DMAIC-Driven Paperless Operational Reporting for Operational Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study at a Bottled Drinking Water Manufacturing Plant

Abstract

Purpose— This study examines how Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) was used to transform manual operational reporting into paperless reporting at an Indonesian bottled drinking water manufacturing plant and evaluates the associated operational and environmental changes.

Method— An applied, participatory embedded mixed-methods single-case design combined eight Voice of Customer interviews, process observation, document review, NVivo 14 coding, root-cause analysis, 30 paired before-after observations, and post-implementation member checking. Paired differences were evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank and paired-samples t-tests.

Findings— After implementation, administrative workload decreased by 69.30%, reporting cycle time by 68.75%, data-retrieval time by 78.19%, and paper consumption by 99.25%. The estimated paper-related carbon footprint also declined by 99.25%. All five paired comparisons were significant at p < 0.001, while the documentation error rate decreased descriptively from 14.35% to 3.24%. Eight user validators reported an overall mean of 4.63/5.00.

Conclusion and Implications—DMAIC provided a traceable socio-technical architecture linking user requirements, baseline evidence, root causes, digital features, governance, and validation. Manufacturers should treat paperless reporting as process redesign supported by clear ownership, infrastructure controls, and continuing performance monitoring.

Originality/Value—The study integrates qualitative diagnosis, quantitative before-after evaluation, participatory digital implementation, environmental measurement, and Control-stage governance within one end-to-end reporting intervention, while explicitly distinguishing inferential indicators from descriptive and mathematically derived measures.