The Production Manager at Atlas Copco AB Craelius wants to adopt a lean approach to become more competitive. This thesis is an exploratory study of the subject and what it means for the business activity and its implementation process. The objective is to provide a basic understanding of lean to the company, and what this means for Atlas Copco AB Craelius. The report describes the industrial revolution in brief. This is because the company itself must understand where certain ways of looking at production management is derived from. Furthermore, it provides an understanding of Lean's origins. The report describes lean principles and outline, some of the lean tools and methods as well as what these mean for Atlas Copco Craelius AB. The focus of the report is on education and the importance of management's knowledge and understanding of the subject. At the end of the report an adequate but overall implementation program is presented as well as a few examples of possible improvements. The thesis is based on a basic literature review of production management and lean. To get a general understanding of the business, I studied the assembly for a few days, talked to the staff, participated in the daily pulse meetings and participated in the production office Friday meetings. I did a study at Atlas Copco Tools AB to learn how they managed the implementation of lean there. Furthermore, personal experience from previous training, work and study has influenced the report.

Estágio realizado na General Electric e orientado pelo Eng.º João Gonçalves / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Background: There are various manufacturing methods and systems in automobile industries throughout the world. Of these, many practice lean manufacturing methods. The most effective and influential to all of these methods is the “Toyota Production System” (TPS). The TPS was invented by Toyota's founding fathers in 1930 in Japan. The TPS continuously evolves making it a benchmark for the manufacturing, product development or any other sector of industry. It is fully based on “Socio-Technical” systems in a continuously changing manufacturing environment. It is about learn through doing and also about tacit knowledge and not explicit procedural knowledge. Outcome: The Toyota Production System is called “The Toyota Way” and it actually gives you a roadmap or more of a compass to set your direction and helps you steer your own course. Toyota has internally developed simple but effective tools and consistently trains their team members to implement those in all aspects of manufacturing and designing their vehicle. For example, Toyota has developed Kaizen or continuous improvement through which they eliminate waste that adds cost without adding value no matter how small it is. Toyota is known for the quality of their products. Not surprisingly their product is made at a significantly lower price within a given segment of the auto market. It is a result of hard work, innovation, and a Japanese work culture of generations at Toyota all across the world. Conclusions: Through theoretical analysis backed by my personal observations as an employee and from the sales figures of Toyota automobiles, I firmly believe that Toyota backs up its philosophy of long term benefits over short term financial goals. The right processes will produce right results. It is also one of the top companies among their group of long term suppliers as Toyota challenges them and helps them to improve. Initial quality and customer satisfaction surveys of J.D.Powers and Associates for Toyota and Lexus vehicles have won numerous awards since 2001. / text

Estágio realizado na Bosch Portugal, S. A. e orientado pelo Eng.º Nelson Ré / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Mecânica. 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

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.

When the profit is compressed by the cost, quality, delivery, efficiency and flexibility in the tranditional industries, it is always the focus for the academic community and the field about how to build up two basic forces of competition: ¡§quick response¡¨ and ¡§competitive advantage¡¨ in the trends toward continuously short life cycle of product and extremely small amount yet many varieties of product. Applying lean production with ¡§small quantity yet most variety¡¨ to the activities of business operation is expected to create a highly lean and refined enterprise through the process of management in the company operation and to make more benefits to reach the goal of business and survive in the field. This research discusses if ¡§customer participatation¡¨, ¡§the relations with suppliers¡¨ and ¡§the management technique of organization¡¨ quoted from the the management concepts of lean production influence manufacturing efficiency and also treats the correlation between them. Furthermore, it verifies the difference between each dimension of management concept of lean production mentioned above with the organization performance. It takes the tranditional manufacturing industry in Taiwan as the objects of sampling and collects the cognitions of the interviewed on the three measuring dimensions including relation with suppliers, the management technique of organization, and customer participatation to the agreement degree for the execution inside organization and also the agreement degree to suppliers. The raw data are verified by SPSS software package and we get some conclusions below: There is remarkable positive influence between the suppliers with lean production and manufacturing performance. The factor of suppliers¡¦ participation has direct influence, and the next is information feedback from suppliers. But no direct influence existed to those suppliers with JIT delivery. There is remarkable positive influence between the management technique of organization and manufacturing performance. We find direct positive effect between manufacturing process SPC and employees¡¦ participation EMP. But there is no remarkably direct influence to ¡§Pull production¡¨, ¡§Continuous production process¡¨, ¡§ Shorten preparing time¡¨ and ¡§Total production maintenance¡¨. However, the influences of ¡§ Shorten preparing time¡¨, ¡§Total production maintenance¡¨ are bigger than ¡§Pull production¡¨ and ¡§Continuous production process¡¨. There is remarkable positive influence between the customers with lean production and manufacturing performance. Mainly direct influence effect for customer participation exists but no direct influence effect for information feedback from suppliers relatively. There is remarkable positive influence between the suppliers with lean production and customers¡¦ participation. The study finds that there is direct influence effect for information feedback from suppliers and customers¡¦ participation. Second are suppliers¡¦ participation and suppliers with JIT delivery. The result of this research provides managers in the manufacturing industry a path to improve the manufacturing performance of company by undertaking 5 remarkable indexes: (1) Suppliers¡¦ participation, (2) Information feedback from suppliers, (3) Management of manufacturing process, (4) Employees participation, (5) Customers¡¦ participation. Enhancing the relations with suppliers as well as customer participation, and upgrading management technique of organization will effectively improve the quality and delivery performance for the suppliers. Also it improves the manufacturing performance, and promotes the satisfication level of customers to increase enterprise¡¦s competition at last.

