term solutions, three recommendations are provided. First to redesign the exit and entrance of the service road by making the first entrance/exit as an entrance only and make the second one just an exit, which will smooth the mobility and decrease the congestion level. Second to redesign the Falasteen Flyover by closing the congested entrance and exit, to be a highway without stopping points. Third to apply road charging (pricing) strategy at peak hours, which will contribute to decreasing the demand in the peak hours. The long-term solution is build a G2 Flyover above the Falasteen Flyover, which will lead to a significant reduction in the congestion that is due to the poor current design of the flyover.
4
Parking difficulties and shortages are one of the major problems King Abdul-Aziz University is currently facing. Parking demand in female campus gates is expected to increase rapidly, especially after the announcement of the royal decree which states that women will be allowed to drive in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 24/6/2018. Thus, King Abdul-Aziz University needs to increase parking lots to accommodate the expected parking needs and demands. Drivers will waste a lot of time circling around on campus multiple times attempting to find a vacant spot to park especially during the peak hours, resulting in lateness and heavy traffic jams. Therefore, this project aims to meet and satisfy the parking demands in female campus gates at King Abdul-Aziz University. The main objectives are to evaluate and improve the current existing parking design and capacity, accommodate the parking demand at each gate of the female campus and comply the parking designs with KAU’s policies and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs regulations and standards. The methodology used to satisfy the customer needs was through developing designing strategies and procedures to accommodate the parking demand. Thus, the optimum alternative was chosen to be a parking plan of providing different parking strategies and designs using university campus lands only at each existing gate based on each gate's functional and architectural characteristics. The proposed solutions and parking designs covered the parkers demand by average 162% at the female campus. The solutions varies from regular ground parking system, regular multi-story parking system, rotary smart parking system and centralized multi story parking system supported with public transportation. The proposed strategies in this project can be applicable to other female campus gates in other Saudi universities. Consequently, the achievement of this project is the development of unique parking strategies to meet the parking demand in female campus gates at King Abdul-Aziz University.
5
Afia International Company (AIC) is a commodity business that has to challenge its supply chain costs to ensure its profitability while withstanding against frequent economic condition changes. One of the areas that had a lot of potentials for improvement was within the Logistics Department. Subsequently, the primary aim of this paper was to study the Internal Logistics operations at AIC, precisely within one of the four warehouses to improve the Warehouse Management System (WMS). Salma Raw Material & Packaging Material Warehouse was chosen due to the high impact it had on the whole supply chain and most importantly to the fact that the root causes of the situation remained unresolved. It was found that 53% of the production delays were due to the material shortage from Salama Warehouse, caused by several factors. Accordingly, the research followed DMAIC methodology to first identify the significant issues faced by Salama, then propose solutions to improve or eliminate them while aligning with the customer’s needs, requirements, and constraints. The performance of Salama warehouse was directly influenced by many factors such as production volume, information system capabilities and foremost by storage space efficient utilization. Furthermore, the proposed WMS included improving storage space configuration, designing suitable racking system, material flow planning, proper allocation, items classification and creating performance measurements. The proposed WMS is found to increase the warehouse volume space utilization by 21%, pallet space utilization by 80% and decreases traveled distance from gate to furthest point by 13.7%. Overall, the proposed solution synchronizes with AIC’s supply chain strategic goals and helps in maintaining its long-term profitability.
