Context. Network Function Virtualization was recently proposed by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to improve the network service flexibility by virtualization of network services and applications that run on hardware. To virtualize network functions, the software is decoupled from underlying physical hardware. NFV aims to transform industries by reducing capital investments on hardware by using commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. NFV makes rapid innovative growth in telecom services through software based service deployment. Objectives. This thesis work aims to investigate how business organizations function and the roles in defining a service relationship model. The work also aims to define a service relationship model and to validate it via proof of concept using network function virtualization as a service. For this thesis, we finally apply lean principles for the defined service relationship model to reduce waste and investigate how lean benefits the model to be proven as performance service oriented. Methods. The essence of this work is to make a business organization lean by investigating its actions and applying lean principles. To elaborate, this thesis work involves in a research of papers from IEEE, TMF, IETF and Ericsson. It results in modelling of a PoC by following requirement analysis methodology and by applying lean principles to eliminate unnecessary processes which doesn’t add any value. Results. The results of the work include a full-fledged service relationship model that include three service levels with roles that can fit in to requirement specifications of NFV infrastructure. The results also show the service levels functionalities and their relationships between the roles. It has also been observed that the services that are needed to be standardized are defined with syntax for ways to describe network functions. It is observed that lean principles benefit the service relationship model from reducing waste factors and hereby providing a PoC which is performance service oriented. Conclusions. We conclude that roles defined are fit for the service relationship model designed. Moreover, we conclude that the model can hence contain the flow of service by standardizing the subservices and reducing waste interpreted with lean principles and there is a need for further use case proof of the model in full scale industry trials. It also concludes the ways to describe network functions syntax which follows lean principles that are essential to have them for the sub-services standardization. However, PoC defined can be an assurance to the NFV infrastructure.

Context. Network Function Virtualization was recently proposed by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to improve the network service flexibility by virtualization of network services and applications that run on hardware. To virtualize network functions, the software is decoupled from underlying physical hardware. NFV aims to transform industries by reducing capital investments on hardware by using commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. NFV makes rapid innovative growth in telecom services through software based service deployment. Objectives. This thesis work aims to investigate how business organizations function and the roles in defining a service relationship model. The work also aims to define a service relationship model and to validate it via proof of concept using network function virtualization as a service. For this thesis, we finally apply lean principles for the defined service relationship model to reduce waste and investigate how lean benefits the model to be proven as performance service oriented. Methods. The essence of this work is to make a business organization lean by investigating its actions and applying lean principles. To elaborate, this thesis work involves in a research of papers from IEEE, TMF, IETF and Ericsson. It results in modelling of a PoC by following requirement analysis methodology and by applying lean principles to eliminate unnecessary processes which doesn’t add any value. Results. The results of the work include a full-fledged service relationship model that include three service levels with roles that can fit in to requirement specifications of NFV infrastructure. The results also show the service levels functionalities and their relationships between the roles. It has also been observed that the services that are needed to be standardized are defined with syntax for ways to describe network functions. It is observed that lean principles benefit the service relationship model from reducing waste factors and hereby providing a PoC which is performance service oriented. Conclusions. We conclude that roles defined are fit for the service relationship model designed. Moreover, we conclude that the model can hence contain the flow of service by standardizing the subservices and reducing waste interpreted with lean principles and there is a need for further use case proof of the model in full scale industry trials. It also concludes the ways to describe network functions syntax which follows lean principles that are essential to have them for the sub-services standardization. However, PoC defined can be an assurance to the NFV infrastructure.

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With the current global financial crisis, the uncertain economic outlook in South Africa and the pressure on financial institutions to operate more effectively and efficiently, there has been a significant shift in focus for banks in South Africa. This shift in focus entails placing greater emphasis on stream-lining internal operations, an increased focus on customer needs, and a superior service delivery in relation to competitors, in order to retain their existing customer base as well as to increase market share. Many organisations have adopted lean manufacturing as their approach to process optimisation and quality management, in an effort to improve their efficiency and value offering for customers. The objective of this research was to identify a financial institution in South Africa that has already adopted the lean approach, and to focus on the physical implementation of their lean projects so as to understand what the success factors are in this regard. This paper presents a detailed literature review, highlighting key success factors for the implementation of lean. The research questions are based on these factors. The report presents findings from 20 face-to-face interviews with subjects involved in the physical implementation of lean projects in the bank selected for the analysis. The paper reveals that the top five success factors for the successful implementation of lean projects are commitment and involvement from senior management; buy-in from staff that are being effected by the project; resources with the relevant and appropriate skills and competencies to execute the change, a culture focused on lean; and finally, for all parties involved to have a clear shared goal and understanding of what the project aims to deliver. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The main objective of the study was to ascertain the presence of the identified critical success factors for lean sustainability in a chemical manufacturing company in Port Elizabeth. The critical success factors that formed part of the research included leadership involvement and commitment, management involvement and commitment, employee engagement and organisational culture. The methodology used was one of a positivistic approach. A questionnaire was utilized and the responses were analyzed using various statistical methods. Based on the results from the analysis, recommendations and conclusions could be drawn. The inferential results of the study indicated that all the critical success factors identified for this study were present within the organisation. However, there were still a large percentage of respondents that remained neutral across all the questions which could indicate reasons why previous attempts in lean implementation failed. The recommendations provided were based on the findings of the study. An implementation strategy was identified and outlined. This strategy and recommendations will assist in providing a sound platform for a sustainable lean initiative within the organisation.

Competitiveness is crucial to achieving solid future national economics. A nation’s competitiveness reflects the extent to which it is able to provide increased prosperity to its citizens. Competitiveness can be defined to include the level of productivity of a country. This, in turn, sets the sustainability level of prosperity that can be achieved by an economy (Porter & Schwab, 2008). President Mbeki stated in the 2004 State of the Nation Address that “(South Africa) must continue to focus on the growth, development, and modernisation of the First Economy” (National Research Foundation, n.d.). The National Research Foundation (n.d.) claims that knowledge, innovation, and productivity, as well as optimal use of resources in the enterprise, are key to a competitive, sustainable growing economy. Firms involved in lean manufacturing do so to improve overall company performance in terms of productivity, efficiency, profitability and reducing costs. More than 90 per cent of these firms claim to be successful in achieving such goals. There is a clear association between the use of lean manufacturing and achieving higher productivity (Lucey, 2008a). Against this research and the claims made by the National Research Foundation it may be stated that lean manufacturing results will impact positively on an economy’s growth. AB Company will be evaluated in terms of the readiness and future sustainability of its lean transformation for the purposes of this study. It is anticipated that the results of this study will contribute toward reducing the risk of failure associated with a major lean transformation in the business.

El presente proyecto sobre el proceso de producción de películas plásticas nos muestra el problema del incremento de devoluciones de productos de una empresa que produce películas plásticas para empaques flexibles. Entre los factores que generan el incremento de devoluciones de productos de la empresa están los defectos de los films por la mala manipulación de materiales y, sobre todo, por el punto duro en las bobinas a causa del tiempo excesivo de setup de la extrusora haciendo que el cabezal se caliente y la extrusión no sea pareja. La extrusión es un proceso clave para la producción de los materiales plásticos; puesto que, transforma el polipropileno y los aditivos en láminas plásticas. Este retraso en los tiempos de preparación de la maquinaria por parte de los operarios genera el sobrecalentamiento del cabezal y; por lo tanto, productos defectuosos en la siguiente línea de producción que son devueltos a la empresa por los clientes. Con la finalidad de enfrentar este problema se desarrolla una propuesta utilizando la herramienta SMED de Lean Manufacturing para disminuir el tiempo de preparación de la extrusora y aumentar la productividad de la empresa. Para la validación de la propuesta se simula el sistema y la reducción del tiempo en el proceso de preparación de la máquina extrusora para el cambio de producción. / The present project show the problem of an increase in product returns for a company that produces plastic films for flexible packaging. Among the factors that have resulted in the increase of returned products are defects in the films caused by the poor manipulation of materials and, above all, the hard point in the coils caused by excessive extruder preparation time, causing the extrusion head to overheat as well as uneven extrusion. Extrusion is a key process in the production of plastic materials as it transforms polypropylene and additives into plastic sheets. The delay in the preparation time caused by machine operators leads to the overheating of the extrusion head and, therefore, defective products that are ultimately returned to the company by customers. In order to confront this problem, a proposal was developed using the SMED tool of Lean Manufacturing in order to reduce the preparation time of the extruder and to increase the productivity of the company. For the validation of the proposal, we simulated the system to determine the resulting reduction in extruder preparation time. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / In the Peruvian market there is a great demand for the improvement of the service and quality of the products, that is why many SMEs look for low-cost alternatives that allow them to optimize their activities and thus be able to assure the quality of the service. The problem is that there are many difficulties when implementing tools or techniques due to high costs or lack of knowledge, therefore a productivity model is proposed focused on six sigma and lean manufacturing methodologies in order to adapt the needs of SMEs with 4 phases can analyze, design, implement and monitor requirements in order to reduce mismanagement of service quality, cost savings and decrease product returns.

MSc (Enginnering), Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / In recent years companies have made increased use of Lean Manufacturing audits to measure the degree of Lean Manufacturing implementation within their organizations. Thereafter, a gap analysis highlights areas for improvement, which leads to increased Operational Performance. This approach may be flawed. The audit may measure Lean Manufacturing characteristics that are not beneficial or the Lean Manufacturing audit may be inaccurate due to auditor bias or inadequate scope. The result is frustration and a lack of belief in the effectiveness of Lean Manufacturing as a competitive strategy. This study tests the hypothesis that “Lean Manufacturing audits drive improvements in Operational Performance.” A sample company comprising sixty four organizations operating in a job shop and Batch operations management environment is used as a case study. The organizations manufacture and service high value added products for heavy industry. The Lean Manufacturing audit developed to assess the effectiveness of Lean Manufacturing audits in driving Operational Performance uses Lean Manufacturing characteristics commonly used in previous research. These characteristics include policy deployment, standardized work, visual management and housekeeping, quick changeover techniques, total preventative maintenance, continuous improvement, error proofing, cultural awareness, material control and level production. Commonly used Operational Performance measures such as On-Time-Delivery, Inventory turns and Direct Labour Utilization are used to assess Operational Performance. A range of independent auditors were used to gather data on the extent of implementation of Lean Manufacturing and Operational Performance measures. Structural Equation Modelling is used to relate the results of the Lean Manufacturing audits to Operational Performance. This is the first known paper to use Structural Equation Modelling in measuring the extent of implementation of Lean Manufacturing to Operational Performance. Lean Manufacturing audit results have a significant correlation to Operational Performance but with a high degree of variation in Operational Performance not accounted for by the results of the Lean Manufacturing audit. This variation is caused by the inadequate scope of the audit relative to Operational Performance measures as well as auditor bias. Lean Manufacturing audits are effective in driving improvements in Operational Performance provided that the scope of the audit is expanded to include office functions, supplier networks and customer and branch distribution networks. A recommended audit framework is suggested in this research. A large scale study of a number of different companies should be conducted to verify the results of this research using the audit framework developed.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Mecânica. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 2011