Lean Production is used by many manufacturing companies. Companies in process industries do not use Lean Production to the same extent today. This is part of the report's issue to explore how Lean Production can be applied to a company in the process industries. The investigated company is a processing company that manufactures various types of foil. The company wishes to streamline its production and has therefore asked the authors to examine if Lean Production can offer the company improvements in their production. Lean Production value stream mapping tool has been selected to identify and analyze the current state of two of its products in production. From the survey cost estimates was carried out on the basis of proposals for improving production. There were also theoretical frameworks used to examine the benefits that Lean Production can give a company in the process industries. From the results it is clear that the company in the current situation does not achieve any economic benefit of reducing their inventory costs. This is because the startup costs are greater than inventory costs. However, the authors found that a company in the process industry has much to gain from the Lean Production philosophy. The authors found some of the tools used in Lean Production difficult to implement, but the philosophy and thinking were considered to have a lot to contribute to a company in the process industry.

Lean refers to the concepts of Lean operations, Lean principle, Lean philosophy, etc. It is what people often talk about in operation management. Clean refers to the concepts of being green, environmental friendly, less environmental impact, etc. These two words seem to be unrelated, but somehow connected. In this thesis, we explored the linking between Lean and environmental issues; analyze the possible benefits of coordination between Lean and environment. In the case study, we assessed the overall Lean performance of Alderholmens mekaniska, a local manufacturing company in Gävle, Sweden. This company was seeking for solutions of their environmental wastes in the production. We found that Lean activities could be used to achieve environmental objectives. Lean methods are capable of reducing environmental waste. To coordinate Lean and environmental issues could foster an organizational culture of continuous improvement in order to encourage people to improve for better overall performance; this also benefits the environmental performance. Based on the observation in the company, and the questionnaire made during an interview with their Lean specialist, we gave some proposals on Lean implementation with emphasis on environmental issues, in order to solve their problems of environmental wastes and, furthermore, improve the performance.

In 2005, Outokumpu began to implement its system of continuous improvement, OK> 1, at Avesta Jernverk. OK> 1 has not generated sufficient results on plant KPI:s. The purpose of this study is to identify the understanding,  participation and commitment regarding to OK> 1, and to suggest some actions to make OK> 1 more successful with emphasis on these three aspects. The thesis shall also determine whether there are any differences in the attitude towards OK>1 between Blue Collars and White Collars. The study consisted of a survey, and interviews. The output from these methods were processed and analyzed and finally resulted in a SWOT – analysis and suggested actions for improving the understanding, participation and commitment towards OK>1. The thesis work also covered a literature study concerning Lean Production, to get a deeper understanding of how to implement Lean Production successfully. The results of the survey pointed out that Blue Collars do not understand OK>1 as well as White Collars, and that they do not participate as actively as White Collars in improvement activities. To improve the results on plant KPI:s the thesis suggests following actions: education, simplification of methods and increased feedback from the management.

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There is a great need for an environmental, economic and social sustainable society, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations. Focusing on environmental sustainability, legislation and industrially accepted emission targets have emerged, on an overall level represented by e g the Kyoto protocol. Green as well as Lean production has thus become a more and more important topic in recent years. Based on the gigantic need for technologies and strategies that will reduce CO2 emissions globally, as well as customer demands for cost efficient and environmental friendly goods and processes, companies are starting to change their principles towards Green and Lean philosophies. In Green and/or Lean development, like other systematic approaches towards improved processes, there is a need for visualization tools to be used to analyze the supply chain and the manufacturing system. One possible visualization tool for this purpose is Environmental Value Stream Mapping, which has all the characteristics of its parent, VSM (Value Stream Mapping) and additional kaizen elements. In the EVSM, the environmental issues and the usage of material or energy have been added to the established VSM tool. However it has been almost four years since United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has introduced EVSM and there is no reliable evaluation how this tool really works and can be implemented. Therefore there is a need to evaluate and possibly improve this tool, based on practice and the applicability in industry. A case study has been performed testing the EVSM tool in industry and is presented in this paper. The aim of the case study is to analyze how the EVSM tool can be used as well as implementing suggested changes, summarized into, an Environmental Flow Process Chart. The EVSM tool seems suitable for showing the parts of the process in the supply chain which has more waste of energy or material. Still, it lacks information about where and how this waste are generated and which element of the process that is making the most waste, indicating a need for improvement

