Optimización del proceso de refinamiento cáustico dentro del refinamiento de aceite soya, por medio de la aplicación del método Seis Sigma en el sector industrial de alimentos.

Abstract

One of the main objectives of any industrial activity or business is to obtain an adequate profitability
that allows to finance its operations, as well as to generate value to its shareholders; Therefore
having a model or information system of profitability happens to be an obligation for any company.
Implementing best practices in process management directly and significantly affects the profitability
of an organization, so that efficiency and productivity increase, reducing errors and risk in processes.
Business process management helps executives determine how to develop, monitor and measure
enterprise resources. This project sought to optimize the caustic refinement process of vegetable
oil within the Boca la Caja plant of the company Industrias Panamá Boston S.A., through the improvement
within the elaboration and quality management processes of the product. The objective
was to apply the Six Sigma methodology through the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve
and Control) cycle to the process of oil caustic refinement within the oil refining section, aiming to
improve the process capacity of the level of losses in the soapstock (By-product of Centrifuga S1),
which represents a critical factor that affects the performance of the process economically.
The results shown the reduction of losses in the caustic refining process, significantly affecting the
effectiveness (process capacity) and the opportunity to generate profits. Likewise, a change of focus
was achieved in the way that operations were handled towards a culture of resource optimization
based on process control.