6
Lean Six Sigma is a business management methodology that was developed by Motorola. It aims to reduce organization's cost by reducing defects from a process, solving problems caused by a process and improving efficiency and effectiveness. This project is concerned about an issue in Tamer Healthcare division –medical and pharmaceutical sectors in Jeddah warehouse. Tamer’s issue is product returns that happen when the customer rejects the goods for many reasons and then the goods are returned to the warehouse. The rate of product returns is very high. Returns cause the company to lose money and considered as a waste. In November 2016 – October 2017, Return percentages represent 7% of total value in pharmaceutical sector and 14% in medical sector. As a volume of operations, 6% of tasks that are picked and dispatched are returned in pharmaceutical sector and 13% of tasks that are picked and dispatched are returned in medical sector. This study aims to reduce the percentage of returns volume at least to 5% and the percentage of returns value at least to 7% both pharmaceutical and medical sectors. Lean Six Sigma approach is used in order to minimize these percentages and find solutions to Tamer Group to tackle this problem. The root cause of the problem is a miscommunication between Tamer Group and its customers. Benefit-Cost analysis is done for each alternative to choose the best fit solution. The project finds that the best fit solution is a combination of sending a confirmation email to the customers before two days from the delivery, adding duplicate item alarm into Tamer’s system while entering purchasing order, and entering the quantity twice while entering purchasing order by the salesman in Tamer’s system. This suggested solution will reduce the product returns percentages to 5% and 2% of tasks that are picked and dispatched in the medical and pharmaceutical sector respectively. In addition, it will reduce the product returns percentages to 3% of total value in the pharmaceutical sector and 7 % in the medical sector. Recommendations that will reduce the percentage of returns indirectly are suggested such as changing the forecasting method and updating the returns rejection form.
7
Distribution Center (DC) plays a critical role in the supply chain as a focal point between suppliers and clients. Nowadays, especially in the lines of the huge economic evolutions, logistics companies are seeking to improve the service level, reduce cost, satisfy their clients, and maintain the competitive advantages through enhancing their distribution centers' operations. Tamer Group is one of the main healthcare distribution companies in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The project aims to improve the internal operations in Tamer Group's Main Distribution Center (MDC), based on analyzing the current level of resources utilization by applying Lean Six Sigma methodology. In this project, the analysis was based on historical data delivered from the Warehouse Management System (WMS) of the MDC and diverse other observation methods. Hence, the project proposed a framework that can result in a major saving in terms of time, cost, and workers' effort. By applying different techniques to valid the current situation and coupled with developing a sensitivity analysis in the form of different scenarios generated using a simulation model. As a result, the base simulation model of the current situation gives the process time of each internal operation in the MDC, it shows the differences in the processes' time particularly in the picking process. That means when the products are grouped in full pallets instead of being separate pieces the total required time for picking on average customer's order was reduced from 55 minutes to be 30 minutes. This will save approximately 45% of the needed time and enhance the resources' utilization in one of the most intensive operations. Besides, implementing resource leveling can contribute to increasing the resources' productivity. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis presented different proposals for improving the processes such as decreasing the total number of workers in the checking process for example, will reduce the total cost by more than 2,000 SR whereas the total time required for checking each order will remain the same. It recommended a scenario for increasing the receiving workers and decreasing the checkers, where it has a moderate amount of cost with the best number of fulfilled orders. Finally, the project provided the current level of resources utilization and recommended various suggestions for developing the current system and sustain it.
8
LOMAR is a leading designer and retailer of high-end made thobes in Saudi Arabia. It has become a pioneer in the traditional Saudi men’s apparel market. LOMAR always tries to boost their ability to cover their customers’ demand with better response time. Therefore, LOMAR is looking to increase the labor productivity which can contribute to improving the customer’s experience. In addition, LOMAR management wants to further enhance the comfort level of their labors. Several visits were conducted frequently to the factory specifically to the sewing area. Since the major activities are performed in the sewing area, it is considered as the most critical section of the garment industry. Moreover, the sewing area produces different products, and our concentration was on the thobe assembly lines, since it represents 80% of the factory’s total production. In order to increase the productivity, an in-depth search was undertaken for several techniques used in the garment industry to increase the productivity level. For this purpose, a combination of 5s principles and assembly line balancing techniques was used to come up with proper different scenarios for a new system design. After which, all proposed solutions were evaluated based on different criteria provided by the factory management. After implementing the selected proposed system, the results are analyzed, and we find a 52.8% reduction in the average total cycle time needed to complete one thobe. That leads to capturing an improvement in labor’s performance reflected in an increment of 28.3% in labors' productivity. As a result, the production lot size is increased by 80% (from 25 to 45 thobe/ line/ day). The proposed system design captures an increase in total productivity by 27% (from 59.5% to 86.5%) and decrease in the total labors hours within the sewing area per day by 32 hours. Moreover, the organization is provided with proposed interventions that could help them to maintain a comfortable work environment that leads to an even more productive and a safer atmosphere.
