Improving Quality and Optimizing Process
In week 3 of our pro-bono project together with Inkamoss, we finally managed to visit the heartland of Inkamoss.
In the Junin region of Peru we find the harvesting and production facilities of Inkamoss
- A series of small moss collecting communities / villages located in remote valleys of the Andes
- The plant in Jauja city for drying and packaging of moss
The week started with a short Monday focused on planning the visit to Jauja, including securing the materials we would need for idea testing. Tuesday morning we set out for the second time to visit the Andes region. This time confident that no landslide would block our way.
En route to Jauja the bus climbed a pass at 4800m altitude. You could certainly feel it … even the steward was visibly strained. Traffic was as always a pain, hence the bus arrived in Jauja 2 hours behind schedule.
We were greeted by the owner of Inkamoss: Mr. Marco Pinatelli and his newly hired right hand Juan Jose Ladines (Juanjo). After 5 minutes drive to the outskirts of Jauja and next to the air field we found the plant.
The plant is located on a small patch of rented land and include drying beds as shown in the image, a shelter for wet moss, a factory building and a few houses that house some of the plant workers.
The purpose of the visit to the Junin region and the plant in particular was to experience up-close the andean communities to get a sense of the effect, that the moss income have on the lives of some of the most remotely located villages of Peru. And to validate whether our ideas for production optimization will fly when put to the test.
We spent the first night at the jewel of the Junin region, the hotel Loma Verde. The hotel is set on a hill side overlooking the valley and the near by town Concepcion. The evening was freezing and as the rooms offer no heating, the caretaker suggested we light the fire place in each room… I have never been in a hotel room with a fire place – not to mention a lit fire place. And if this was not enough magic, all you had to do was to step outside to witness the stars of the southern hemisphere, with Jupiter and Saturn as bonus.
Visiting Curimarca was a truly inspiring experience. Curimarca is a 1200 people village situated with the Andes on the one side and the jungle below on the other side. Upon arriving in the village we were greeted by the family of 2 year old Diana.
Roselle is seen posing with the family, but it was Michael Roemer who won the heart of Diana. Michael is a really nice guy, but it required an energy bar and a selfie to get a smile out of Diana.
The village president (elected for a period of 2 years, with no re-election possibility) explained the basics of the village, including how moss is collected and stored.
Moss is harvested on a few hill sides in the vicinity of the village. The problem however, is that the increasing demand for moss forces the families to venture higher and higher up the hill side. So ideas of mounting a cable for simpler transportation of moss from the hill side to the valley are on the table. Even if the moss gets harder and harder to retrieve (also because Llamas and other animals find moss tasty), the president and vice-president explained that the arrangement with Inkamoss is a huge benefit to the village. Apart from the revenue increase for the individual families, the community contribution (typically 1/7 of the total moss income) has made it possible for the village to improve internet access as well as other infrastructural benefits.
Following a hike to the moss collection sites we were invited for lunch in the house of the village president. The menu was locally grown potatoes (3 kinds) and a grilled trout caught in the river that flows through the village.
I will never forget the hospitality and kindness of Curimarca.
Going back to the Jauja plant we again climb the 4400m pass and stop at a small pond, where small towers of stone are built by passing travellers as a token of best wishes.
I decided to build one myself.
Back in Jauja, it is time to test our ideas.
To improve product quality and production throughput we have discussed some simple yet hopefully effective ideas founded in the principles of lean manufacturing.
The suggestion is to save time by eliminating intermediate storage and to improve moss quality by limiting the number of times that moss is handled and through establishment of integrated humidity control before the moss is pressed and packaged.
It was with a fair bit of apprehension that we started the day with the team at the factory. How would they receive us and our thoughts? And would our ideas fly at all, would our bright ideas be any good when faced with the reality in Jauja?
Fortunately our worries were quickly put to shame. The biggest thrill was to witness how motivated and enthusiastic the team were. After a small snack consisting of “pan con chicharrón” (Wonderful bakery + onions + pork roast of another world) and juice we went on to explain our thoughts.
3 topics were of interest:
- Production flow
- Quality control
- Performance Transparency
As is obvious from below image the current production cycle do imply several intermediate inventories.
Our idea was to reduce and preferably eliminate moss inventory inside the plant. Currently wet moss is received in bags. These bags are stored outside until space is available on the drying beds. When space is available the moss is spread onto the drying beds (see image above). When dry, the moss is dumped inside the plant (either in bags or on the floor).
When a sales order is to be produced, the moss is then sorted and again dumped on the floor until the packaging team weighs the moss in 5kg bags and then presses the moss into a plastic bag. The process is illustrated by the grey arrows in below diagram.
Our proposal was to organise the plant into teams that each have their own drying beds with improved control of the drying process as a result. Each team would then take dried moss from the beds and then immediately sort the moss, weigh the moss and package the moss. The green arrows in above diagram illustrates the proposed new process.
This would eliminate 2 inventories and reduce the amount of times the moss is handled, thereby increasing moss quality.
At the same time this process would facilitate continuous humidity measurement, as the control of humidity would be an integrated part of the process. Unlike now, where it is an additional cumbersome step, often forgotten.
Lastly, one key issue for Inkamoss has been to obtain secure and reliable information on the stock levels and the production throughput. We believe that by making information visible to the plant team and by delegating the responsibility of filling in the right information, the motivation for doing this will increase. Hence in collaboration with Edinson and Ernesto we designed a whiteboard based dashboard. The plant team-lead would simply take a photo of the updated whiteboard at the end of each working day and send it to Kimberly in the Lima office.
Kimberly would enter the values in the red-designed Inventory database. This re-designed database offer improved reporting capabilities, so that Inkamoss can track their success and provide accurate numbers to their investors.
The last week of the assignment was spent on documentation, but also finishing the last of the outstanding points. We discussed the sales strategy as well as an improved accounting setup.
Finally we met on Thursday for presentation and discussion of the findings.
Working with Inkamoss has been a unique experience for the whole SAP team, Michael Roemer, Roselle Teofilio and myself. We consider ourselves a part of the family, and are all looking forward to the chance to follow up on our collaborative effort.
