~ 3 ~ Abstract Master Program in Business process and Supply Chain Management Degree Project in Logistics 15 hp, Course 4FE06E Authors: Alexandra Dagberg, Alexander Thorén, Giovanni Tozzi, Kalin Velichkov Tutor: Roger Stokkedal Examiner: Helena Forslund Title: “Minimizing the risk of material shortage and waiting times via an improved order to delivery process – A study conducted within IV Produkt in Växjö” Background: Inventory Management activities have gained a relevant importance over the time in reducing uncertainties at both upstream as well as downstream levels of the supply chain, allowing a smooth material flow between chain members while responsively meeting customer demand. Control activities over the inventory represent a challenged and controversial aspect for most of today’s companies, including IV Produkt. Problem discussion: IV Produkt has, due to the rapid growth during the last ten years, fallen behind the area of inventory management as well as internal material handling process. The reason is that the company has not been able to develop these functions with the same pace as the economic growth. Consequently, the firm is facing difficulties to efficiently supply assembly lines, causing material shortage and waiting times. Research questions: RQ1: - How is the order to delivery process, from material supply functions to the Assembly line 2, at IV Produkt built up today? RQ2: - How can the order to delivery process of raw material and semi-finished products, between material supply functions and the Assembly line 2, be improved in order to minimize the risk of material shortage and waiting times? RQ3: - How can the physical storage of raw material and semi-finished products be structured within the studied area in order to support RQ2? Method: This thesis represents a descriptive case study conducted via a positivistic perspective and a deductive approach. Data was collected by interviews, observations and questionnaires, as well as via academic literature procured via a research in Linnaeus University’s library and via the use of approved web databases. Results are based on quantitative data collected from the studied company, guaranteeing the scientific credibility of the thesis. The respect of ethical principles were ensured by a discussion with company to mutually agree on the confidentiality of the presented information. Conclusion: The conclusion shows how the studied order to delivery process is built up today, highlighting several kind of waste in the current material and information flows. As a result, several actions, such as an extended use of the data system, the application of Kanban and the implementation of the ABC logic, in combination with a new proposed storage layout, were identified and proposed in order to minimize the risk of material shortage and waiting times.

As the effort of today’s industries to continuously move towards lean production, pull production system has been developed as one possible solution of lean. It is popularly known in the industry world, and is indeed a proven technique to achieve substantial savings on inventory, production cost incurred by manufactures all over the world. However, a careful understanding of pull production systems is required to access its suitability to a particular production setup. It is necessary to develop a proper way to implement pull production systems.             This study is based on a real life scenario in a leading driveline manufacturing company. The production system is studied in detail as regard to its production characteristic. A theoretical review is first made as research foundation. A careful analysis study within the company is conducted with all the existing constrains to figure out improvement opportunities. Eventually, from the applicability point of view, proposals of future pull production system implementation have been developed. The objective of the proposals is to minimize the identified weaknesses of the current system, including long lead time, low flexibility and unconnected flow.

This report is a study made at Pallco AB. Pallco is a subcontractor that is specialized on steel and aluminium components. The aim of the report is to show an improvement proposal that leads to a reduction of the storage and improve the flow through the production of one item that is a part of a product that Pallco manufactures. With the increasing competition from other countries who can manufacture with lower costs must Swedish companies try to make theirs manufacturing as efficient as possible and remove all waste. By using the tools of Lean Production it is possible to reduce the costs and increase the efficiency. The method we used is value stream mapping. A map of the present condition has been made and then different improvement proposal were discussed. A map of a future condition has also been designed.

