<![CDATA[Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) producing cookies in Madiun City currently face competitive pressure requiring consistent product quality and efficient operational cost management. Traditional production practices continue to generate waste in the form of time, labor, and raw materials, which reduces overall production effectiveness. This study aims to develop an operational process improvement model that enhances production effectiveness while maintaining consistent product quality. The research was conducted over a three-month period and involved ten cookie-producing SMEs selected through purposive sampling based on business licensing status and year-round production consistency. The study adopted an integrated approach by combining the Seven Waste method, 5S principles, and Business Process Improvement (BPI). The Seven Waste analysis identified several forms of waste, including waiting, unnecessary motion, excess inventory, defects, overprocessing, overproduction, and inefficient transportation. The implementation of 5S generated recommendations for facility layout improvement, procedure standardization, and visual management to eliminate non-value-added activities. Furthermore, the BPI analysis mapped 31 process activities and identified the baking process and shipping administration as the most critical operational stages. The proposed improvements, including interleaved scheduling, document standardization, and the delegation of administrative responsibilities, reduced operational waste, shortened complaint investigation time from approximately one day to about 30 minutes, and improved operational productivity. In addition, the implementation of interleaved scheduling eliminated oven idle time and reduced the production cycle time from 8 hours per batch. These findings provide practical guidance for SMEs seeking to strengthen their competitiveness through more effective and efficient operational process management.]]>
