The diploma thesis focuses on defining of characteristics of lean manufacturing company with a focus on continuous material flow in production. Specifies elements of a lean company and contains a proposal for a new layout and a proposal for reducing downtime between production batches.

This thesis examines and develops a proposed manufacturing system methodology and quality control for the design, planning, scheduling and implementation of the Thermiculite 866 high volume manufacturing line, through the use of Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management and Change Management principles. The concept under investigation extends to the analysis of flow production benefits and restrictions considering specific characteristics of the product. A novel factory design methodology is proposed to achieve required production volumes and cost effective implementation. Furthermore, high product quality levels are warranted by developing a Strategic Alignment of Quality Function Deployment which brings commercial awareness to the early stages in the product/process development, and reduces the time to market it whilst promoting long-term solutions. The process and the layout design are supported by a proposed Batch/Flow Comparative Matrix. As a result, the proposed factory design methodologies and management of change introduced in the organization led to a successful production system design as well as controlled implementation according to stakeholders requirements. The design and partial implementation of the Thermiculite 866 production line illustrates the effectiveness of the methodology proposed in this thesis to manage and design the equipment and quality for the future Thermiculite production line.

This thesis examines and develops a proposed manufacturing system methodology and quality control for the design, planning, scheduling and implementation of the Thermiculite 866 high volume manufacturing line, through the use of Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management and Change Management principles. The concept under investigation extends to the analysis of flow production benefits and restrictions considering specific characteristics of the product. A novel factory design methodology is proposed to achieve required production volumes and cost effective implementation. Furthermore, high product quality levels are warranted by developing a Strategic Alignment of Quality Function Deployment which brings commercial awareness to the early stages in the product/process development, and reduces the time to market it whilst promoting long-term solutions. The process and the layout design are supported by a proposed Batch/Flow Comparative Matrix. As a result, the proposed factory design methodologies and management of change introduced in the organization led to a successful production system design as well as controlled implementation according to stakeholders requirements. The design and partial implementation of the Thermiculite 866 production line illustrates the effectiveness of the methodology proposed in this thesis to manage and design the equipment and quality for the future Thermiculite production line. / Technology Strategy Board for the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2385.pdf: 3560559 bytes, checksum: 71e6c5c7aca71d06463f1bc0bc063005 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-27 / In the past decades companies around the world have implemented their concepts of Lean Manufacture (LM) with their main focus on business. Together with LM s implementation comes the need of continuous improvement as several sources and historical data volume originate from its processing. Whenever those historical data are, for any reason, discarded without generating indicators the oportunity of transforming data into strategic information is missed. Such situation brings about the need of an adequate performance measurement system of LM. Having this constant monitoring need of LM s performance in mind as a strategic mean for a company to achieve competitivity in the market, this paper aims to develop through Information Technology (IT) and the tools of Business Intelligence (BI) a proposal of managing performance indicators of LM present in shoe production, as an alternative to improve decision making. In order to develop this research, an overview of the literature of LM, BI, Information Systems (IS), performance indicators and shoe manufacturing from the basic concept of LM is offered that, on the other hand, has to do with cost reduction and total cut of waste. This study leads to the seven waste groups of LM, which, together with other published works, can guide and focus so as to reach indicators. By setting indicators and pointing strategy, and also collecting data, the next step is modelling and developing data load in dimentional format prepared to use BI s tools as On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP). Finally, the application is tested in a shoe industry with the load of waste indicator for over production. The final result of the research is a series of analyses of waste information for over production as well as the contribution of the proposed method in terms of easiness, flexibility and practical availability in companies. / Nas últimas décadas, empresas do mundo inteiro têm implementado os conceitos da Manufatura Enxuta (ME) com objetivo estratégico para os negócios. Conforme a manufatura enxuta é implementada, surge também a necessidade de melhoria contínua, e conseqüentemente aparecem várias fontes e volume de dados histórico advindos do seu processamento. Quando esses dados históricos por qualquer motivo são descartados sem gerar indicadores, é desperdiçada a oportunidade de transformar os dados em informação estratégica. Esta situação expõe a necessidade de um adequado sistema de medição de desempenho da manufatura enxuta. Entendendo esta necessidade de monitoramento constante do desempenho da Manufatura Enxuta (ME) como um fator estratégico para as empresas obterem competitividade no mercado; este trabalho busca desenvolver através da Tecnologia da Informação (TI) e das ferramentas de Business Intelligence (BI) uma proposta de gerenciamento de indicadores de desempenho da Manufatura Enxuta (ME) presentes na produção de calçados, como uma alternativa para melhorar a tomada de decisão. Para o desenvolvimento do trabalho foi feita uma revisão da literatura de Manufatura Enxuta (ME), Sistemas de Informação (SI), Business Intelligence (BI), indicadores de desempenho e manufatura de calçados com base no conceito da Manufatura Enxuta (ME), que é a redução de custo pela total eliminação de desperdícios. Isto leva aos sete grupos de desperdício da Manufatura Enxuta (ME), que por sua vez, em conjunto com outros trabalhos publicados, servem de guia e foco para encontrar os indicadores. Com a definição dos indicadores e a estratégia de apontamento e carga dos dados, o próximo passo é uma modelagem e desenvolvimento da carga dos dados em formato dimensional, preparado para utilização de ferramentas de Business Intelligence (BI) como On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP). Por último a aplicação é testada numa indústria de calçados com a carga do indicador de perda por super produção. O resultado final do trabalho é uma série de análises das informações de perda por superprodução, assim como a contribuição do método proposto em termos de facilidade, flexibilidade e viabilidade para uso prático nas empresas.

The diploma thesis focuses on the implementation of production management tools in the form of modern ICT technologies. The final solution, divided into software and hardware part, assists the company in applying the principles of lean manufacturing and the theory of constraints. The work includes a proposal that helps to increase enterprise productivity and eliminates excess inventory in the organization.

The world is changing rapidly for the engineering community. Sustainability in every sense has become the watchword¿in terms of product manufacture and performance, and responding to global market and environmental pressures. A well thought-out manufacturing strategy can help organisations make choices that support its overall business objectives, respond to new opportunities and challenges as they arise. However, manufacturing strategy configuration and deployment in SMME¿s is a neglected field in manufacturing strategy literatures. More importantly, the application of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and CIM strategies are said to be more applicable to batch production environments and large manufacturing organisations but not to SMMEs that operates a job shop type operating characteristics and with limited resource availability. With recognition that most of these methodologies were originally conceptualised and implemented in large manufacturing environments with batch and flow type manufacturing architecture, the need to develop solutions specific to SMME¿s with job shop type operating characteristics (tooling reclamation industry in particular) is imperative. The fundamental essence of this research is the development of an integrated manufacturing strategy which is based on Lean-Six Sigma-MRP-CADCAM methodologies at the case company. The framework for deploying this strategy is based on inputs from a business environment analysis, a lean strategic planning module (based on production planning and manufacturing/product cost structure analysis) and a lean resource planning interface that is predicated on value stream analysis and simulation models. The material and information flows of the case company manufacturing systems were studied. The approach taken emphasis the well know value engineering concepts of multiple-stage manufacturing system accumulating costs/time between individual stages as well as by transfer/material handling and work-in-process. The study shows that maximisation of capacity and resource utilisation, queue less work flow and flexible labour policies that support the case company¿s manufacturing system offer potential for reform which can substantially enhance customer service, product quality and overall improvement in investment returns. / NTR Ltd and KTP programme