<p>Today many companies face problems with inventory management. The importance of adequate inventory management has become more evident, while organizations try to reduce their costs and increase their service level.</p><p>This master thesis was conducted at VSM Group AB in Huskvarna, which is a manufacturer that produces and delivers sewing machines to a worldwide market. VSM Group AB has problems with the management and the refilling of the work-in-process (WIP) inventories and also with lack of information about component balance and location in the production and material planning system.</p><p>Therefore, the purpose of the thesis was to improve the control of the WIP inventories and the information about the components in the production and material planning system. In order to achieve the purpose, interviews and observations were performed, theories in inventory management were reviewed and the production process was studied.</p><p>Afterwards solutions for improvements were proposed. To solve the management and refilling problem, a kanban ordering system was proposed, which would use kanban cards to order components from the storages to the WIP inventories. To develop the component information displayed in the production and material planning system, an additional feature was proposed to the system. So instead of showing one inventory balance for each component, the system would display balances for three different places in the factory: the goods arrival and quality control area, the storage and the production.</p><p>The proposed solutions can provide several benefits to the company. The kanban ordering system can increase the material handlers’ efficiency, set a standard refilling quantity and be a tool for reducing the WIP inventory levels. The more detailed information in the production and material planning system can improve the decision making for the purchasers and planners and give the ability to measure the flow and level of material inside the factory.</p><p>These solutions will provide a more appropriate inventory management to the company, with better control of the components and improved information quality.</p>

<p>This examination report is a part of a program for Industrial organisation and Economics with specialization in Logistics and Management at Jönköping University. The report contains an analysis of the internal material handling at Kongsberg Automotive, and also an improvement proposal for a new material handling system.</p><p>The aim with the report is to find a better material handling system and also make an analyse of the existing system. The goal is to shorten the distance for the operators when they order material, and also to increase the productivity.</p><p>The investigation methods for the report have for the most part consisted of observations and interviews of key-persons who daily work in the production. During some time the actual material handling-system has been observed and some shortcomings have been discovered, and these are also discussed in the report.</p><p>The shortcomings that have been discovered are for once the indistinct signal that should signal need of material in the production. Some other activities have also been discovered that does not bring any value into the final products. The improvement proposal in the report is basically a routine that is built on kanban-cards and visual signals.</p><p>Kongsberg should look over the existing material handling system and implement a system that on a better way signal need of material and also adapt the material in pallets to follow the demands for the products.</p><p>In the end the discussion is about how the company should implement the new system in a successful way and what to observe in the different steps. Kongsberg is also recommended to use some sort of tool to follow up the situations when production don’t get the material in time.</p>

<p>This report is a study made at Pallco AB. Pallco is a subcontractor that is specialized on steel and aluminium components.</p><p>The aim of the report is to show an improvement proposal that leads to a reduction of the storage and improve the flow through the production of one item that is a part of a product that Pallco manufactures.</p><p>With the increasing competition from other countries who can manufacture with lower costs must Swedish companies try to make theirs manufacturing as efficient as possible and remove all waste. By using the tools of Lean Production it is possible to reduce the costs and increase the efficiency.</p><p>The method we used is value stream mapping. A map of the present condition has been made and then different improvement proposal were discussed. A map of a future condition has also been designed.</p>

Lean Manufacturing (LM) is widely accepted as a world-class manufacturing paradigm, its currency and superiority are manifested in numerous recent success stories. Most lean tools including Just-in-Time (JIT) were designed for repetitive serial production systems. This resulted in a substantial stream of research which dismissed a priori the suitability of LM for non-repetitive non-serial job-shops. The extension of LM into non-repetitive production systems is opposed on the basis of the sheer complexity of applying JIT pull production control in non-repetitive systems fabricating a high variety of products. However, the application of LM in job-shops is not unexplored. Studies proposing the extension of leanness into non-repetitive production systems have promoted the modification of pull control mechanisms or reconfiguration of job-shops into cellular manufacturing systems. This thesis sought to address the shortcomings of the aforementioned approaches. The contribution of this thesis to knowledge in the field of production and operations management is threefold: Firstly, a Multi-Agent System (MAS) is designed to directly apply pull production control to a good approximation of a real-life job-shop. The scale and complexity of the developed MAS prove that the application of pull production control in non-repetitive manufacturing systems is challenging, perplex and laborious. Secondly, the thesis examines three pull production control mechanisms namely, Kanban, Base Stock and Constant Work-in-Process (CONWIP) which it enhances so as to prevent system deadlocks, an issue largely unaddressed in the relevant literature. Having successfully tested the transferability of pull production control to non-repetitive manufacturing, the third contribution of this thesis is that it uses experimental and empirical data to examine the impact of pull production control on job-shop performance. The thesis identifies issues resulting from the application of pull control in job-shops which have implications for industry practice and concludes by outlining further research that can be undertaken in this direction.