Business unit Cylinder at ASSA AB in Eskilstuna are having problem with frictions in their production process. Changes are occurring and older products along with machineries are phased out and transferred to low-cost countries. This opens up possibilities to at a larger extend customize physical flows after production flows. The authors where given the task to analyze the production and find problem areas to improve and to give suggestion on how Business unit Cylinder can work to optimize their production flow. The aim of the thesis work is to come up with suggestions on how to reduce the lead time in production and how the tied up capital can be reduced. In more detail the task included to find problem areas that are counteracting an effective flow, give solutions on new flows for the production of the cylinder core, give suggestions for new stock points for the production and how the production shall be managed and controlled. During the last twelve months ASSA AB has sold over 700 different types of cylinder cores, and the product range is very wide. Today ASSA AB has chosen to work with a layout design where similar machines stand close to each other in groups, so called workshop design. The first manufacturing step take part in a multi operations lathe where a brass pole is lathed and cut off to right size and shape and necessary wholes are drilled. Later on the cylinder cores receive their key profile. Finally some cores are drill protected with hard metal pins to increase the safety of the cylinder. The flow time is long in production and the total flow time for a cylinder core can be up to 160 days. There are a numerous amount of article numbers in stock with a huge combined stock value. Still, there are often wrong articles in stock and there are occurring shortage situations regularly. Set-up times are variably and differ significant between which products that the set-ups are performed between. The largest part of the long flow times is non-value adding time, and above all stock times which occurs because of the large batch sizes that are used today. This counteracts a fast and effective flow. The main reason for the large batch sizes is a long, variably and in many cases unknown set-up time. Out of performed calculations are given that about 880 000 SEK could be released from stock point L72 and L70 just by reducing the batch sizes to between 250-500 cylinder cores for high volume articles. This would reduce the stock value with over 75 percent for these article numbers. By shorten today’s long set-up times, and be able run smaller batch sizes, flow time should be able to be shorten from todays 100 days down to about 6 days. / Äldre produkter tillsammans med maskiner fasas ut eller läggs ut/flyttas till lågkostnadsländer. Detta ger möjligheten att i större utsträckning anpassa fysiska flöden efter produktflöden. Problemet är att det idag uppstår friktioner i produktionsprocessen hos Affärsenhet Cylinder på ASSA AB i Eskilstuna. Författarna gavs i uppdrag att analysera produktionen och hitta problem-områden för förbättringsinsatser, samt ge förslag på hur Affärsenhet Cylinder kan arbete för att optimera flödet. Examensarbetets syfte är att ge förslag på hur ledtiden i produktionen kan kortas samt hur kapitalbindningen i lager kan minskas. Mer ingående innebär detta att hitta problemområden som motverkar ett effektivt flöde, ge förslag på eventuella nya flöden för produktionen av cylinderkärnor, ge förslag på lagringspunkter för produktionen samt hur produktionen skall styras och planeras. Under de senaste tolv månaderna har ASSA AB sålt över 700 olika typer av cylinderkärnor, och produktfloran är alltså oerhört bred och stor. Idag har ASSA valt att jobba med en gruppering där liknande maskiner står intill varandra i grupper, så kallad funktionell verkstad. Första tillverkningssteget sker i en fleroperationssvarv där en mässingstång svarvas och kapas till rätt storlek och form, samt att nödvändiga hål borras. Sedan driftas cylinderkärnan för att erhålla rätt nyckelhålsprofil. Slutligen borrskyddas vissa kärnor med hårdmetallstift för att öka säkerheten på cylinderkärnan. Flödestiden är idag väldigt lång i produktionen och den totala flödestiden för en kärna kan uppgå till så mycket som 160 dagar. I lager finns en mängd artikelnummer med sammantaget stort värde. Dock är det ofta fel artiklar som finns i lager, och det uppstår bristsituationer. Ställtiderna är varierande och skiljer sig markant mellan vilka produkter ett ställ genomförs. Största delen av den långa flödestiden är icke värdeskapande tid, och framförallt lagringstid, som uppkommer genom de stora batchstorlekarna som används idag. Detta motverkar ett snabbt och effektivt flöde. Anledningen till de stora batchstorlekarna är en lång, varierande och i många fall okänd ställtid. Ur genomförda beräkningar ges att cirka 880 000 SEK skulle kunna frigöras i Lager72 och Lager70 enbart genom att reducera batchstorlekarna till mellan 250-500 cylinderkärnor för högvolymsartiklarna. Detta motsvarar alltså en reducering av lagervärdet från dagens nivåer, med över 75 procent för dessa artikelnummer. Genom att korta dagens ställtider och därigenom kunna tillverka i mindre batchstorlekar kan dagens flödestid från första operationssteget till montering-/DC kortas ner från cirka 100 dagar till cirka 6 dagar.

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The objective of this thesis is to map the resources and methods used at the department OPPC, at AstraZeneca, and derived from that give suggestions on possible solutions that will increase their productivity. Mapping of the product flow, as well as gathering of process data, has mainly been done using observations, but consultation with the process technicians has also played a great role. Further have theoretical methods been used, based on literature studies, within the areas of Lean production and statistics. The work has incrementally gone forward since the steps taken has been restricted by the irregularity of production which led to the need of creating a fictive production flow. This has affected the lead-time calculations in the way that they are meant to give an indication, rather than an absolute truth, on how different methods described shall be used. The current state analysis showed multiple areas of improvement when defining capacity as value adding time in relation to total throughput time. Using the "standard scenario" as a basis showed that the actual production flow only constituted 50% of the total project time. Further it showed that the workflow contained more non-value adding activities than value adding activities, which is a result of how the work is distributed within the department as well as in the different projects. The thesis resulted in different methods that together will show great reduction in throughput time. The new workflow is based on One-Piece flow, which implies that products should be processed without any delay between the different processing steps. Non-value adding activities have been restructured so that they will have no negative effect on the total throughput time. Based on this thesis, the personal at OPPC should be able to continue the improvement work by doing further measurements that would act as foundation for more detailed lead-time calculations. Restructuring of this kind would not be costly for OPPC but would set some demands on concerned departments. Finally, a prerequisite for this to work is that the engagement of the personal is in focus, or else they may fall back to old routines.

