The Winnipeg Children’s Hospital encounters delays within the surgical patient flow and cancellations due to a lack of available resources in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Applying the concepts of lean thinking and the practices of simulation and statistical analysis, these problems were better understood and solutions were developed. Improvement projects were performed centralized on lean concepts and utilizing the tools of value-stream mapping and 7 forms of waste. Building and running a simulation model provided a capacity versus demand measure for the overall performance of the PICU. Simulation allowed for the study of hypothetical situations such as varying department resources and fluctuating patient levels. Statistical calculations were used to create a prediction tool to determine the probability of a PICU bed being available. This would enable a reduction in last-minute cancellations of surgical cases requiring a PICU bed.

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Syftet med denna uppsats är huvudsakligen att ta reda på hur det kommer sig att Lean har implementerats på Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset i Solna med stor framgång, medan det inte fått samma genombrott på Akademiska Sjukhuset i Uppsala. Empirin är baserad på  semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomförts med tre intervjupersoner från respektive sjukhus för att få både ledningens och medarbetarnas uppfattning. Empirin har sedan analyserats utifrån våran teoretiska referensram som omfattar New Public Management, Service Management Theory, Värdestjärnan, Lean, Lean Healthcare samt Värdebaserad Vård. Vi har kunnat urskilja skillnader mellan sjukhusens sätt att förbereda och implementera Lean samt effekterna av arbetet. Bland annat visar resultatet att Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset varit bättre på att utbilda och informera sina arbetare och därmed motivera och engagera dem, samt varit bättre på att mäta och därmed har konkreta resultat att visa på.

Examensarbete är utfört på GKN Aerospace Applied Composites (ACAB) där produktionsflödet för fyra produkter har kartlagts. Idag upplever företaget svårigheter med att hålla leveranstiden för dessa produkter, dessutom upplevs verkstäderna som ostrukturerade. GKN Aerospace Applied Composites tillverkar idag flertalet produkter i komposit till både den civila och militära marknaden. För detta examensarbete har flödet av tre stycken radomer och en storlek av tryckkärl kartlagts. Tryckkärl är en produkt som tillverkas i större volymer och har ett flödesorganiserat produktionsupplägg. Radomerna är kundorderspecifika produkter som endast tillverkas i enstyck eller mindre volymer. Detta innebär att radomverkstaden är funktionellt organiserad. Med ett varierande och växande produktsortiment ökar kraven på produktionsplaneringen och hantera kombinationen av de två olika produktionsuppläggen. För att kunna ta fram förbättringsförslag för framtiden har en analys genomförts av produktionen. Förbättringsförslagen resulterar i studiens rekommendationer och förbättringsplan till ACAB. Den metod som använts är Value Stream Mapping (VSM), som är en metod i Lean filosofin. Denna metod används för att eliminera alla former av slöseri genom att identifiera värdeskapande och icke värdeskapande tid. För att sammanställa en VSM för respektive produkt genomfördes en datainsamling som bestod av intervjuer, observationer och uppmätningar av flödenas avstånd. För varje produkt identifierades problemområden med tillhörande förbättringsförslag, dessa förslag på åtgärder och rekommendationer resulterade i ett framtida alternativt flöde för produktionen. Historisk data har analyserats av genomloppstider, en medeltid för varje process har beräknats ur äldre order för respektive produkt. Som en riktlinje för dagens produktion har ACAB idag standardtider som de planerar leveransdatum efter. Beräknade medeltider har satts i förhållande till standardtiderna för att kunna urskilja vilka processtider som överstiger eller understiger dagens riktlinjer. I de alternativa flödena presenteras åtgärdsförslag för att kunna förbättra verkstädernas layout genom att förkorta de uppmätta avstånden. Utöver jämförelse av tider och avstånd presenteras övergripande åtgärder som 5S och kontinuerlig utbildning av personal. Generellt för båda produktionerna har jämförelsen mellan medeltider och standardtider visat att standardtiderna behöver korrigeras. Korrigeringen av tider medför inte kortare genomloppstider utan bidrar till en bättre planering av leveransdatum. Däremot förväntas de förändringar av layout och organisering som föreslagits för respektive verkstad reducera genomloppstiderna.

