Continuous improvement in the agriculture business takes many forms. We’ll explore how Lean Six Sigma is being applied in two case studies: one from Brazil and one from Indonesia.

We’ll finish with two videos of how continuous improvement is being implemented in Australia in the grain business and in India in coconut palm farming.

Lean Six Sigma Applied to Grain Receipt

In an article titled “Using Lean Six Sigma to Increase Efficiency of a Grain Receipt Process of a Brazilian Agroindustry Cooperative,” authors Seiti Moraes Sakumoto, Daiane Maria De Genaro Chiroli, and Ana Caroline Dzulin discuss the application of Lean Six Sigma to grain receipt.

The study was applied in a grain receipt process in a bulk terminal of a Brazilian agro-industrial cooperative.

Through the DMAIC phases, the following tools were used:

  • Project Charter
  • SIPOC
  • Client Requirements Tree
  • Y Stratification
  • Process Mapping
  • Spaghetti Diagram
  • Cause and Effect Diagram and Matrix
  • FMEA
  • 5 Whys
  • Action Plan for Improvement
  • Controls

As a result of the project, queue times were reduced by 40 minutes per truck and an upper limit was established of 60 trucks inside the bulk terminal.

The details of this rather complete project description can be found at the following link.

Lean Six Sigma Applied to Vegetable Packing

Authors Afferdhy Ariffien, Irayanti Adriant, and Juli Amirah Nasution discuss the application of Lean Six Sigma to vegetable packing  in Indonesia in their article “Lean Six Sigma Analyst in Packing House Lembang Agriculture Incubation Center (LAIC)”

Using the DMAIC phases, they applied the following on the vegetable packing process:

  • Process Mapping
  • Value Stream Mapping
    • Value-add and Non-value add evaluation
    • Process packaging time
  • Process Activity Mapping
    • What non-value added processes cause the packing time to be long?
  • Fishbone Diagram
  • Waste elimination
  • Improvement leading to new standard operating procedure

The final result was a 171.46 minute reduction in the vegetable packing process.

You can read the article here.

Continuous Improvement in an Australian Grain Business

See the continuous improvement strategies implemented by Australian business Lawson Grains in this video. 

Continuous Improvement in Indian Coconut Palm Farming

Watch the video from Indian Deejay Coconut Farms on their continuous improvement program.