The Swedish housing market has had an increased demand in the past ten years, which has led to an increased demand in terms of time-efficient housing construction. The Swedish housing construction has unfortunately not developed its production at the pace required to satisfy the demand. The consequence of this has led to even more pressure in time-efficiency, which has proven to be one of the dominant reasons why errors and damages in production occur. The costs for correcting these errors and damages has been estimated between 59 – 73 billion Swedish crowns. To avoid these costs and to minimize the risks of errors and damage, companies within the construction industry should focus on further development in their production. Lean Production is one way of increasing production efficiency, while maintaining quality. Lean Production is a well-known term for efficient production, and construction have tried to implement its principles many times before, though without success. This study investigates how a construction company can deal with obstacles regarding standardization and successfully implement standardized work in its production. These obstacles for standardization have been shown to be lack of repetitive work activities, unpredictability, and the fact that construction is considered conservative. Furthermore, the study focuses on work instructions and how these can play a significant role in effective and quality-assuring work. The aim of this study has been to investigate how a construction company can develop their work preparations to increase production efficiency while maintaining quality, based on the manufacturing industry’s strategies for standardized work. Furthermore, the goal of this study has been to make suggestions on how to handle obstacles regarding different levels of standardization in construction, as well as contributing to further research within the subject. The results of the study indicate that by using standardized work in construction, similar to what can be found in manufacturing, there are great possibilities for construction companies to increase their production efficiency. Two time-studies were conducted, where the results showed a decrease in production time by roughly 34% for the first time-study and a decrease in production time by 67% for the second time-study. The results also indicate that there are possibilities to implement standardized work in construction, without jeopardizing the craftsmanship-pride that exists in the construction industry, and therefore increase motivation and commitment. Craftsmanship-pride, motivation and commitment has earlier been reviewed as an obstacle for a successful standardization in construction. Based on the reflections of the participants in the study, standardized work should contribute to a deeper understanding of each work step and its instructions and how the methods of standardized work also can provide an even better work instruction. Two suggestions are submitted in the form of two methods with the purpose of serving as proposals on how construction contractors can use standardization on different levels in their production. Method 1 is presented as most suitable for applying on work that tend to be more recurring in one or more construction projects. This method is similar to what can be found in the manufacturing, which therefore should be able to benefit from all principles in Toyota’s philosophy of Lean Production. Method 2 considered most suitable for applying on more specific and critical work, that rarely looks the same in one or more construction projects. Based on their workflow, the methods should be able to facilitate the implementation of standardized work, while also addressing obstacles to increase production efficiency. Furthermore, the methods should also contribute to continuous improvement to decrease learning curves and increase experience feedback.

Lean production prescribes training workers on all tasks within the cell to adapt to changes in customer demand. Multi-skilling of workers can be achieved by cross-training. Cross-training can be improved and reinforced by implementing job rotation. Lean production also prescribes using job rotation to improve worker flexibility, worker satisfaction, and to increase worker knowledge in how their work affects the rest of the cell. Currently, there is minimal research on how to assign multi-skilled workers to tasks within a lean production cell while considering multi-skilling and job rotation. In this research, a new mathematical model was developed that assigns workers to tasks, while ensuring job rotation, and determines the levels of skill, and thus training, necessary to meet customer demand, quality requirements, and training objectives. The model is solved using sequential goal programming to incorporate three objectives: overproduction, cost of poor quality, and cost of training. The results of the model include an assignment of workers to tasks, a determination of the training necessary for the workers, and a job rotation schedule. To evaluate the results on a cost basis, the costs associated with overproduction, defects, and training were used to calculate the net present cost for one year. The solutions from the model were further analyzed using a simulation model of the cell to determine the impact of job rotation and multi-skilling levels on production line performance. The measures of performance include average