(2567-05) Suchanan Pimala, Wanwisa Duantrakoonsil, Utumporn Yoosuk and Tattawan Duantrakoonsil
This research presents an approach to implementing lean principles in customer service at a Parcel service franchise in the Bangkok area. The objectives are: 1) to reduce waste and time during customers' parcel delivery and collection services, and 2) to reduce waste and time in locating packaging materials. The research methodology begins with collecting data on types of work, processes of each task, time, and service usage frequency. The findings reveal that the processes targeted for waste reduction are 1) the parcel-receiving process and 2) the packaging sales/parcel-receiving process. The cycle times for parcel receiving and packaging sales/parcel receiving are 263.4 seconds and 355.2 seconds, respectively. The waste in both processes can be summarized as follows: 1) waste from waiting in queues, 2) waste from excessive motion, and 3) waste from non-value-added activities. Using a fishbone diagram to analyze the causes of waste, it is found that the causes are 1) overwhelming customers using the service, 2) insufficient staff, and 3) complicated work procedures. After that, improvements are sought by reducing service counters and rearranging the store layout. As a result, the cycle times for parcel receiving and packaging sales/parcel receiving are reduced to 244.61 seconds and 260.92 seconds, respectively.