This study consists of two studies around Lean. The studies are limited to two databases and three different sectors, the industry sector where Lean originated from, and the welfare and service sectors. The first study is a quantitative pilot study on published articles. The purpose was to get an understanding of what extent the different sectors get published, compared to each other. The result was illustrated in a graph where 40 articles per year were proportionally divided between the three sectors. The main study is a literature review where a scoring matrix was used to cull the selected articles. The remaining articles where compared to the “Toyota house” to answer the research questions: In what way has the definition of Lean changed from the manufacturing-based improvement philosophy it originated as, to the concept that is used in different sectors today? How does the specific sector affect the implementation of Lean, is there a difference in the Lean that is described in the literature compared to the Lean that is used in the welfare or service sectors? The study found in the chosen literature is that the sectors that are new at using Lean are using less of the tools available and in a smaller part of the organization, instead of using it on the whole organization. Many case studies where found that describes what tool was used, but not how they were used. One sector with many published articles was the construction sector, but they were overlooked due to the limitations of the study. / Denna studie består av två undersökningar kring Lean. Undersökningarna är begränsade till två databaser samt tre branscher, industribranschen där Lean grundades samt välfärds- och tjänstebranschen. Först gjordes en kvantitativ förstudie av publicerade artiklar för att få en uppfattning kring hur många andelar av de olika branscherna artiklarna bestod av. Resultatet visades i form av en graf där 40 artiklar från varje år delades upp i de tre branscherna. Efter det gjordes en litteraturstudie med en bedömningsmatris för en utgallring av artiklar. Utvalda artiklar jämfördes därefter mot ”toyotahuset” för att svara på forskningsfrågorna: På vilket sätt har definitionen av Lean förändrats från den produktionsbaserade förbättringsfilosofin det ursprungligen var, till det uttryck som används i flera olika branscher idag? Hur påverkar branschen implementeringen av Lean, skiljer sig det Lean som beskrivs i litteraturen mot det Lean som används i välfärds- eller tjänstesektorn? Det vi kunde hitta i den utvalda litteraturen var att de branscher som är nya med Lean använder färre verktyg och på mindre delar av sin organisation istället för att göra implementeringen på hela organisationen. Vi hittade många ”case studies” som berättar att det använt verktyg men inte hur verktygen har använts. En bransch som det hittades mycket artiklar om men som sållades bort på grund av avgränsningen var Lean construction.

Inom byggbranschen är det av vikt att hitta arbetssätt som på lång sikt sänker byggkostnaderna för att på så sätt kunna producera en vara som kräver mindre förbrukning av resurser men som även fortsätter vara konkurrenskraftig. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur medarbetarna vid Skanskas byggprojekt "Trädgårdarna" i Boglundsängen, Örebro kommun, arbetar för att minimera slöserier (icke värdeskapande aktiviteter). Syftet är även att identifiera vanliga slöserier som förekommer, både generellt på byggarbetsplatser men i synnerhet på byggprojektet "Trädgårdarna", samt att slutligen komma med förslag på åtgärder för att mini-mera dessa slöserier. Arbetet grundar sig på en kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer och obser-vationer. När detta arbete skrevs var produktionen i ett tidigt stadie. Arbetets resultat påvisar att det finns både styrkor och brister gällande hur arbetet på "Trädgårdarna" fortskrider. Även fast produktionen i skrivandets stund inte har kommit så långt på projektet framkommer det av resultatet att personalen värdesätter ordning och reda och försöker upprätthålla detta genom olika tillvägagångssätt. Överlag arbetar personalen bra med att minska slöserier på arbets-platsen. De slöserier som har uppstått beror främst på brister i projekteringen och/eller produktionsplaneringen. För att minska slöserierna och upprätthålla ett effektivt arbetssätt är det av stor vikt att ha en genomarbetad projektering, genomföra arbetsberedningar på så många moment som möjligt, ha god ordning och reda på arbetsplatsen, ta tillvara på personalens kunskap och engagemang samt att utnyttja någon form av samordnad leverans för att minimera lagerhållningen och väntetiderna. / In the construction industry it is important to find ways of working that in the long term lowers construction costs so as to produce a product that requires less consumption of resources, but which also continues to be competitive. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how employees at Skanska's construction project "Trädgårdarna" in Boglundsängen, Örebro, work to minimize wastes (non value-adding activities). It also seeks to identify common wastes that occur, both generally on construction sites but in particular on the building project "Trädgårdarna", and finally to come up with suggestions on measures to minimize these wastes. This thesis is based on a qualitative method in the form of interviews and observations. When this thesis was written production was at an early stage. The results of this thesis demonstrate that there are both strengths and weaknesses regarding how work on "Trädgårdarna" is pro-gressing. Although the production was in an early stage, during the time of writing this thesis, the results show that the staff appreciates orderliness at their workplace and try to maintain this through different means. Overall, the staff work well to reduce wastage in the workplace. The wastes which have arisen primarily did so due to deficiencies in the design and/or production planning. To reduce the wastage rate and maintain an effective work it is of great importance to have a well-planned design, to implement work preparations as frequently as possible, to have an orderly workplace, to take advantage of the staff's knowledge and commitment and to use some form of coordinated delivery system to minimize inventory and waiting times.