Fallstudiens syfte är att skapa en förståelse för hur man kan identifiera ekonomiska förluster samt förbättra det interna produktionsflödet med rekommenderade förbättringsåtgärder. Målsättningen är att skapa en modell som kan hjälpa SMF att förbättra sin produktion. Modellen ska sen testas empiriskt i fallföretaget och tillsammans med den noggrant utvalda teorin generera en nulägesanalys som ska sammanställa faktorer som är väsentliga att studera för att förbättra produktionen. Nyckelord: Produktionsflöde, Kartläggning, Modellutveckling, Lean produktion, Produktionsutveckling, SMF

In order to create a machining line layout that supports the principles of lean a systematic approach is needed to ensure that a wide range of factors are taken into consideration. Despite this, many companies today design new layouts mainly considering delivery times of machines and equipment, and available space in the factory. A combined literature and case study has aimed to identify the most important factors in a lean line layout and a supporting structure to apply these in the design or redesign of automated machining lines. Highly automated machining environments mainly distinguish themselves from the more thoroughly studied area of assembly line layouts in two ways. Primarily, automated machining lines separate the operator from the actual processing, making line balancing and productivity less dependent on the workstation design around the operator. Secondly, automated machining lines often involve a higher level of complexity, leading to a more comprehensive work load, requiring longer training times but also offering less repetitive assignments. Automation offers improved productivity, quality and ergonomics, but if the acquisition and allocation of automation is not substantiated by a well-developed strategy, automation risks contradicting lean principles by creating a more complex, rigid layout that places the machines in the center instead of the workers. Factors that are important in the design of the typically less automated assembly lines, such as minimizing the walking distance of the operator and rotating stations to provide meaningful work assignments, must in an automated machining environment give way to factors like visualization, material flow and maintenance. Visualizing a factory helps operators and managers learn and understand the factory better. Problems can be detected and corrected faster and disturbances in production can thus be reduced. A good material flow is straight with no intersecting flows, triggered by downstream demand and reduces unnecessary buffers and WIP that bind up capital and consume space. Finally, since the machines rather than the operators produce, a good maintenance is required to avoid unplanned stops. The value of teamwork and humans in production which are strongly advocated within lean remain important also in automated machining lines but acquires a new content compared to assembly lines. Teamwork in automated machining environments occur within a group of lines rather than in a single line and it is a major factor when it comes to competence development, production planning and worker satisfaction. While teamwork in assembly lines works to balance the production flow within the line, teamwork in automated machining lines has little or no effect on the line balancing. However, joint efforts in setups and in case of machine failures or worker absence help increasing productivity, and potentially smooth the production at the plant in its entirety. The empirical studies showed that there is no standardized way of working with machining line layout design and redesign, and factors considered were often coincidental and dependent on the functions and priorities of the participants at different layout meeting. To ensure that all factors are taken into consideration a supporting tool where the most important factors were divided into ten categories was developed. Layouts are evaluated and rated on one category at a time to support a systematic way of working. Ongoing discussions, adjustments and improvements to better comply with the factors are encouraged.

Bakgrund: Företagens villkor utifrån ett konkurrensperspektiv ändras idag fortare än någonsin och möjligheterna att nå framgång bygger i högre grad på en förmåga att förutse, anpassa sig till och agera på omvärldens snabbt föränderliga krav. Flertalet forskare redogör för att företags lednings- och styrkoncept måste förändras för att tillgodose de behov som den moderna globala marknadens dynamik ställer. De senaste decennierna har Lean och Agile trätt fram som två lednings- och styrkoncept som vunnit i popularitet och anammats av många företag som önskar effektivisera sin verksamhet. Både Lean och Agile använts främst inom produktion och det finns relativt lite forskning kring hur dessa två lednings- och styrmodeller appliceras inom andra verksamhetsområden samt hur de kan kombineras. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ledningsgrupper inom en global IT- organisation använder sig av och kombinerar Lean och Agile, samt hur ledningsgrupperna upplever att detta påverkar deras arbetssätt och leveransförmåga. Metod: Studien är genomförd i form av en kvalitativ fallstudie av företaget Volvo IT. Insamling av data har skett via intervjuer med representanter för olika ledningsgrupper inom Volvo IT samt genom att sitta med vid möten och föra anteckningar och via insamlad dokumentation från websidor och intern företagsinformation. Slutsats: Resultaten visar på att Lean och agila arbetssätt tycks fungera bra ihop och kompletterar varandra väl. Ledningsgrupperna uppfattar Lean främst som ett övergripande ledningskoncept och styrmodell för att effektivisera interna processer och skapa ordning och reda genom att eliminera slöseri i verksamheten. Det agila arbetssättet används av ledningsgrupperna för att ge möjlighet till att agera flexibelt och anpassa sig vad gäller kundernas och omvärldens snabbt skiftande krav och behov. / Background: Today the business environment, from a competition perspective, is changing faster than ever before and the possibilities of achieving success is to a higher degree based on the ability to anticipate, adapt to and act on the rapidly changing requirements in world around us. Several researchers describe that corporate management and control concept must change to meet the changing needs of the modern dynamic global market. In recent decades, Lean and Agile emerged as two management and control concept which gained in popularity and has been embraced by many companies wishing to streamline their operations. Both Lean and Agile has been used primarily in the production and there is relatively little research on how these two management and control concepts have been applied in other areas, and how they can be combined. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how management teams within a global IT organization use and combine Lean and Agile practices, and the impact this has for management teams’ ability to deliver. Method: The study was conducted as a qualitative case study of the company Volvo IT. Data collection was achieved through interviews with representatives of various management teams at Volvo IT, and by attending meetings and taking notes and also by using the collected documentation from websites and internal company information Conclusion: The results show that Lean and Agile practices seem to work well together and complement each other well. The management teams perceive Lean primarily as an overall management concept and management model to streamline internal processes and create order by eliminating waste in operations. The agile way of working is perceived by the management teams as allowing great flexibility and adaptability to the rapidly changing needs and requirements of customers and business environment.

