ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Blown Film Quality Improvement

Khandipanichakul Santad 1, Sabseree Jaran 2 1 Rayong Engineering and Plant Service Co., Ltd, Rayong, Thailand 2 SCG Corporate Total Quality Promotion Center, Bangkok, Thailand e-mail : jaransab@scg.co.th

Summary: The quality of film on Blown film equipment was improved by using problem solving QC story with special quality tools, GR&R, P-M analysis, TRIZ & DOE, in order to improve quality of blown film. GR&R was used to validate the new measurement system. P-M Analysis and TRIZ were used to formulate the problem mechanism and then restored the machine function to basic condition. DOE was used to screen various factors and to optimize the process parameters. The result showed that the standard deviation of the thickness was reduced from 9 micron to 6 micron and the appearance score was improved from 1 to 8.

Keywords QC story GR&R, P-M Analysis, TRIZ, DOE

Introduction Nowadays, operational excellence is an important key to success in world class competitiveness. Rayong Engineering & Plant Service Co., Ltd. have a vision to be the professional company, creating engineering value and providing plant solution in order to serve and support SCGs operational excellence. Machine efficiency is one of the main factors affecting on product quality, unplanned breakdown, opportunity loss and production cost. To improve the overall machine efficiency of blown film extrusion process, blown film quality improvement was selected as an improvement project This project was defined to improve process capability of film thickness and to reduce the problem of film appearance called melt fracture. This problem was solved by using intrinsic knowledge and traditional QC story with simple tools, however; the target could not be achieved. To enhance power of problem solving, P-M Analysis and TRIZ was used to formulate the problem mechanism and DOE was used to optimize the process parameters.

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Problem SCG chemicals group had 5 blown film production lines. Blown film line A had the least efficiency, high % waste and high film appearance problem (Table 1, Fig. 1-3). Figure 4 showed that thickness of line A also had low process capability and low process performance (Cpk = 0.14 and Ppk = 0.10). The project targets were set to improve Cpk of film thickness to more than 1, Ppk to more than 0.4 and to reduce 30% of the waste. Table 1. The performance of Blown fiom processing line A-E in the year 2009
Production Line % Performance % Waste Film Appearance Problem Remarks Line A 83 0.48 High Line B 97 0.15 Low Line C 92 0.21 Low Line D 103 0.17 Low Line E 102 0.22 Low

% performance = Actual of production quantity / Plan of production quantity

Figure 1.

% Production Performance in 2009

Figure 2.

% Waste in 2009

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Figure 3 The Melt Fracture Problem of Blown film line A

Blownfilm Line A (Background)

LSL
P rocess D ata LS L 130 T arget 140 USL 150 S ample M ean 146.412 S ample N 1540 S tD ev (Within) 8.32169 S tD ev (O v erall) 11.4213

Target

USL W ithin O v erall

P otential (Within) C apability Cp 0.40 C P L 0.66 C P U 0.14 C pk 0.14 O v erall C apability Pp PPL PPU P pk C pm 0.29 0.48 0.10 0.10 0.25

120
O bserv ed P erformance P P M < LS L 33116.88 P P M > U S L 324025.97 P P M T otal 357142.86 E xp. PPM PPM PPM

130

140

150

160

170

180

190

Within P erformance < LS L 24295.82 > U S L 333161.58 T otal 357457.40

E xp. O v erall P erformance P P M < LS L 75367.16 P P M > U S L 376692.78 P P M T otal 452059.94

Figure 4

Process Capability of Film Thickness of Blow Film Line A

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Observation The condition of the equipment was restored to its basic conditon, using teams intrinsic knowledge, P-M analysis and TRIZ. Substance field wodel was constructed in order to illustrate the harmful function of system. (Figure 5) and P-M analysis was applied in order to restore the equipment ot basic condition.