In this study we have examined the possible quality standards and methods for applications with service workshops in the forest industry. The purpose of the methods presented here was to start the work of standarardising the maintenance service in the industry and be of use for service providers in their quality effort. The methods we used to accomplish the study were interviews and field visits together with a comprehensive literature research. Our results are presented in the form of four solution proposals: a standard based on existing SIS standards for terminology and key indicators, checklists that are filled in by mechanics with customer participation, the construction of a instructions database, and the implementation of the method 5s. We believe our suggestions can help the service providers in the four problem areas that we have identified: long term strategy, documentation, recruitment of competent technicians, and standard procedures in their operations. These improvements will be beneficial for both the service provider and the customer. / I detta arbete undersöktes möjliga kvalitetsstandarder och metoder för tillämpning hos serviceverkstäder i skogsindustrin. Syftet var att de metoderna som presenteras ska påbörja arbetet med att standardisera servicetjänsten i industrin och även vara till nytta för servicelämnare i sitt kvalitetsarbete. De metoder vi använde oss av för att genomföra utredningen var intervjuer och studiebesök tillsammans med en omfattande litteraturstudie. Vårt resultat presenteras i form av fyra lösningsförslag: En standard baserad på SIS standarder för terminologi och nyckeltal, checklistor som fylls i av mekaniker med hjälp av kunder, konstruktion av en databas med instruktionsmanualer och en implementering av metoden 5 s. Vi tror att våra förslag kan hjälpa servicelämnare i de fyra problemområden som vi identifierade, långsiktiga strategier, dokumentering, rekrytering av kompetenta tekniker och standardisering av rutiner i verksamheten. Dessa förbättringar kommer att vara gynnsamma för både servicelämnare och kunder.

Kostnaden för nyproduktion av hus i Sverige har ökat markant under de senaste åren. Byggföretag har svårt att hålla både projektens löptid och kostnader nere, vilket resulterat i ett ökat marknadspris och ett växande missnöje bland slutkunder. De ökade kostnaderna beror enligt forskning på vanligt förekommande slöseri i form av såväl material som arbetskraft. I försöken att eliminera slöseri har många företag anpassat sin verksamhet efter Lean Thinking, ett system som härstammar från den japanska bilindustrin, bestående av verktyg och metoder med huvudsyfte att identifiera och eliminera slöseri. Ur detta har även nya former av byggnation fångat marknadens intresse. Industrialiserat byggande är en metod som förflyttat stora delar av verksamheten från byggarbetsplats till prefabricering i fabrik och på så sätt eliminerat många av de slöseri och riskmoment som förknippas med det traditionella synsättet på byggnation. Studien lägger fokus på hur arbete med Lean Thinking och prefabricerat byggande kan avhjälpa de kostnadsproblem som branschen ställs inför på dagens marknad. Genom en fallstudie har vi beretts möjlighet att på nära håll studera för- respektive nackdelar med ett prefabricerat byggande, samt fått möjlighet att studera en organisation där verksamheten utgår från Lean Thinking. Studien visar att det genom Lean Thinking och prefabricerat byggande går att minimera vanligt förekommande slöseri inom byggbranschen. Utförandetiden för prefabricerat byggande är också mycket kortare än vid traditionellt byggande och på så vis hålls kostnaderna nere. Genom att ytterliga utveckla prefabricerat byggande enligt Lean Thinking skulle det vara möjligt att i större utsträckning minimera slöseri och möjliggöra ett ännu smartare byggande. / The costs of house construction in Sweden have increased conspicuously over the last years. Construction companies have a hard time maintaining low project lead-times as well as keeping costs within the financial plan, which in turn has affected market price and created a growing discontent amongst buyers. Research indicates that the increased production costs are in many ways caused by the large amount of waste, in form of materials and labor, which is common within today’s construction projects. Efforts to eliminate waste has led many companies to adapt Lean Thinking, a system with roots in Japanese car manufacturing industry, containing tools and methods designed to identify and eliminate all kinds of waste. From all this, new ways of construction has been introduced on to todays market. Industrialized housing is a relatively new concept, which has eliminated a lot of waste and risks by moving construction away from an on-site project into prefabrication within factories. This study focuses on how Lean Thinking adaptation and industrialized construction can help lowering construction costs. A case study has given us the opportunity to follow an industrialized construction project up close, as well as the opportunity to study an organization that has implemented Lean Thinking. The study shows that it is possible to reduce common waste within construction industry through Lean Thinking and industrialized housing. The project lead-time for industrialized housing is also much shorter compared to traditional construction methods and therefore the costs are kept low. By continuing to evolve industrialized housing through Lean Thinking it would be possible to further reduce waste and consequently enabling an even smarter way of construction.