Productivity improvement of material handling using Karakuri Kaizen hand truck: A case study of Phuwiangwari community enterprise
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Abstract
The objective of the project is to develop the material handling and optimize the equipment for material handling of Phuwiangwari community enterprise, Lamphun province. It was found that this enterprise used a 2-wheeled steel trolley for handling the product, then the worker was exhausted and impacted for other jobs. The Karakuri Kaizen idea was applied for design and fabricate apparatus for crate transportation. The Karakuri mechanism is autonomous equipment without the need of an electric motor, leading to decrease the costs. The dimension of Karakuri Kaizen cart was 800 mm in width, 600 mm in length, and 1,700 mm in height, using the gravity force. When the weight of the cargo crate reached the specified value, the product tray would move down one level. The drop-down distance was applied from the height of the crate. Therefore, loading the next crate would be at the same level as loading the first crate. The workers did not have to bend down. Test results showed that fatigue in moving crates was significantly reduced, and also reduced the time for moving per load or 6 crates of goods from the standard time for moving with a 2-wheeled steel trolley of 1.10 minutes to 1.01 minutes, referred as 9% reduction. The fatigue assessment results found that the pain at the maximum level decreased from the level of feeling a lot of pain or fatigue to the level of feeling moderate pain. The lower back was the part of the body that still experienced the most fatigue, and overall fatigue was greatly reduced, meaning there were 5 parts of the body that didn't feel tired, instead of only 1 part.
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