Abstract Today’s business environment involves a globalised market, greater than before competition and more challenging customers, all factors which contribute to higher uncertainty and variability. Manufacturing flexibility is becoming more important in order to cope with the complexity of products through frequency volume changes and evaluations of the technological requirements of products. The research for this thesis was performed within a subcontractor company, Laserkraft AB, who focus on laser cutting, turning and welding processes in their production. The company utilises a variety of volume and product mixes, which is in correlation with the objective of this study. The purpose of this research was to investigate the common source drivers in order to achieve volume and product mix flexibility on batch production systems. First, a literature review was conducted in order to build the framework of common source factors between volume and product mix flexibility. Then, a single case study was conducted to examine the outcomes of framework on batch production. In this case, qualitative techniques included interviews and an observation of the shop floor. The analysis of this study was conducted with empirical research on a case study and theoretical framework from literature. From the literature stand point; it was found that flexible manufacturing competencies (FMC) and strategic flexibility approaches are two main elements to determine internal source drivers between volume and product mix flexibility. The groups of common source factors were then analysed with respect to characteristics of batch production systems at the chosen company. A comparison between the framework and the empirical findings identified source drivers in order to achieve volume and product mix flexibility. Due to the limited nature of the study, all source factors that have an impact on achieving volume and product mix flexibility might not be presented in this thesis. Besides, it is difficult to generalise the result on a single case study. As a result, each organisation and industry refers to their product, process and type of layout, and requires a group of practices to achieve volume and product mix flexibility. This thesis concludes with the top three common source factors between volume and product mix flexibility such as: set-up time reduction, multi-trained employees and advanced manufacturing technology.

Estágio realizado na Bosch Car Multimedia e orientado pelo Eng.º Rui Braz / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

Estágio realizado na Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal e orientado pelo Eng.º Luís Lobo / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

The purpose of the present research study was to produce a global, cumulative model of number concept development for children between the ages of two and eight years old. The theoretical and methodological orientation of this study was greatly influenced by Richard Young's production system analysis of seriation by young children (Young, 1971, 1976) and by Newell's (1973) seminal paper, ‘You can't play twenty questions with nature and win’. The methodology used in this investigation thus was as follows. A series of complex number tasks encompassing many aspects of the concept of number were developed. Five children aged between three and seven years then were videotaped while performing some of these complex number tasks. From a detailed protocol analysis of the video-recordings, computer simulation models written in the production system language PSS3 (Ohlsson, 1979) were produced. Specific production system models were produced for each of following aspects of the children's number knowledge: (i) sharing of discrete quantities; (ii) comparison of shares; and (iii) conservation/addition/subtraction of number. These domain-specific models were based on the converging experimental evidence obtained from each of the children’s responses to variants of the complex number tasks. Each child thus received a different set of problems which were chosen systematically in order to clarify particular features of the child's abilities. After a production system model for each child had been produced within a domain, these models were compared and contrasted. From this analysis, developmental trends within the domain were identified and discussed. The research and educational implications of these developmental trends then were discussed. In the concluding parts of this study, the children's domain-specific production system models were cumulated into global, comprehensive models which accurately represented their behaviour in a variety of number tasks. These comprehensive models were compared and contrasted and general developmental trends in young children's number knowledge were identified and discussed.

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Today’s competitive global market has placed companies under great pressure and the focus on production systems has been more prominent. Although there are several claimed benefits with using frameworks in the development of production systems, companies are reluctant to use these. Consequently, a relevant question formulation is: Are frameworks in the development of production systems usable? The purpose with this thesis work was therefore to evaluate the usability of production system development frameworks (PSDFs) in practice. In order to achieve this purpose, two research questions were established: RQ1.  How can usability of frameworks be evaluated? RQ2.  How does the use of a framework contribute to the development of a new production system? In order to answer the posed research questions, Bellgran and Säfsten’s PSDF was used in the production system development (PSD) process of a new production system at Xylem. Based on the PSD process, a meta-study was performed to evaluate the practical usability of the PSDF. Usability was defined and evaluated based on the five usability terms learnability, memorability, efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. The result showed that all the five usability terms contribute to the usability evaluation of PSDFs. However, memorability was considered difficult to use on only one study since the user has to think a step further and make a qualified guess to answer if it is possible to memorize a framework. Therefore, it was considered memorability is only appropriate to use in a multiple study. The results also showed that Bellgran and Säfsten’s PSDF contributed most in the beginning of the PSD process by putting emphasis on the planning phase and providing a structure to follow. Due to the nature of a framework (i.e., to serve as a guide for structures to follow), this was not unexpected. However, the contributions from a structure or plan are hard to exactly distinguish. Since companies most often want tangible and accurate evidences, frameworks’ vague contributions are considered to be a major reason to why companies do not use frameworks more frequently.