Today many companies face problems with inventory management. The importance of adequate inventory management has become more evident, while organizations try to reduce their costs and increase their service level. This master thesis was conducted at VSM Group AB in Huskvarna, which is a manufacturer that produces and delivers sewing machines to a worldwide market. VSM Group AB has problems with the management and the refilling of the work-in-process (WIP) inventories and also with lack of information about component balance and location in the production and material planning system. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis was to improve the control of the WIP inventories and the information about the components in the production and material planning system. In order to achieve the purpose, interviews and observations were performed, theories in inventory management were reviewed and the production process was studied. Afterwards solutions for improvements were proposed. To solve the management and refilling problem, a kanban ordering system was proposed, which would use kanban cards to order components from the storages to the WIP inventories. To develop the component information displayed in the production and material planning system, an additional feature was proposed to the system. So instead of showing one inventory balance for each component, the system would display balances for three different places in the factory: the goods arrival and quality control area, the storage and the production. The proposed solutions can provide several benefits to the company. The kanban ordering system can increase the material handlers’ efficiency, set a standard refilling quantity and be a tool for reducing the WIP inventory levels. The more detailed information in the production and material planning system can improve the decision making for the purchasers and planners and give the ability to measure the flow and level of material inside the factory. These solutions will provide a more appropriate inventory management to the company, with better control of the components and improved information quality.

This examination report is a part of a program for Industrial organisation and Economics with specialization in Logistics and Management at Jönköping University. The report contains an analysis of the internal material handling at Kongsberg Automotive, and also an improvement proposal for a new material handling system. The aim with the report is to find a better material handling system and also make an analyse of the existing system. The goal is to shorten the distance for the operators when they order material, and also to increase the productivity. The investigation methods for the report have for the most part consisted of observations and interviews of key-persons who daily work in the production. During some time the actual material handling-system has been observed and some shortcomings have been discovered, and these are also discussed in the report. The shortcomings that have been discovered are for once the indistinct signal that should signal need of material in the production. Some other activities have also been discovered that does not bring any value into the final products. The improvement proposal in the report is basically a routine that is built on kanban-cards and visual signals. Kongsberg should look over the existing material handling system and implement a system that on a better way signal need of material and also adapt the material in pallets to follow the demands for the products. In the end the discussion is about how the company should implement the new system in a successful way and what to observe in the different steps. Kongsberg is also recommended to use some sort of tool to follow up the situations when production don’t get the material in time.

A escolha dos métodos de planejamento e controle de produção mais adequados para uma determinada empresa, é uma tarefa bastante árdua. Dentro de um mercado global, no qual a competitividade é a tônica, a procura de metodologias que permitam o aumento da produtividade é uma constante. O presente trabalho avalia as metodologias MRPII, "kanban" e OPT diante de alguns dos fatores que devem ser analisados para o projeto de um sistema de controle de produção. Os fatores analisados são: natureza da demanda, características dos produtos e processos, fontes de suprimento, nível tecnológico dos equipamentos e os estágios da organização da produção. / Choosing the right production planning and control system is a challenging task for every industrial company. In global markets, with strong competition, there are constant searches for the introduction of new methodologies or the implementation of strongly established ones, that represents increasing of productivity. This paper analyses some factors which are important to take into account for the choice of an specific methodology. The factors analyzed are: the nature of the demand, the products and process characteristics, sources of suppliers, the technology levei and the stage of the production organization.