Abstract:
Our project improves the cleaning process of wick-centering devices (WCDs) at Yankee Candle. These devices often get covered with wax during the pouring of hot wax into candle jars. Cleaning these devices is very important because the wax can later flake off and accumulate into other machines in the production line and cause them to malfunction. Currently, production line 8, which this project focuses on, is effectively cleaning the WCDs by shaking them in a large bowl before adding them back into the production line, as opposed to utilizing the existing washroom in the factory. The current method of cleaning is not ideal as it requires the production line to be shut down for 30 minutes each day in order to clean the bowl since it is not effective enough at removing excess wax from the devices. Our project addresses this issue by modeling the movement of WCDs through the production line using Simio and designing a system for the operators to transport the WCDs to and from the washroom while ideally maintaining or improving throughput. We plan to reduce the frequency that the bowl that shakes the WCDs needs to be cleaned as well as the frequency that other machines malfunction due to wax-related issues through the implementation of our model.