In 2022/23, palm oil consumption amounted to around 78 million metric tons worldwide. That figure is projected to decrease to approximately 77 million metric tons during 2023/24.* Some 80% of palm oil is used for human consumption: margarine, basic vegetable fat, food oil, cooking oil and specialist fats. It is also used to make derivatives for industrial use: fatty acids, soaps and cosmetics, industrial soaps, inks, resins, methyl esters, and so on.** We’ll look at the use of Lean and Six Sigma in the palm oil industry and finish with a video of how palm oil is produced.

*Source: Copy and paste the following link into your browser. 

**Source: Copy and paste the following link into your browser.

Lean Manufacturing and Palm Oil Production Waste Analysis

In a paper titled “Lean Manufacturing: Waste Analysis in Crude Palm Oil Process” authors I. Rizkya, and others discuss an analysis of the waste in palm oil production.

The paper includes:

  • Classification of Palm Oil Production Process Activities
  • Comparison of Value-Add, Non-Value Add, and Necessary Non-Value Add Activities
  • Value Stream Map of Palm Oil Production Process
  • Boiling Process Flow
  • Analysis of Fishbone Diagram

You can read the paper here.

[Citation: I Rizkya et al 2020 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 851 012058.]

Applying Six Sigma to Reduce Defects in Palm Oil Production

In a paper titled “Application of Six Sigma Method for Quality Control of Palm Kernel Oil Production In PT Socfin Indonesia” authors Novita Sari and Mardiningsih discuss the application of Six Sigma to reduce defects in palm oil production.

The paper includes:

  • SIPOC Diagram
  • Palm Oil Production CTQs
  • Pareto Diagram of Palm Oil Production Defects

Copy and paste the following link into your browser to download the paper.

Reducing Wastes in Crude Palm Oil Production

In a paper titled “Implementation of Value Stream Mapping for Waste Reduction in Crude Palm Oil Production Process” authors Meutia Fadilla, M. Dirhamsyah, and Husni discuss the use of  Value Stream Mapping to identify wasteful activities, the 5W1H method to identify the causes of waste and the Weighted Product Method to determine the order of priority for improvement.

The paper includes:

  • Standard Time Calculations for Work Processes
  • Manufacturing Lead Time Calculations
  • Value added and Non-value Added Times for Work Processes
  • Current Value Stream Map
  • Selected Waste Activities
  • 5W + 1H Analysis
  • Recommendation for Improvement and Reduction of Standard Time
  • Future Value Stream Map
  • Comparison of Current and Future Value Steam Maps

To access the paper, copy and paste the following link into your browser.

Producing Palm Oil

See how palm oil is made in this video from Wondastic Tech.

You can watch the video here.