<p>The after market is of great importance of a company’s competitiveness and an increasing part of its revenues can be derived from it. Remanufacturing, in focus of this thesis, is a great business opportunity and the European market has an enormous growth potential. In the USA it is a major business and the automotive industry, targeted in this thesis, sells approximately 60 million remanufactured automotive products compared to 15 million products in Europe for an equivalent stock of vehicles</p><p>Compared to manufacturing, the remanufacturing environment is a more complex business due to the high degree of uncertainty in the production process, mainly caused by two factors: the quantity and quality of returned cores. Overall, seven characteristics that make the remanufacturing material flow harder to control have been identified. Emerging in the 1990’s the concept of Lean production is a well-known method for improving the manufacturing capabilities of a company. Lean production, which is said to increase productivity, decrease lead-time and costs and enhance quality, is widely adopted.</p><p>In this thesis, the purpose is to explore what characteristics of the remanufacturing environment that can hinder the implementation of Lean production principles of material flows and how Lean principles can be employed in a remanufacturing environment.</p><p>In accordance, the theories of Lean production and Remanufacturing are used and the research methodology chosen that of a case study. To assess material flow, the production flows of five major product groups in a car engine are assessed. For the collection of data, Value Stream Mapping (VSM) methodology has been used.</p><p>The main result about material flows and how Lean principles can be employed in a remanufacturing environment have resulted in eight generic proposals. The main conclusion from these proposals is that the inherent characteristics of variable processing times and uncertainty in materials recovered have major negative impact for implementing a lean production process. Vice versa, given an accurate supply of parts for reassembly, all the principles of Lean production can be fully implemented in the phases of reassembly and testing.</p>

The after market is of great importance of a company’s competitiveness and an increasing part of its revenues can be derived from it. Remanufacturing, in focus of this thesis, is a great business opportunity and the European market has an enormous growth potential. In the USA it is a major business and the automotive industry, targeted in this thesis, sells approximately 60 million remanufactured automotive products compared to 15 million products in Europe for an equivalent stock of vehicles Compared to manufacturing, the remanufacturing environment is a more complex business due to the high degree of uncertainty in the production process, mainly caused by two factors: the quantity and quality of returned cores. Overall, seven characteristics that make the remanufacturing material flow harder to control have been identified. Emerging in the 1990’s the concept of Lean production is a well-known method for improving the manufacturing capabilities of a company. Lean production, which is said to increase productivity, decrease lead-time and costs and enhance quality, is widely adopted. In this thesis, the purpose is to explore what characteristics of the remanufacturing environment that can hinder the implementation of Lean production principles of material flows and how Lean principles can be employed in a remanufacturing environment. In accordance, the theories of Lean production and Remanufacturing are used and the research methodology chosen that of a case study. To assess material flow, the production flows of five major product groups in a car engine are assessed. For the collection of data, Value Stream Mapping (VSM) methodology has been used. The main result about material flows and how Lean principles can be employed in a remanufacturing environment have resulted in eight generic proposals. The main conclusion from these proposals is that the inherent characteristics of variable processing times and uncertainty in materials recovered have major negative impact for implementing a lean production process. Vice versa, given an accurate supply of parts for reassembly, all the principles of Lean production can be fully implemented in the phases of reassembly and testing.

Detta examensarbete går ut på att för TitanX Engine Cooling ABs räkning analysera deras användning av Lean-verktyget Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Detta på grund av att verktyget inte levererar all information som företaget efterfrågar. För att hitta potentiella alternativ till VSM har verktyg och ramverk inom Enterprise Architecture studerats (EA). Utöver detta har även Theory of Constraints och Sex Sigma analyserats. För att undersöka om det är möjligt att även skapa en kostnadsdimension i VSM har påläggskalkylering undersökts. Resultatet av jämförelsen av teorin bakom VSM och hur TitanX använder VSM visar att det finns vissa skillnader, dock är skillnaderna inte så stora och tros inte påverka resultatet av själva kartläggningen. Vidare har analysen givit att EA kan ersätta VSM men också att modellerna och ramverken inom EA är avsevärt mer komplexa och omfattande än VSM. Theory of constraints är integrerbart med Lean och innehåller också en serie mätvärden som ger den information som TitanX efterfrågar.

