PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PROCESS PICKING-REFILL INVENTORY CASE STUDY: ABC FACTORY, PHITSANULOK PROVINCE

Abstract

This research aims to study the efficiency of the inventory picking and replenishing process in the case of ABC factory in Phitsanulok province. After analyzing the cause of the problem by using why-why analysis technique, it shows that the underlying problem of the warehouse employees is their slow operational process. It wastes a lot of time waiting for replenishing inventories to the shelves.  Then the work study principle is applied to improve operational process and to reduce time waste by using a Kanban label to clearly indicate the amount of the items on the shelves. The data on employees’ work duration before and after this process improvement are collected. The results show that the improved process can reduce the time and the operating distance the employees used for the inventory replenishment by 2.53 minutes and 28.61 meters, or by 26.97%. In addition, the time and the operating distance the employees used for inventory picking were also reduced by 8.74 minutes and 46.4 meters, or by 47.17%.