Waste Reduction in Wood Chip Production Process: A Case Study of a Factory in Roi Et Province

Abstract

The objectives of the study are to examine the wood chip production process and propose methods to reduce waste within that process. Data were collected through interviews and direct time measurements involving 10 purposively selected executives and employees from the case study factory. The problem was analyzed using the Critical Path Method (CPM) to identify key activities on the critical path. A process flow diagram was developed, and the ECRS principle was applied, along with the 5S methodology. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that the wood chip production process consisted of four main steps: (1) machine inspection and maintenance, (2) raw material preparation, (3) wood processing, and (4) products loading onto trucks. Modifications were made to certain activities, such as replacing machine blades, greasing, and cleaning around the machines. A critical improvement was the strict inspection of incoming raw materials to ensure that wood with a diameter exceeding 12 inches was excluded. After implementing waste reduction based on the 5S principles—Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain—the process was streamlined from four to three main steps and reduced from 35 to 31 sub-activities. As a result, necessary non-value-added activities (NNVA) were reduced by 30.07%, non-value-added activities (NVA) by 97.68%, while value-added (VA) activities increased by 13.05%.