flowtime, work-in-process (WIP) level, and monthly shipments (number produced). Using the model, the impact of alternative levels of multi-skilling and job rotation on the performance of cellular manufacturing systems is investigated. Understanding the effect of multi-skilling and job rotation can aid both production managers and human resources managers in determining which workers need training and how often workers should be rotated to improve the performance of the cell. The lean production literature prescribes training workers on all tasks within a cell and developing a rotation schedule to reinforce the cross-training. Four levels of multi-skilling and three levels of job rotation frequency are evaluated for both a hypothetical cell and a case application in a relatively mature actual production cell. The results of this investigation provide insight on how multi-skilling and job rotation frequency influence production line performance and provide guidance on training policies. The results show that there is an interaction effect between multi-skilling and job rotation for flowtime, work-in-process, in both the hypothetical cell and the case application and monthly shipments in the case application. Therefore, the effect of job rotation on performance measures is not the same at all levels of multi-skilling thus indicating that inferences about the effect of changing multi-skilling, for example, should not be made without considering the job rotation level. The results also indicate that the net present cost is heavily influenced by the cost of poor quality. The results for the case application indicated that the maturity level of the cell influences the benefits derived from increased multi-skilling and affects several key characteristics of the cell. As a cell becomes more mature, it is expected that the quality levels increase and that the skill levels on tasks normally performed increase. Because workers in the case application already have a high skill level on some tasks, the return on training is not as significant. Additionally, the mature cell has relatively high quality levels from the beginning and any improvements in quality would be in small increments rather than in large breakthroughs. The primary contribution of this research is the development of a sequential goal programming worker assignment model that addresses overproduction, poor quality, cross-training, and job rotation in order to meet the prescription in the lean production literature of only producing to customer demand while utilizing multi-skilled workers. Further contributions are analysis of how multi-skilling level and job rotation frequency impact the performance of the cell. Lastly, a contribution is the application of optimization and simulation methods for comprehensively analyzing the impact of worker assignment on performance measures. / Ph. D.

A Kaizen event is a focused and structured improvement project, using a dedicated cross-functional team to improve a targeted work area, with specific goals, in an accelerated timeframe. Kaizen events have been widely reported to produce positive change in business results and human resource outcomes. However, it can be difficult for many organizations to sustain or improve upon the results of a Kaizen event after it concludes. Furthermore, the sustainability of Kaizen event outcomes has received limited research attention to date. This research is based on a field study of 65 events across eight manufacturing organizations that used survey data collected at the time of the event and approximately nine to eighteen months after the event. The research model was developed from Kaizen event practitioner resources, Kaizen event literature, and related process improvement sustainability and organizational change literature. The model hypothesized that Kaizen Event Characteristics, Work Area Characteristics, and Post-Event Characteristics were related to Kaizen event Sustainability Outcomes. Furthermore, the model hypothesized that Post-Event Characteristics would mediate the relationship between Kaizen Event and Work Area Characteristics and the Sustainability Outcomes. The study hypotheses were analyzed through multiple regression models and generalized estimating equations were used to account for potential nesting effects (events within organizations). The factors that were most strongly related to each Sustainability Outcome were identified. Work Area Characteristics learning and stewardship and experimentation and continuous improvement and Post-Event Characteristics performance review and accepting changes were significant direct or indirect predictors of multiple Sustainability Outcomes and these findings were generally supported by the literature. There were also some unanticipated findings, particularly regarding the modeling of Sustainability Outcomes result sustainability and goal sustainability, which appear to illustrate potential issues regarding how organizations define and track the performance of Kaizen events over time and present areas for future research. Overall, this study advances academic knowledge regarding Kaizen event outcome sustainability. The findings also present guidelines so that practitioners may better influence the longer-term impact of Kaizen events on their organizations. The research findings may also extend to other improvement activities, thus presenting additional areas for future work. / Ph. D.

Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka alternativa bedömningsmetoder i kursen Produktionskunskap 1. Studien genomförs i en planerad lektionsserie med utgångspunkt ifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Under tio veckors verksamhetsförlagd utbildning på en gymnasieskola utförs en lektionsserie som ligger grund för denna rapport. Ett vanligt moment i produktionskunskap är att eleverna ska lära sig synsättet LEAN. LEAN är en arbetsfilosofi som företagen använder inom produktion där flöden ses över samt motverka slöseri. Studien undersöker hur elevernas kunskaper utvecklas när använder sig av alternativa bedömningsmetoder i undervisningen. Hur främjas elevers kommunikativa förmåga vid produktionsarbete. Vilka kunskaper har eleverna före och efter undervisningen om Lean production. Datainsamlingsmetoder som använts är observationer under en praktisk examination och enkäter. Resultatet visar att alternativa bedömningsmetoder gav gott resultat med återkoppling som verktyg. Elevernas kunskaper om Lean och kommunikationsförmåga utvecklades.

A produção enxuta tem provocado mudanças significativas nas empresas, mudanças estas que não vêm sendo acompanhadas pelos sistemas de gestão econômica, desenvolvidos sobre pressupostos equivocados da produção em massa que defendem que as otimizações locais isoladas conduzem à otimização global da empresa. Deste modo, pode-se afirmar que a contabilidade de custos não é capaz de prover as informações necessárias à correta tomada de decisão nas empresas enxutas. Por outro lado, constata-se uma coerência entre os princípios da produção enxuta e os pressupostos que sustentam a contabilidade de ganhos da teoria das restrições. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta tese é propor um método de gestão econômica tendo como base teórica os pressupostos que sustentam a contabilidade de ganhos e os princípios da produção enxuta, o qual será denominado de método do ganho médio. Embora os sistemas produtivos enxutos sejam os grandes motivadores para a proposição do método do ganho médio, este também se aplica aos sistemas produtivos tradicionais. Além das etapas de aplicação do método do ganho médio, são apresentadas, ainda, as regras que orientam as tomadas de decisão no mesmo e um modo de precificação. A aplicação do método do ganho médio em uma empresa enxuta consolidada fez com que esta passasse a compreender a importância do tratamento diferenciado das restrições e das não-restrições, bem como a necessidade de sempre orientar a sua tomada de decisão pelo ganho por unidade de restrição dos produtos. Porém, o mais importante foi que com a aplicação do método do ganho médio a empresa passou a medir os resultados da implementação enxuta por meio de um método de gestão econômica coerente com os princípios da produção enxuta. / The lean production has provoked significant changes in the companies, changes that do not come being followed for the economic management systems, developed on estimated mistake made of the mass production that defends the isolated local otimization lead to the global otimization of the company. In this way, it can be affirmed the cost accounting is not capable to provide the necessary information to the correct taking with decision in the lean companies. On the other hand, a coherence is evidenced enters the principles of the lean production and the estimated ones they support the throughput accounting of the theory of constraints. Being thus, the objective of this thesis is to consider a economic management method having as theoretical base estimated they support the throughput accounting and the principles of the lean production, which will be called of average throughput method. Although the lean productive systems are the great motivators for the proposal of the average throughput method, this also is applied to the traditional productive systems. Beyond the stages of application of the average throughput method, they are presented, also, the rules that guide the taking of decision in there and a pricing way. The application of the average throughput method in an lean company consolidated, made that this started to understand the importance of the differentiated treatment of the restrictions and the not-restrictions, as well as the necessity of always to guide it taking decision for the throughput for unit of the restriction of the products. However, the most important was that with the application of the average throughput method, the company started to measure the results of the lean implementation by means of a coherent economic management method with the lean production principles.

