A Lean Manufacturing model for reducing idle time on a production line

This article presents a Lean Manufacturing model for reducing idle time on production lines in a flexographic-printing company. The model is constructed based on idle time indexes. Factors with the highest influence on idle time are determined using Principal Components from multivariate analysis. Risks under different idle time scenarios were calculated in order to compare results. Throughout this research a lean manufacturing approach was used to quantify and detect machines with the highest risk of idle time occurrence. The model was tested in two printing machines using a period of 8-month data set.