This report examines the industrialization of a newly developed household machine on behalf of Technogarden Engineering Resources in Karlstad, Sweden. The report is a part of the final course in the Bachelor Program in Mechanical Engineering at Karlstad University and takes place in spring 2014. An innovator, an investor and a engineering consultant firm have through collaboration developed a new type of gruel machine. The product is in its final stage of construction and is planned to be manufactured in a production located in Sweden, autumn of 2014. To compete against today’s trend in outsourcing manufacturing to low cost countries for better profitability, the industrialization of the gruel machine must be done with a minimum amount of resources in order to become successful, which also describes the problem of this study. Using pre-study material in form of Lean production literature, visiting a successful production site and gathering data from involved engineers a specification was developed which describes what this industrialization must achieve and which requests can be accomplished. The specification involves the main questions such as capacity in number of gruel machines produced in a certain amount of time, ergonomics and how to achieve equal product quality. A comprehensive product study has been done to identify how the machine is meant to be assembled where the focus was to analyze timing, identifying item groups and assembly sequence. Six concepts on different factory layouts were created using two dimensional sketches of the actual plant chosen for the machine. The sketches show visual layouts of how the production equipment can be physically arranged in order to assemble the machine. The concepts are then assessed according to a valuation schedule in which the main factors are arranged and an engineering assessment is made of how well the different concepts satisfy these factors. From the valuation schedule the concepts obtain a score and the concept with the highest score wins.The winning concept was worked further on by developing a detailed layout using software Google Sketchup. Using the detailed layout a cost-estimation was made on the manufacturing equipment needed. The results of the study show that the gruel machine best is assembled together in a continuous production in form of a line layout. The assembly process is done by operators manually distributed among four stations equipped with materials via rack of items. Two of these layouts are required to meet the market demand at 20 000 gruel machines a year. An exact sizing of commodity and finished inventories could not be determined because of underdetermined suppliers and deliveries.

As the final course in the education “University Diploma Programme for Process Operators” there is a thesis in cooperation with a company required.This thesis is about operator maintenance and 5S made at Metsä Board in Husum.In this report you can read my opinions and conclusions based on literature studies and the interviews that have been made with the staff at PM6 (the paper machine).I chose to focus on the theory of lean, 5S and operator maintenance because it covers the area of this thesis.The operators shall do their rounds to make sure that the equipment works fine. They shall also write down things that they notice in a checklist. This is not done as it should be and the question is: can this be solved by using 5S?My conclusion of this thesis are:Better review of the task so that everyone is involved. The equipment should be clearly marked, and to digitize - for example, with an NFC tag the checklist is automatically filled in by the operator standing nearby the machine. The motivation of the operators will be increased if they are given feedback and clear objectives.

Ask any constructional worker and there is a high probability that this person knows a colleague with pain or other disorders caused by working with power tools. According to the Swedish Work Environment Authority 71 percent of the Swedish constructional workers is exposed to vibrations at least 25 percent of the working hours. Despite this, the number of reported occupational sicknesses caused by vibrations is as low as 1, 4 percent. JM Ltd. is one of the largest constructional companies in Sweden. Their main business is new housing and development of residential areas. God quality and low impact on the environment is a part of great importance in the company’s long-term goals. To achieve this, and to ensure an effective production, the activities have gradually been organized according to Lean production. In the year of 2010 the producing part of the company began to use methods originating from Lean such as process orientation and standardization of work procedures. JM calls this Structured production. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how working according to Lean when producing apartment buildings interacts with a safe working environment. The goal is to investigate and identify problematic operations during the assembly of semi-prefabricated, non-bearing walls so-called perimeter walls. The method used is a time study conducted in spring of 2014 on construction sites in Stockholm. The exposure to vibrations from power tools on construction workers, when working according to the installation instructions applicable at JM’s building projects was examined. The study revealed that the action value determined by the Swedish Work Environment Authority was exceeded when installing perimeter walls according to the installation instructions. The conclusion is to extend measurements and medical surveillance of exposed operations and personnel. A package of equipment and materials to be used when installing perimeter walls is presented along with possible methodological improvements of the installation instructions.