Mellan 10-30 procent av ett företags omsättning beräknas bestå av kvalitetsbristkostnader, alltså kostnader som uppstår på grund av bristande kvalitet på företagets produkter eller processer. Dessa kostnader är ofta av sådant slag som inte synliggörs inom företag som inte aktivt arbetar med kvalitet. På EMBA Machinery AB i Örebro är idag detta inga kostnader som synliggjorts, men som det finns önskemål om att synliggöra och då främst i deras reklamationsprocess. Därav har de efterfrågat ett arbete där kvalitetsbristkostnader i samband med deras reklamationsprocess skall identifieras samt att ett arbetssätt för att reducera dessa kostnader skall arbetas fram. Till detta arbete har olika verktyg som vanligtvis används inom kvalitetsarbete och LEAN production tillämpats. Exempel på de verktyg som använts är enklare varianter av värdeflödesanalyser, Paretodiagram, feleffektsanalyser, Ishikawadiagram och 5 Varför-analyser. Arbetet resulterade i fem åtgärdsförslag för företaget. De fem förslagen är: införa en ny arbetsrutin för reklamationer där hanteringen skall utgå från en kvalitetssamordnare, införa en standardkostnad för fakturering av justeringar som utförs på företaget, anställa en kvalitetschef som följer upp företagets rutiner och arbetar aktivt med förbättringsarbete, digitalisera hanteringen av reklamationer och utbilda ledningen i förbättringsarbete och total quality management. Vid införandet av dessa åtgärder beräknas kvalitetsbristkostnaderna minska med minst 30 %, men förmodligen mycket mer än så. / Between 10-30 percent of a company's turnover is estimated to consist of costs due to poor quality, i.e. costs incurred due to lack of quality on the company's products or processes. These costs are often costs that are not visible in companies whom do not actively work with quality. At EMBA Machinery AB in Örebro these costs are not visible today, but there is a desire to visualize them mainly in their complaint process. Therefore they have requested a project to identify costs due to poor quality associated with their complaint process and to present a new method to work with that will reduce these costs. For this work, various tools that usually are used in quality work and LEAN production has been applied. Examples of the tools used are simple variants of value-flow analyses, Pareto Charts, Failure mode and effects analysis, Ishikawa Graphs, and 5 Why analyses. This project resulted in five action proposals for the company. These five proposals are: introduce a new workflow for the complaint process where the handling will be done by a quality coordinator, introduce a standard cost of billing adjustments performed at the company, hire a quality manager to follow up the company's routines and work actively with improvement work, digitize the handling of complaints and educate the management in improvement work and total quality management. When introducing these measures, cost due to poor quality are estimated to decrease by at least 30%, but probably much more than that.

<p><strong>Background</strong>: Since the coining of the phrase lean production by Womack, Jones and Roos in 1990, this mass production system of Japanese origin has been implemented in a multitude of organizations throughout the world, the results being predominantly positive from a financial point of view. The possibly negative effects of mass production on worker motivation have been discussed since quality of work life became an important political issue in Sweden in the 1970’s. As the popularity of lean service is now increasing, there are still unresolved issues regarding the transferability of a mass production system to the service industry, particularly with regards to the motivation of service employees.</p><p><strong>Purpose</strong>: The purpose of our thesis is to study the lean system of a Swedish bank, SEB Way, from a management- as well as an employee perspective in order to describe how lean may affect the work motivation of service employees.</p><p><strong>Research procedure</strong>: The study is empirically based on observations and interviews on multiple hierarchical levels at SEB. We have conducted a total of 13 interviews with front line employees at SEB, with the central SEB Way team as well as two external lean specialists.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: The study indicates that SEB Way has little direct influence on the intrinsic work motivation of the SEB front line employees, as work motivation was present prior to the implementation of lean. However, there are some areas of indirect overlaps between SEB Way and employee motivation, mainly in terms of tools which encourage improved employee performance. This is in line with the short-term result orientation which characterizes SEB’s organizational culture. Furthermore, the study indicates that lean production may possibly exert more extensive direct influence on employee motivation than SEB Way.</p>

Background: Since the coining of the phrase lean production by Womack, Jones and Roos in 1990, this mass production system of Japanese origin has been implemented in a multitude of organizations throughout the world, the results being predominantly positive from a financial point of view. The possibly negative effects of mass production on worker motivation have been discussed since quality of work life became an important political issue in Sweden in the 1970’s. As the popularity of lean service is now increasing, there are still unresolved issues regarding the transferability of a mass production system to the service industry, particularly with regards to the motivation of service employees. Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to study the lean system of a Swedish bank, SEB Way, from a management- as well as an employee perspective in order to describe how lean may affect the work motivation of service employees. Research procedure: The study is empirically based on observations and interviews on multiple hierarchical levels at SEB. We have conducted a total of 13 interviews with front line employees at SEB, with the central SEB Way team as well as two external lean specialists. Results: The study indicates that SEB Way has little direct influence on the intrinsic work motivation of the SEB front line employees, as work motivation was present prior to the implementation of lean. However, there are some areas of indirect overlaps between SEB Way and employee motivation, mainly in terms of tools which encourage improved employee performance. This is in line with the short-term result orientation which characterizes SEB’s organizational culture. Furthermore, the study indicates that lean production may possibly exert more extensive direct influence on employee motivation than SEB Way.

