Breakdown Eradication on Flexography Printing Process

Abstract

This work is on the MTBF (Mean time between failure) improvement of a flexographic printing machine by reducing number of breakdowns with the help of a total productive maintenance tool called as 12 step kaizen methodology. The methodology is comprised of calculating MTBF (Mean time between failure) of the machine before and after identifying the causes of the problems. Printing process breakdown deployment is used to prioritize main problem areas and 12 step kaizen approach is used to identify the root cause of the breakdowns. Improvement in OEE & MTBF (Mean time between failure) of the printing process for a 6 months’ period. It is concluded that 12 step kaizen techniques are useful in improving effectiveness of the equipment and for the continuous process improvement.