Purpose: The main purpose is to investigate how the two companies in a cross-national context pursue innovation particularly in the process of achieving eco-innovations practices in manufacturing operation Method: An in-depth interviewing approach was used conducting a face-to-face interview and an online video conference. Research question: " What are the key differences in the process of achieving eco-innovations in the production systems between two household refrigerator manufacturing companies in a cross-national context? " Sub-questions: 1. Why do the companies pursue eco-innovations? 2. How do the companies manage eco-innovations? 3. Who in the companies is involved in achieving eco-innovations? 4. What measurements are used to determine the success of eco-innovations? Findings: The results suggest that the organizations in each country respond to different demand and orientation. They also deploy differences in approach and involving actors towards achieving eco-innovation journey Limitations While the findings are induced from a case study of two companies in a particular industry in Thailand and Sweden, the generalizability of the findings is somehow limited

In the competitive world of manufacturing, the companies would like to produce their products at reduced price and superior quality. In the production system, the company faces many problems during the production of their products. Over the past years the manufacturing industry follows suitable techniques in their production system for the improvements in production. Still, companies are in search for new technology or techniques to improve their production in radical ways during a short period of time. Many researchers have discussed the development of production system through continuous improvements. Techniques like lean, kaizen etc are implemented in the production system but the effect of these techniques is realized in production unit only after many years. Kaikaku is another technique in lean production which occurs in a radical way to eliminate waste to provide a greater value. It is a radical process improvement which takes place in short period of time. Kaikaku is normally used when Kaizen techniques are not providing enough positive results to keep an organization effective. Still, radical improvements often need capital investment. It is often focused on introducing new technology, new strategies, or completely new production system. This main objective of this thesis is to understand and analyze the production system development process in manufacturing industries and suggest how it is effective to keep an organization competitive. The basic conception and research aid of various authors are explained in the theoretical framework, and is done for the enhanced understanding of the reader and also a new conceptual theory structure framework is done to introduce the new concept of process innovation for radical improvements in the company. The proposed structure framework can help companies to practice the process innovation in the production system for development in short period of time.  Based on the conceptual structure and relevant theoretical understandings, the interview questions are framed and case companies are analyzed for the process improvements and process innovation performance in the production system. The empirical data is collected from case companies through interviews. With the help of empirical results and the related theoretical results, an analysis and discussion is made which clearly explains about the problems faced in the production system and how they can be solved through in a radical way.

After signing ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement), all of the fundamental industries of Taiwan are going to face the serious impact. As a result, Refractory Industry can¡¦t skip out the pool. Although refractory industry still undercover by government policy, Chinese products are going to sweep across Taiwan market with price advantage after Taiwan and China government signed the significant economic agreement. Some companies consider reducing cost and improve quality via automatic manufacturing procedures. However, the further question is that can automation really improve the producing efficiency and reduce manpower demand? That will be the main discussion subject of this research. The research concentrates on the planning, construction and actual benefit contrasting of press machine in six months and take 6 Sigma and TPS (Toyota Production System) as the research method. We estimate that reasonable investment can create producing efficiency. We are going to compare the benefits of same press machine with and without automatic manufacturing procedure and also different types of press machine to produce same product in same condition at the same period. This research demonstrated that partial equipment automation or single old equipment automation doesn¡¦t really increase the production efficiency. The result of decreasing the cost of production, such as the cost of manpower, is not notable. In order to achieve the objective goal, we still need to inspect the whole manufacturing procedure, equipment assembling in detail, and arrange the perfect combination of people and machines, then the most synergy could be happened. As for the manufacture management concept and practice, we should abandon fixed frame, thought, and keep manufacture procedure improving. All in all, the improvement of concept and practice, the effect could be far over the benefit of auto equipment, the cost could be much lower than the investments of the equipments. Replacing the manpower by mechanical arms, it indeed reaches the goal of few staff trend and lowers the accident ratio. Few staff environment will cause the operator¡¦s working stability, improve the phenomenon of losing labor.