Konkurrensen i tillverkningsföretag ökar ständigt och detta medför att det ställs hårda krav på produktkvalitet och förmågan att leverera produkter i tid. För att företag ska kunna nå upp till dessa mål krävs utveckling och ständiga förbättringar i takt med den växande marknaden. Detta uppnås på olika sätt men ett vanligt sätt är att arbeta med förbättringsmetodiker. Val av förbättringsmetodik beror på företagets tillverkning, kunskap inom företaget och resurser inom företaget. Att välja förbättringsmetodik anpassat till den egna organisationen är väldigt svårt för många organisationer och många organisationer ställer sig frågan: ”Vilken metod passar bäst för den egna organisationen?”. Målet med examensarbetet är att undersöka om och hur Lean Production och Theory of Constraints kan användas i företag med high-mix low-volume produktion. Med hjälp av en litteraturstudie och en fallstudie har följande frågor besvarats: 1) hur Lean Prodution och Theory of Constraints används i en HMLV produktion och hur dessa kombineras, 2) hur produktionsflödet styrs enligt Lean Production och Theory of Constraints för att effektivisera en produktionsprocess i ett HMLV företag, 3) vilka personliga paradigm och policys det uppstår enligt Lean Production och Theory of Constraints i HMLV företag och vad sambandet mellan dessa och kvalitet är. Resultat från litteraturstudien och fallstudien visar att Lean Production och dess verktyg går bra att använda kombinerat med Theory of Constraints i HMLV företag med vissa undantag. Dessa undantag är dock inga undantag som säger att Lean Production och dess verktyg inte går att använda i HMLV företag i kombination med Theory of Constraints. Dessa undantag behöver endast anpassas för HMLV produktion. Resultaten visade också att standardiserat arbete i en produktion har en avgörande roll när Lean Production och Theory of Constraints används. Standardiserat arbete bidrar till att fortsatt utveckling och implementering underlättas. Resultaten visar även på att produktionsflödet kan anpassas med hjälp av metoder inom Lean Production och Theory of Constraints och att detta göras bäst när dessa två metodiker kombineras. Vidare visade resultaten att nya investeringar i form av ny utrustning inte är nödvändiga i många fall. Detta förutsätter att flaskhalsar, så som personliga paradigm och policys, identifieras. Resultaten visade även att kvaliteten är direkt kopplad till dessa två flaskhalsar och att en investering i ledarskap är att föredra. / Competition between manufacturing companies is constantly increasing and this causes high demands on product quality and ability to deliver products in time. For companies to be able to reach these goals it is necessary to work with development and continuous improvements and respond to the current pace of the market. This can be achieved in different ways, but a common method is to work with improvement methodologies. Selecting which improvement methodologies to use depends on a company’s manufacturing, knowledge, and resources. Many organisations find it difficult to choose improvement methodologies for their particular organisation and ask the question: “Which method is best suited for our organisation?”. The goal of this study is to examine whether and how Lean Production and Theory of Constraints can be utilized in companies with high-mix low-volume production. By performing a literature review and a case study the following questions have been answered: 1) how Lean production and Theory of constraints are utilized in a HMLV production system and how they can be combined, 2) how the production flow is controlled according to Lean Production and Theory of Constraints to improve the efficiency of a production process in a HMLV company, 3) what personal paradigms and policys arise according to Lean Production and Theory of Constraints in HMLV company and what the relationship between these and quality is. Results from the literature review and case study show that Lean Production and its tools are possible to use in a combination with Theory of Constraints in HMLV companies with some exceptions. However there is no exceptions saying that Lean Production and its tools combined with Theory of Constraints can not be utilized in HMLV companies. These exceptions only need to be adjusted for HMLV production. The