9
Optimizing the material handling in a warehouse nowadays is a critical factor for a successful competitive strategy. Material handling is found in any typical industrial facility where it accounts for 25% of all employees, 55% of all facility space and 87% of processing time. This study aims to optimize the performance of the picking area in Al-Nahdi warehouses. Different analysis methods were performed on several performance reports. A critical issue was shown clearly in cosmetics 1 warehouse, where a big percentage of pickers were not achieving their targets. The problem of ignoring item slotting in most of the warehouses was actual in Al-Nahdi warehouses as operators have no standard guidelines or structured strategy to guide them to an optimized way of item arrangement. Good material handling enables providing the right item in the right condition and at the right place. Therefore, a new item slotting strategy was proposed to Al-Nahdi to solve the problem of not achieving the target. Item slotting optimization refers to arranging the items in the warehouse in an optimal manner to meet specific objectives and goals. Moreover, current database of items and locations was analyzed where enormous variability of items characteristics was found and a grouping methodology of creating scenarios that have different measures of demand rate, weight, similarity aspect of the same brand, replenishment rate, and fragility was conducted. Implementation of re-slotting items in the prime locations was done by analyzing the characteristics of the current locations and slot the items that need to be in such zone, aisle, and location accordingly. Also, an advanced item slotting program was developed to have a proactive slotting optimization and to ensure sustainability of the item slotting methodology when seasonal items, SKU proliferation, and any other events occur. The optimized slotting system minimized the travel time which increased the productivity rate of pickers as it was expected where more pickers are now able to close the target of 1000 lines per day. The developed methodology helped the warehouse inventory control team to assign an item to the location that suits each item the best which improved the pick line efficiency and reduced replenishment demand rate throughout the day.
10
Gandour factory produces multiple products of sweets and baked goods. The aim of the factory is to increase the responsiveness to customers’ demand. The factory has many production lines, one of these lines is a line that produces different flavors of cupcakes. Hence, when changing from one flavor to another, the factory wastes four hours to change the flavor and run the production line again, this time is known as the changeover time. Moreover, the factory changes the cupcake flavor five times a week, which results in 20 hours lost time due to changeovers per week. The purpose of this project is to minimize the changeover time, and help Gandour to increase their productivity. The solution implemented in this project is Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). The expected outcome from this project is to have a fast changeover process. The result of this project is a 55% reduction in changeover time, which yields a total time of 108 minutes. The results of this research will positively affect the efficiency of the cupcake production line.
11
Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) is a world-class container terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port, specialized in handling containers shipped from around the world. It operates with different types of heavy equipment that requires maintenance jobs and the use of spare parts, tools, and equipment, which are held as an inventory in RSGT stores. Currently, RSGT stores have many concerns including poor layout, inefficient storing and stacking methods and unsafe workplace and environment which leads to long pickup time and loss of money. This project aims at improving the facility design of RSGT store. Several solutions, which can solve the problem will be generated and compared to choose the optimal alternative. The optimal solution will be implemented using 6S lean technique, which will result in eliminating wastes of time and space. This project has provided a new organizing and reclassifying method by using ABC classification, and has proposed a new layout for the store that resulted in increasing the space utilization. Moreover, the safety of the store has improved by reducing the risk factor using hazard identification and risk assessment form. Achieving the above objectives has resulted in significant reduction in pick up time by 34%. Improving RSGT store will increase the company’s productivity and efficiency thus will assist in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.


Last Update
8/28/2022 2:05:58 PM