The Production Manager at Atlas Copco AB Craelius wants to adopt a lean approach to become more competitive. This thesis is an exploratory study of the subject and what it means for the business activity and its implementation process. The objective is to provide a basic understanding of lean to the company, and what this means for Atlas Copco AB Craelius. The report describes the industrial revolution in brief. This is because the company itself must understand where certain ways of looking at production management is derived from. Furthermore, it provides an understanding of Lean's origins. The report describes lean principles and outline, some of the lean tools and methods as well as what these mean for Atlas Copco Craelius AB. The focus of the report is on education and the importance of management's knowledge and understanding of the subject. At the end of the report an adequate but overall implementation program is presented as well as a few examples of possible improvements. The thesis is based on a basic literature review of production management and lean. To get a general understanding of the business, I studied the assembly for a few days, talked to the staff, participated in the daily pulse meetings and participated in the production office Friday meetings. I did a study at Atlas Copco Tools AB to learn how they managed the implementation of lean there. Furthermore, personal experience from previous training, work and study has influenced the report.

Estágio realizado na General Electric e orientado pelo Eng.º João Gonçalves / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Estágio realizado na Bosch Portugal, S. A. e orientado pelo Eng.º Nelson Ré / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Mecânica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

Estágio realizado na Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal e orientado pelo Eng.º Luís Lobo / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

After signing ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement), all of the fundamental industries of Taiwan are going to face the serious impact. As a result, Refractory Industry can¡¦t skip out the pool. Although refractory industry still undercover by government policy, Chinese products are going to sweep across Taiwan market with price advantage after Taiwan and China government signed the significant economic agreement. Some companies consider reducing cost and improve quality via automatic manufacturing procedures. However, the further question is that can automation really improve the producing efficiency and reduce manpower demand? That will be the main discussion subject of this research. The research concentrates on the planning, construction and actual benefit contrasting of press machine in six months and take 6 Sigma and TPS (Toyota Production System) as the research method. We estimate that reasonable investment can create producing efficiency. We are going to compare the benefits of same press machine with and without automatic manufacturing procedure and also different types of press machine to produce same product in same condition at the same period. This research demonstrated that partial equipment automation or single old equipment automation doesn¡¦t really increase the production efficiency. The result of decreasing the cost of production, such as the cost of manpower, is not notable. In order to achieve the objective goal, we still need to inspect the whole manufacturing procedure, equipment assembling in detail, and arrange the perfect combination of people and machines, then the most synergy could be happened. As for the manufacture management concept and practice, we should abandon fixed frame, thought, and keep manufacture procedure improving. All in all, the improvement of concept and practice, the effect could be far over the benefit of auto equipment, the cost could be much lower than the investments of the equipments. Replacing the manpower by mechanical arms, it indeed reaches the goal of few staff trend and lowers the accident ratio. Few staff environment will cause the operator¡¦s working stability, improve the phenomenon of losing labor.

When the profit is compressed by the cost, quality, delivery, efficiency and flexibility in the tranditional industries, it is always the focus for the academic community and the field about how to build up two basic forces of competition: ¡§quick response¡¨ and ¡§competitive advantage¡¨ in the trends toward continuously short life cycle of product and extremely small amount yet many varieties of product. Applying lean production with ¡§small quantity yet most variety¡¨ to the activities of business operation is expected to create a highly lean and refined enterprise through the process of management in the company operation and to make more benefits to reach the goal of business and survive in the field. This research discusses if ¡§customer participatation¡¨, ¡§the relations with suppliers¡¨ and ¡§the management technique of organization¡¨ quoted from the the management concepts of lean production influence manufacturing efficiency and also treats the correlation between them. Furthermore, it verifies the difference between each dimension of management concept of lean production mentioned above with the organization performance. It takes the tranditional manufacturing industry in Taiwan as the objects of sampling and collects the cognitions of the interviewed on the three measuring dimensions including relation with suppliers, the management technique of organization, and customer participatation to the agreement degree for the execution inside organization and also the agreement degree to suppliers. The raw data are verified by SPSS software package and we get some conclusions below: There is remarkable positive influence between the suppliers with lean production and manufacturing performance. The factor of suppliers¡¦ participation has direct influence, and the next is information feedback from suppliers. But no direct influence existed to those suppliers with JIT delivery. There is remarkable positive influence between the management technique of organization and manufacturing performance. We find direct positive effect between manufacturing process SPC and employees¡¦ participation EMP. But there is no remarkably direct influence to ¡§Pull production¡¨, ¡§Continuous production process¡¨, ¡§ Shorten preparing time¡¨ and ¡§Total production maintenance¡¨. However, the influences of ¡§ Shorten preparing time¡¨, ¡§Total production maintenance¡¨ are bigger than ¡§Pull production¡¨ and ¡§Continuous production process¡¨. There is remarkable positive influence between the customers with lean production and manufacturing performance. Mainly direct influence effect for customer participation exists but no direct influence effect for information feedback from suppliers relatively. There is remarkable positive influence between the suppliers with lean production and customers¡¦ participation. The study finds that there is direct influence effect for information feedback from suppliers and customers¡¦ participation. Second are suppliers¡¦ participation and suppliers with JIT delivery. The result of this research provides managers in the manufacturing industry a path to improve the manufacturing performance of company by undertaking 5 remarkable indexes: (1) Suppliers¡¦ participation, (2) Information feedback from suppliers, (3) Management of manufacturing process, (4) Employees participation, (5) Customers¡¦ participation. Enhancing the relations with suppliers as well as customer participation, and upgrading management technique of organization will effectively improve the quality and delivery performance for the suppliers. Also it improves the manufacturing performance, and promotes the satisfication level of customers to increase enterprise¡¦s competition at last.

This study consists of two studies around Lean. The studies are limited to two databases and three different sectors, the industry sector where Lean originated from, and the welfare and service sectors. The first study is a quantitative pilot study on published articles. The purpose was to get an understanding of what extent the different sectors get published, compared to each other. The result was illustrated in a graph where 40 articles per year were proportionally divided between the three sectors. The main study is a literature review where a scoring matrix was used to cull the selected articles. The remaining articles where compared to the “Toyota house” to answer the research questions: In what way has the definition of Lean changed from the manufacturing-based improvement philosophy it originated as, to the concept that is used in different sectors today? How does the specific sector affect the implementation of Lean, is there a difference in the Lean that is described in the literature compared to the Lean that is used in the welfare or service sectors? The study found in the chosen literature is that the sectors that are new at using Lean are using less of the tools available and in a smaller part of the organization, instead of using it on the whole organization. Many case studies where found that describes what tool was used, but not how they were used. One sector with many published articles was the construction sector, but they were overlooked due to the limitations of the study. / Denna studie består av två undersökningar kring Lean. Undersökningarna är begränsade till två databaser samt tre branscher, industribranschen där Lean grundades samt välfärds- och tjänstebranschen. Först gjordes en kvantitativ förstudie av publicerade artiklar för att få en uppfattning kring hur många andelar av de olika branscherna artiklarna bestod av. Resultatet visades i form av en graf där 40 artiklar från varje år delades upp i de tre branscherna. Efter det gjordes en litteraturstudie med en bedömningsmatris för en utgallring av artiklar. Utvalda artiklar jämfördes därefter mot ”toyotahuset” för att svara på forskningsfrågorna: På vilket sätt har definitionen av Lean förändrats från den produktionsbaserade förbättringsfilosofin det ursprungligen var, till det uttryck som används i flera olika branscher idag? Hur påverkar branschen implementeringen av Lean, skiljer sig det Lean som beskrivs i litteraturen mot det Lean som används i välfärds- eller tjänstesektorn? Det vi kunde hitta i den utvalda litteraturen var att de branscher som är nya med Lean använder färre verktyg och på mindre delar av sin organisation istället för att göra implementeringen på hela organisationen. Vi hittade många ”case studies” som berättar att det använt verktyg men inte hur verktygen har använts. En bransch som det hittades mycket artiklar om men som sållades bort på grund av avgränsningen var Lean construction.

Inom byggbranschen är det av vikt att hitta arbetssätt som på lång sikt sänker byggkostnaderna för att på så sätt kunna producera en vara som kräver mindre förbrukning av resurser men som även fortsätter vara konkurrenskraftig. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur medarbetarna vid Skanskas byggprojekt "Trädgårdarna" i Boglundsängen, Örebro kommun, arbetar för att minimera slöserier (icke värdeskapande aktiviteter). Syftet är även att identifiera vanliga slöserier som förekommer, både generellt på byggarbetsplatser men i synnerhet på byggprojektet "Trädgårdarna", samt att slutligen komma med förslag på åtgärder för att mini-mera dessa slöserier. Arbetet grundar sig på en kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer och obser-vationer. När detta arbete skrevs var produktionen i ett tidigt stadie. Arbetets resultat påvisar att det finns både styrkor och brister gällande hur arbetet på "Trädgårdarna" fortskrider. Även fast produktionen i skrivandets stund inte har kommit så långt på projektet framkommer det av resultatet att personalen värdesätter ordning och reda och försöker upprätthålla detta genom olika tillvägagångssätt. Överlag arbetar personalen bra med att minska slöserier på arbets-platsen. De slöserier som har uppstått beror främst på brister i projekteringen och/eller produktionsplaneringen. För att minska slöserierna och upprätthålla ett effektivt arbetssätt är det av stor vikt att ha en genomarbetad projektering, genomföra arbetsberedningar på så många moment som möjligt, ha god ordning och reda på arbetsplatsen, ta tillvara på personalens kunskap och engagemang samt att utnyttja någon form av samordnad leverans för att minimera lagerhållningen och väntetiderna. / In the construction industry it is important to find ways of working that in the long term lowers construction costs so as to produce a product that requires less consumption of resources, but which also continues to be competitive. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how employees at Skanska's construction project "Trädgårdarna" in Boglundsängen, Örebro, work to minimize wastes (non value-adding activities). It also seeks to identify common wastes that occur, both generally on construction sites but in particular on the building project "Trädgårdarna", and finally to come up with suggestions on measures to minimize these wastes. This thesis is based on a qualitative method in the form of interviews and observations. When this thesis was written production was at an early stage. The results of this thesis demonstrate that there are both strengths and weaknesses regarding how work on "Trädgårdarna" is pro-gressing. Although the production was in an early stage, during the time of writing this thesis, the results show that the staff appreciates orderliness at their workplace and try to maintain this through different means. Overall, the staff work well to reduce wastage in the workplace. The wastes which have arisen primarily did so due to deficiencies in the design and/or production planning. To reduce the wastage rate and maintain an effective work it is of great importance to have a well-planned design, to implement work preparations as frequently as possible, to have an orderly workplace, to take advantage of the staff's knowledge and commitment and to use some form of coordinated delivery system to minimize inventory and waiting times.

This work focuses on the issues related to improving the manufacturing process effectiveness in the company Boltjes International spol. s r.o, based on the principles of lean manufacturing. It mainly comes out from the theoretical principles of the Toyota Production System. Based on the analysis of the organisation of the manufacturing system of the company Boltjes the graduation theses describes problematic areas. The paper establishes their priorities and submits practical proposals and recommended solutions in the direction of higher productivity of the complete manufacturing process. The paper uses for these solutions a method of a qualified significance tree and the mapping of the manufacturing flows. The paper deals with stock management, organisation of the manufacturing system and with management of human resources.

"Starting in the 1980s with the first Toyota controlled production plant in the United States (NUMMI), the idea of Lean as derived from the Toyota Production System has become a popular method to improve production processes as well as any other procedure in organizations around the world. Over the last three decades a multitude of literature on Lean implementation and consulting companies offering help with the Lean transformation have emerged. The success rate of real Lean transformations however is often estimated to lie below 10% by experts such as Clifford Ransom or members of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). This leads to the question of why most companies fail to sustain the Lean improvements that most of them are able to initiate during the early implementation stages. This thesis will therefore investigate the root causes that lead to a time dependent loss of Lean improvements from three different perspectives. One standpoint is given by the TPS beliefs which are united in the House of Lean. The second angle on the topic is drawn from an online search of expert opinions and the final evaluation is taken from analyzing a real case scenario at a plant in Trumbull, CT. After this thorough analysis of possible root causes a set of countermeasures is presented that will support an organization in avoiding the major mistakes of a Lean implementation. The three countermeasures include standardization to build a base for Lean improvements, employee involvement to assure sustainability through conviction and continuous instead of rapid improvement. Every countermeasure will be described theoretically as well as with the help of examples from real life scenarios to enable the reader to apply the suggestions immediately. A final discussion will then examine the improvements that where reached at the production plant in Trumbull, CT and show how the combination of all three countermeasures ensures the sustainability of these improvements."