results also showed that standardized work in a production process plays a crucial role when combining Lean production with Theory of Constraints. Standardized work contributes to facilitation of further development and implementation. The results show that the production flow can be adjusted using methods from Lean Production and Theory of Constraints, and that this is done best by combining these two methodologies. Furthermore, the results showed that in many cases new investments in the form of new equipment are not necessary. This assumes that bottlenecks, such as personal paradigms and policies are identified. The results showed that quality is directly linked to these two bottlenecks and that an investment in management is preferable.

A produção enxuta tem provocado mudanças significativas nas empresas, mudanças estas que não vêm sendo acompanhadas pelos sistemas de gestão econômica, desenvolvidos sobre pressupostos equivocados da produção em massa que defendem que as otimizações locais isoladas conduzem à otimização global da empresa. Deste modo, pode-se afirmar que a contabilidade de custos não é capaz de prover as informações necessárias à correta tomada de decisão nas empresas enxutas. Por outro lado, constata-se uma coerência entre os princípios da produção enxuta e os pressupostos que sustentam a contabilidade de ganhos da teoria das restrições. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta tese é propor um método de gestão econômica tendo como base teórica os pressupostos que sustentam a contabilidade de ganhos e os princípios da produção enxuta, o qual será denominado de método do ganho médio. Embora os sistemas produtivos enxutos sejam os grandes motivadores para a proposição do método do ganho médio, este também se aplica aos sistemas produtivos tradicionais. Além das etapas de aplicação do método do ganho médio, são apresentadas, ainda, as regras que orientam as tomadas de decisão no mesmo e um modo de precificação. A aplicação do método do ganho médio em uma empresa enxuta consolidada fez com que esta passasse a compreender a importância do tratamento diferenciado das restrições e das não-restrições, bem como a necessidade de sempre orientar a sua tomada de decisão pelo ganho por unidade de restrição dos produtos. Porém, o mais importante foi que com a aplicação do método do ganho médio a empresa passou a medir os resultados da implementação enxuta por meio de um método de gestão econômica coerente com os princípios da produção enxuta. / The lean production has provoked significant changes in the companies, changes that do not come being followed for the economic management systems, developed on estimated mistake made of the mass production that defends the isolated local otimization lead to the global otimization of the company. In this way, it can be affirmed the cost accounting is not capable to provide the necessary information to the correct taking with decision in the lean companies. On the other hand, a coherence is evidenced enters the principles of the lean production and the estimated ones they support the throughput accounting of the theory of constraints. Being thus, the objective of this thesis is to consider a economic management method having as theoretical base estimated they support the throughput accounting and the principles of the lean production, which will be called of average throughput method. Although the lean productive systems are the great motivators for the proposal of the average throughput method, this also is applied to the traditional productive systems. Beyond the stages of application of the average throughput method, they are presented, also, the rules that guide the taking of decision in there and a pricing way. The application of the average throughput method in an lean company consolidated, made that this started to understand the importance of the differentiated treatment of the restrictions and the not-restrictions, as well as the necessity of always to guide it taking decision for the throughput for unit of the restriction of the products. However, the most important was that with the application of the average throughput method, the company started to measure the results of the lean implementation by means of a coherent economic management method with the lean production principles.