A Research on Failure Mode and Effect Inquiry on Tea Leaves Processing - Leaf Shredder Machine

India is a large exporter of tea leaves and has industries involving in Tea Leaves processing. There are generally three stages in the processing of tea leaves and many machines are involved that cater to various process to convert the raw tea leaves to usable products. In the first stage there is a machine titled Leaf Shredder that is critical in the process as the entire process is a product based and a breakdown of this machine in particular affects the entire process from that point. This study focuses on the failure modes of the Leaf Shredder machine and its effect. The Total Quality Management (TQM) tool - Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is used in this study. The critical functional components of the Leaf Shredder are five in number. Through the study, data has been collected and the Risk Priority Number has been calculated. Based on the Risk Priority Number value it is seen that the Cutting Knife, Main Shaft and the Bearing are the components that are having a tendency to fail. The Reason of failure was analyzed. From the analysis it is seen that the main cause of failure is due to improper maintenance of the components and unbalancing of the cutting knife weight. A well thought of plan of action to maintain the Tea Leaf Shredder will bring down the failure rate and improve the reliability of the product layout