Figure 5

Substance Field Model of Blown Film Extrusion

Measurement system analysis, GR&R, was applied in order to identify and quantify variation of the thickness measurement system. The results (Table 2) showed that measurement variation was unacceptable (% tolerance > 30%). After examining measurement method, the measurement system was improved to acceptable level tolerance < 30 %) as Table 2.

the the the (%

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Table 2. GR&R of Film Thickness Measurement System

% Contribution Condition Value Existing GR&R Improved GR&R 0.24 Result Good

% Study Variation Value 4.88 Result Good

% Tolerance Value 30.86 Result Need to Improve Fair

No. of District Categories Value 28 Result Good

0.11

Good

3.35

Good

20.78

42

Good

The film appearance score rating was established in order to convert attributed data into variation data as Figure 6.

Figure 6 Film Appearance Quality Standardize Score Moreover, the Haze value of film was measured to identify the transparency of plastic products. In order to simplify the measurement of Haze value which takes a long time for testing, film appearance score was introduced as an alternative transparency measurement. A scatter plot was used to determine the acceptable level of the film appearance score. The
5

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

scatter plot showed that film appearance score 6 was acceptable range for film appearance inspection (Figure 7). Figure 7 Scatterplot of Haze Value vs Appearance
S c a t t e r p l o t o f H a z e Va l u e v s Ap p e a r a n c e S c o r e
6 35
Status BO B Excellence Fair Good WOW

30 H a ze V a l u e

25

25

20

15

10 0 2 4 6 Appearance Score 8 10

Score Analysis To optimize the process parameters, Taguchi L18 DOE for 5 factors as Fig. 8 and Table 3 was used. Large sample size (6 positions * 22 thickness values) was required in order to analyze both mean and standard deviation of the film thickness.

Figure 8 Factors and Levels in DOE

6

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Table 3. Taguchi L18 DOE Table (Column A was used as dummy)

The results showed that factors affect mean and standard deviation of blown film thickness as Figure 9. Because the main objective of this DOE was just to minimize the standard deviation, thus interaction effects of factors could be ignored (Sabseree, 2009).

Figure 9 Main Effects Plot of Blown Film Thickness in DOE Study

Implementation The process parameters, based on DOE results as well as some other concerns about machine stability, were set to the optimal solution as Table 4.

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Table 4. Optimal Condition of the Process Parameters
Inlet Air (Scale) 6 Outlet Air (Scale) 5 Melt Temp. (OC) 210 Die Temp. (OC) 205 Screw Speed (rpm) 60

Check A trial lot of production was run to confirm the optimal solution. The improvement results had achieved the target as follow: The process capability (Cpk) was increased from 0.14 to 1.12 (Figure 10). The process performance (Ppk) was increased from 0.10 to 0.47 (Figure 10). Film appearance score was improved from Scale 1 to 8 (Figure 11). Blown film Line A was reduced by 30%.

Figure 10 Process Capability Analysis of Film thickness after improvement

Before Improved After Improved Figure 11 Film Appearance Score for before and after improvement

ANQ Congress Ho Chi Minh City 2011 SQAT (Thailand)

Standardization All the maintenance knowledge, process parameters and condition settled from QC story were transferred to a daily operation by revising a quality control plan of the product. Conclusion Using QC story with special quality tools, especially TRIZ, P-M Analysis and Taguchi L18 DOE screening design is an excellent way to improve and to optimize the process. The target of Blown film quality improvement was achieved and from this success, team had learnt how to apply problem solving QC story with advanced quality tools. Furthermore, the results of P-M analysis and DOE enhanced the intrinsic knowledge of the process. Acknowledgement(s) Thank you for SCG Corporate Total Quality Promotion Center from supporting this project. References Sabseree, S., Thueakthong, & V., Sukchareonpong, P., (2008), Fusion Six Sigma: methodology and case studies, The 6th ANQ Congress 2008 Bangkok. Sabseree, S., (2009), Fusion Six Sigma for Quality Improvement of Processes in Manufacturing Industry, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand.