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No / Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) are designed based on the current and future requirements of the market and the manufacturing system (MS). The first stage of designing an RMS at the tactical level is the evaluation of economic and manufacturing/operational feasibility. Because of risk and uncertainty in an RMS environment, this major task must be performed precisely before investment in the detailed design. The present paper highlights the importance of manufacturing capacity and functionality for the feasibility of an RMS design during reconfiguration processes. Due to uncertain demands of product families, the RMS key-design factors, i.e. capacity value, functionality degree and reconfiguration time, are characterized by the identified fuzzy sets. Consequently, an integrated structure of the analytical hierarchical process and fuzzy set theory is presented. The proposed model provides additional insights into a feasibility study of an RMS design by considering both technical and economical aspects. The fuzzy analytical hierarchical process model is examined in an industrial case study by means of Expert Choice software. Finally, the fuzzy multicriteria model is sensitively analysed within the fuzzy domains of those attributes, which are considered to be critical for the case study.

Examensarbetet inleddes med en förstudie där olika förbättringsområden inom organisationen identifierades. Kommunikation i praktiken kan liknas vid ett förstärkningsverktyg vilket påverkar de vanligaste faktorerna för ett lyckat förändringsarbete. Idag måste en ledare och chef vara kommunikativ och det fungerar inte längre med att peka med hela handen. Medarbetarna måste förstå sin chef och ledare och det måste finnas ett samspel mellan dem. För att chefer och ledare ska styra förändringsprocessen behövs kommunikation. Syfte med examensarbetet är att undersöka hur kommunikationsprocessen kan användas som styrmedel mot en social förändring. Målet med examensarbetet är att beskriva kommunikation för förändring på Volvo i Olofström och att identifiera förbättringsområden inom organisationen. Examensarbetets avsikt är att undersöka olika synvinklar ur kommunikation, ledarskap och förbättringar kring en förändringsprocess. De slutsatser som examensarbetet visar är att kommunikationsprocessen kan användas som styrmedel via information, kommunikation, möten och genom dialog. Kommunikation måste ske via chef och ledare och visuellt ledarskap. Kommunikation innebär att i dialog tala med varandra. Förbättringsarbetet som påbörjats bör fortsätta som del i organisationens förändringsarbete. Utifrån målbeskrivningen - Hur ledare kommunicerar för att uppnå förändringsmål visar resultat att chef/ledare ansvarar för kommunikations-processen när det gäller planering och genomförande av förändring i en arbetsgrupp. Organisationen kan då se chef/ledare som en förändringsledare. Förändringens resultat påverkas av hur kommunikationen genomförs. Förändring och utveckling sker via kommunikation och dialog i en samverkan. Utifrån målbeskrivningen – Hur kommunikation kan leda medarbetare mot förändring bör chef/ledare börja med att diskutera och kommunicera vad det innebär att gå från ett läge till ett annat läge i en LEAN förändring. Vidare visar resultat att chef/ledare behöver studera innebörden av resultat via analys och diskussion men framför allt vad det innebär att ge support och feedback. Strategisk kommunikation kan vara den del som saknas då kommunikation inte förstås. Utifrån målbeskrivningen – Hur Kommunikationen påverkas av LEAN ledarskap på Volvo Personvagnar AB Karosskomponenter (VCBC) noteras i resultatdelen att förändring och ledarskap inte kopplas ihop. Då kan chef/ledare inte utveckla kommunikationsprocessen mot en social förändring. / This thesis work began with a pre-study which intended to identify areas of improvement within the organization. Communication in practice is like a strengthening tool, which affects the most common factors for successful change management. Today, a manager must be communicative; just to point out the direction is not longer working. Employees must understand their manager and leader, and there must be an interaction between them. For managers to guide the change process communications is needed. The purpose of the thesis work is to investigate how the communication process can be used as instruments of social change. The goal of the project is to describe the communication of change at Volvo in Olofström and to identify areas for improvement within the organization. The intention is to examine different perspectives from communication, leadership and improvement on a process of change. The conclusions of the thesis work are that the communication process can be used as instruments through information, communication, meetings, and through dialogue. Communication goes through the manager and leader, and visual management. Communication means dialogue and to talk to each other.  The Improvement work which has started should be continued as part of the organization's change process. The central part of - How leaders communicate in order to achieve the goals of implementation. The responsibility of the communication process lies with the manager / leader for planning and implementing of the change in a workgroup. The organization can see the manager / leader as a leader of change. The results of implementation are affected by how communication is carried out. Change and development is done through communication and dialogue in an interaction. The central part of - How communication can lead people through implementation and development. It is up to the manager / leader to begin to discuss and communicate the meaning of transformation in a LEAN implementation. Furthermore the manager / leader need to study the implications of the results through analysis and discussion, but above all what it means to give support and feedback. Strategic communication can be the part that is missing when communication is not to be interpreted. The central part of - How communication is affected by LEAN leadership at Volvo Cars Body Components (VCBC). Found in the results is that change and leadership can’t connect to each other. In this case manager / leader do not develop the communication process of social change.

Today’s global market and growing competition set an increasing strain to manufacturing companies. Shorter product lifecycles automatically lead to shorter production ramp up periods and, therefore, set a higher strain on the manufacturing systems. The concept of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) was developed in the early 1990s and has now gained more interest than ever. An RMS is designed to quickly respond to changes in market demand, by adapting its functionality as well as its capacity to the current market requirements. In order to achieve this, an RMS is characterised by six core characteristics: modularity, integrability, diagnosability, convertibility, scalability and customisation. By complying with these characteristics, the manufacturing system can meet the required responsiveness to functionality and capacity changes. Academia has been focusing on the development and design of new RMSs, however, there is a lack in research on converting existing manufacturing systems towards reconfigurability. Additionally, few models assessing a manufacturing system’s current state in terms of reconfigurability are available in literature. The existing reconfigurability assessment models were proven to be rather theoretical and difficult to use by practitioners in industry. Therefore, the need for a reconfigurability assessment model applicable in industry arose. This study focuses on the analysis of enablers of a reconfigurability manufacturing systems as well as on assessing the reconfigurability of an existing manufacturing system in an industrial setting. For this purpose, a detailed reconfigurability assessment model has been developed, based on literature studies and a case study at a case company. A focus of the development of the model has been set on usability in industry. The outcome was an assessment model developed in Microsoft Excel that gives an overview on the reconfigurability of each characteristic as well as the manufacturing system’s overall reconfigurability. The model was subsequently tested and verified at the case company. The final reconfigurability assessment model is presented and explained at the end of this study. This study shows, that through the use of theory about RMS and input from industry it was possible to develop a current state assessment model regarding reconfigurability. To make the model generalisable and adaptable to different industrial settings, further testing in different manufacturing fields and research within RMS is required. / CARV

A necessidade de aumento de produção, da redução de custos e do aumento da qualidade de bens de consumo, tem motivado a constante evolução dos sistemas de produção, migrando os tradicionais sistemas de produção para os modernos e complexos sistemas de manufatura, onde a performance depende da eficiência dos equipamentos e do controle do processo. Por outro lado, a eficiência dos equipamentos depende de sua confiabilidade e manutenabilidade. Neste trabalho a análise de performance é avaliada com o uso de Rede de Petri p-t-Temporizada e através de simulações, incluindo a avaliação da confiabilidade do processo pela análise da otimização da saída do sistema, isto é, quantidade de itens produzidos. Nesta abordagem, uma lógica linear foi desenvolvida e validada utilizando-se uma comparação de resultados das classes de estados do algoritmo proposto com a ferramenta de simulação Tina para um modelo de um esquema produtor consumidor. Apresenta-se um estudo de caso na indústria automotiva, consistindo na análise dos problemas reais enfrentados em uma fábrica de carrocerias, com o uso da Rede de Petri p-t-Temporizada. / The necessity of growing in production, with reduction of costs and improvement in the quality of consumption good, has motivated the constant evolution of production systems, transforming traditional production systems into the modern and complex manufacturing systems, where the performance depends on the efficiency of the equipment and process control. On the other hand, the equipment efficiency depends of their reliability and maintainability. In this work it is proposed a performance evaluation and analysis with the use of p-t- Timed Petri Nets using simulations, including process reliability analysis of the system through the throughput optimization, i.e., produced amount of goods. In this approach, a linear logic statement was developed and validated using a comparison of results of classes of states between the Tina simulation environment and the algorithm considered for a model of a producing consuming system. A case study in the automotive industry is presented, consisting of the analysis of the real problems found in a body shop plant, with the use of Timed Petri Net.

This master’s thesis focusing on design of technological workplaces layout in the workshop of trading and manufacturing company, which offers range of industrial gaskets. The main part of thesis is a detailed analysis, which includes description of the production processes and system in workshop of surface finishes that is scheduled for modernization of spaces. On the basis of this analysis will be using selected methods recommended solutions, which will help decide what types of production equipment purchase and how to deploy technology work in new premises.

I den tillverkande industrin ställer idag kunder krav på korta leveranstider samtidigt som de tillverkande företagen ser tid som en begränsad resurs. Detta innebär att företag tvingas fokusera på att reducera ledtiden och däribland produktionsledtiden. Vid tillverkning av kundanpassade produkter finns inte möjligheten att hålla lager för att snabbt kunna besvara kunders efterfrågan och därför måste dessa företag sträva efter att effektivisera sina processer för att reducera ledtiden. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur ledtiden kan reduceras i ett produktionssystem för kundanpassade produkter. Två frågeställningar har upprättats för att uppfylla syftet: 1. Vilka möjliga orsaker finns till långa ledtider i ett produktionssystem som tillverkar kundanpassade produkter? 2. Hur kan långa ledtider reduceras i ett produktionssystem som tillverkar kundanpassade produkter? För att kunna besvara dessa två frågeställningar har författarna genomfört en fallstudie samt litteraturstudier. I fallstudien har observationer, intervjuer, dokumentstudier samt en följesedel använts för att samla in empiri. Empirin har strukturerats, bl.a. i en värdeflödeskarta, och sedan analyserats mot teori som tagits fram i de litteraturstudier som genomförts. I den analys författarna genomfört har hög nivå av PIA identifierats som huvudorsak till lång ledtid. Vidare har en djupare analys bidragit till att författarna kunnat utröna underliggande orsaker till uppbyggnaden av PIA, fem i fallstudien och fyra i litteraturstudierna. De underliggande orsakerna författarna identifierade både i fallstudien och i litteraturstudierna var varierande materialflöden, pushbaserad materialstyrning, flaskhals och partiformning. Den femte identifierade orsaken i fallstudien var prioriteringsregler. Författarna har sedan tagit fram lösningsalternativ för respektive orsak och därefter diskuterat vilka lösningsalternativ som bäst kunde tillämpas i det studerade produktionssystemet. De lösningsalternativ som valts för att eliminera respektive orsak är omläggning av materialflöden för att minska variationerna, implementering av CONWIP för huvudflödet genom produktionssystemet, eliminering av flaskhals genom att tillämpa ett extra skift för denna maskin, användning av FIFO som prioriteringsregel samt tillämpning av överlappning för batcher av höga kvantiteter. Genom att tillämpa dessa förändringar anser författarna att ledtiden i det studerade produktionssystemet kan reduceras. / In the manufacturing industry today, customers require short lead times at the same time that manufacturing companies consider time as a scarce resource. This means that companies are forced to focus on reducing lead time, including production lead time. When manufacturing customized products there is not possible to keep stock to quickly answer customer demand and therefore, these companies strive to streamline their processes to reduce lead time. The purpose of this study is to examine how the lead time can be reduced in a manufacturing system for customized products. Two issues have been established to answer the purpose of this study: 1. What are the possible reasons for long lead time in a manufacturing system that produces customized products? 2. How can long lead times in a manufacturing system that produces customized products be reduced? In order to answer these two questions, the authors conducted a case study and literature reviews. In the case study observations, interviews, document studies, and a delivery note have been used to collect empirical data. The empirical data have been structured, for example in a value stream map, and then analyzed on theory developed in the conducted literature studies. In the conducted analysis the authors identified a high level of WIP as the main cause of the long lead time. Furthermore, a deeper analysis contributed by the authors have been able to determine the underlying causes for the development of WIP, in the case study five causes were identified and in the literary studies four causes. The underlying causes identified by the authors in the case study as well as in the literature studies were material flow variation, push-based material handling, bottleneck and lot sizing. The fifth identified cause in the case study was priority rules. The authors then developed optional solutions for each cause and then discussed the different solutions that could be applied in the manufacturing system the authors studied. The chosen solution for eliminating each cause is reduce diversion of material flows to reduce variability, implementation of CONWIP for the main flow through the manufacturing system, eliminating the bottleneck by applying an extra shift for this machine, using the FIFO priority rule and the application of overlapping batches of high quantities. By applying these changes, the authors consider that the lead time in the studied manufacturing system can be reduced.