Syfte: Branschen tampas fortfarande med kvalitetsbrister och har därför börjat uppmärksamma de fördelar som följer med industriellt byggande och standardiserade arbetsprocesser. Med industriella arbetsprocesser kan företagen ge frihet till arbetare att få ansvara för de arbetsprocesser som de medverkar i, och således bidra till att de förbättrar lösningar och standardiseringar. Ett koncept som lämpar sig väldigt väl för detta är The Toyota Production system (TPS), också kallat Lean production. År 2016 utfördes en samling fallstudier bland Lean-arbetande byggföretag där de visade att kvalitet och strävan efter standardiserade arbetsprocesser var högt prioriterat. Lean production och dess processer i företag omfattar informations – och kunskapsöverföringar och kan vara svårt att tillämpa. Därför motiveras vidare forskning på tillämpbarheten av principerna och dess verktyg i byggföretag. Studiens mål är att analysera hur företag inom prefabindustrin som arbetar med Lean kan utveckla sitt förbättringsarbete i produktionsprocessen. Metod: Rapporten är en kvalitativ fallstudie utförd på Ulricehamns Betong AB. Studiens datainsamlingsmetoder har varit litteraturstudier, deltagande observationer, semistrukturerade intervjuer och dokumentanalyser. Resultat: Utifrån studiens analys kunde vissa problem i förbättringsarbetet identifieras, samt leda till en analys över hur det förbättras och göras mer kunskapsdelande. Det framkom att inställningen till förbättringsarbete varierade stort bland medarbetarna. En gemensam syn på förbättringsarbetets betydelse krävs för fortsatt utveckling, något som kan uppmuntras från organisationens håll tydligare. Genom rollen som handledare kan företag säkra att det arbetas efter standardiserade arbetssätt. Konsekvenser: Avgörande för ett kunskapsdelande och utvecklande förbättringsarbete är att alla medarbetare är motiverade till att bidra till en förbättring. För att motivera medarbetarna bör statusen på individuell kunskap följt av inställning till kunskapsdelande att höjas. Medarbetare ska ha tillgång till kontinuerliga förbättringsmöten eller andra forum där de kan utbyta erfarenheter och idéer. Begränsningar: Fallstudien har genomförts på ett företag som använder sig av Lean-konceptet. Studien begränsas till att endast behandla förbättringsarbete i produktionen av prefabricerade betongelement.  Studien redogör alltså inte för hur andra prefab-företags förbättringsprocesser ser ut i produktionen. / Purpose: The industry is still struggling with reoccurring deficits regarding quality and has therefore began to pay attention what benefits that comes with an industrial building process. With industrial building processes the companies using it can let the workers be in charge of their work processes that they find themselves in and thus help to improve and standardise them. A concept that fits these conditions very well is The Toyota production system (TPS), also known as Lean production. In the year 2016 several studies were made that showed that among Lean working construction companies it was the reach for higher quality and standardised working processes that was prioritized. Lean production and its processes contains a lot of information- and knowledge transfers and may be hard to practice in a company. Therefore further studies on how to implement these principles and tools properly are recommended. The aim with this study is to analyse how companies in the precast industry who works with Lean can evolve their continuous improvement process in the production process.   Method: This report is a qualitative case study accomplished at Ulricehamns Betong AB. The chosen methods on how to collect data are literature studies, participating observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Findings: From the analysis of this study some problems in the improvement process could be identified, but also how they could be improved and how they could be more knowledge sharing. It was shown that the will to participate in the improvement process did varied a lot among the co-workers. A common attitude for the importance of the improvement process is needed for the continuous development, something that can be more encouraged by the organisation. Through the implementation of a mentor the company can ensure that the production process is more standardised. Implications: The number one thing that is most important for an evolving and knowledge sharing improvement process is that the co-workers stay motivated to participate. To motivate them, the status of individual knowledge should be raised and heard. Furthermore they should have access to continuous improvement meetings or other forums where they can exchange experiences and ideas. Limitations: The case study has been accomplished at a company that are using the Lean concept. The study limits to only study the improvement process in the production process of precast concrete elements. Furthermore the study is focused on how one specific company uses their improvement process and not how other companies uses theirs.