Examensarbete är utfört på GKN Aerospace Applied Composites (ACAB) där produktionsflödet för fyra produkter har kartlagts. Idag upplever företaget svårigheter med att hålla leveranstiden för dessa produkter, dessutom upplevs verkstäderna som ostrukturerade. GKN Aerospace Applied Composites tillverkar idag flertalet produkter i komposit till både den civila och militära marknaden. För detta examensarbete har flödet av tre stycken radomer och en storlek av tryckkärl kartlagts. Tryckkärl är en produkt som tillverkas i större volymer och har ett flödesorganiserat produktionsupplägg. Radomerna är kundorderspecifika produkter som endast tillverkas i enstyck eller mindre volymer. Detta innebär att radomverkstaden är funktionellt organiserad. Med ett varierande och växande produktsortiment ökar kraven på produktionsplaneringen och hantera kombinationen av de två olika produktionsuppläggen. För att kunna ta fram förbättringsförslag för framtiden har en analys genomförts av produktionen. Förbättringsförslagen resulterar i studiens rekommendationer och förbättringsplan till ACAB. Den metod som använts är Value Stream Mapping (VSM), som är en metod i Lean filosofin. Denna metod används för att eliminera alla former av slöseri genom att identifiera värdeskapande och icke värdeskapande tid. För att sammanställa en VSM för respektive produkt genomfördes en datainsamling som bestod av intervjuer, observationer och uppmätningar av flödenas avstånd. För varje produkt identifierades problemområden med tillhörande förbättringsförslag, dessa förslag på åtgärder och rekommendationer resulterade i ett framtida alternativt flöde för produktionen. Historisk data har analyserats av genomloppstider, en medeltid för varje process har beräknats ur äldre order för respektive produkt. Som en riktlinje för dagens produktion har ACAB idag standardtider som de planerar leveransdatum efter. Beräknade medeltider har satts i förhållande till standardtiderna för att kunna urskilja vilka processtider som överstiger eller understiger dagens riktlinjer. I de alternativa flödena presenteras åtgärdsförslag för att kunna förbättra verkstädernas layout genom att förkorta de uppmätta avstånden. Utöver jämförelse av tider och avstånd presenteras övergripande åtgärder som 5S och kontinuerlig utbildning av personal. Generellt för båda produktionerna har jämförelsen mellan medeltider och standardtider visat att standardtiderna behöver korrigeras. Korrigeringen av tider medför inte kortare genomloppstider utan bidrar till en bättre planering av leveransdatum. Däremot förväntas de förändringar av layout och organisering som föreslagits för respektive verkstad reducera genomloppstiderna.

Hjärtmottagningen vid Alingsås lasarett upplever problem som långa köer och variation i resurstillgänglighet, något som idag är vanligt i vårdorganisationer. Detta är en problematisk situation med tanke på att köerna består av patienter som behöver undersökning och vård. Denna studie har som mål att finna lösningar på hur ett effektivare flöde kan uppnås och hur detta kan skapa kortare väntetider och en tillgängligare vård. Slutsatser som tas upp är att fokus på flödeseffektivitet är högst väsentligt för att få ett bra flöde på en vårdmottagning. Detta påverkas av planeringen på mottagningen, resurstillgängligheten och kommunikationen. Att minska den variation i resurstillgänglighet som råder i dagsläget leder till att det är lättare att matcha efterfrågan med resurser vilket i sin tur påverkar köer och flödet. Kommunikationen kan förbättras med hjälp av kontinuerliga möten och förbättringsgrupper som leds av personalen på mottagningen. Processkartläggning är också något som är viktigt då detta leder till att personalen lär sig om varandras arbete och får förståelse för detta. Processkartläggningen leder också till att onödigt arbete kan elimineras och istället lägga fokus på bra vård.

Background: The continued success of Lean thinking beyond manufacturing has led to an increasing interest to utilize it in software engineering (SE). Value Stream Mapping (VSM) had a pivotal role in the operationalization of Lean thinking. However, this has not been recognized in SE adaptations of Lean. Furthermore, there are two main shortcomings in existing adaptations of VSM for an SE context. First, the assessments for the potential of the proposed improvements are based on idealistic assertions. Second, the current VSM notation and methodology are unable to capture the myriad of significant information flows, which in software development go beyond just the schedule information about the flow of a software artifact through a process. Objective: This thesis seeks to assess Software Process Simulation Modeling (SPSM) as a solution to the first shortcoming of VSM. In this regard, guidelines to perform simulation-based studies in industry are consolidated, and the usefulness of VSM supported with SPSM is evaluated. To overcome the second shortcoming of VSM, a suitable approach for capturing rich information flows in software development is identified and its usefulness to support VSM is evaluated. Overall, an attempt is made to supplement existing guidelines for conducting VSM to overcome its known shortcomings and support adoption of Lean thinking in SE. The usefulness and scalability of these proposals is evaluated in an industrial setting. Method: Three literature reviews, one systematic literature review, four industrial case studies, and a case study in an academic context were conducted as part of this research. Results: Little evidence to substantiate the claims of the usefulness of SPSM was found. Hence, prior to combining it with VSM, we consolidated the guidelines to conduct an SPSM based study and evaluated the use of SPSM in academic and industrial contexts. In education, it was found to be a useful complement to other teaching methods, and in the industry, it triggered useful discussions and was used to challenge practitioners’ perceptions about the impact of existing challenges and proposed improvements. The combination of VSM with FLOW (a method and notation to capture information flows, since existing VSM adaptions for SE are insufficient for this purpose) was successful in identifying challenges and improvements related to information needs in the process. Both proposals to support VSM with simulation and FLOW led to identification of waste and improvements (which would not have been possible with conventional VSM), generated more insightful discussions and resulted in more realistic improvements. Conclusion: This thesis characterizes the context and shows how SPSM was beneficial both in the industrial and academic context. FLOW was found to be a scalable, lightweight supplement to strengthen the information flow analysis in VSM. Through successful industrial application and uptake, this thesis provides evidence of the usefulness of the proposed improvements to the VSM activities.

This thesis is focused on lean thinking and its application on a real case of a logistic process in a manufacturing company. Firstly, the concept of lean thinking is described together with its history and relation to other management concepts. Key terms for lean thinking are defined, such as value and waste. Value stream mapping method and basic inventory management models are also described. Secondly, the real case part is focused on process optimization of procurement of cutting tool in a company that manufactures aluminum pistons mainly for automotive industry. The value stream was mapped and lead time calculated. Several data analyses were performed, such as ABC analysis, analysis of inventory costs and description of consignment stock option. Finally, several measurements for optimization of the cutting tool procurement process were recommended based on theoretical and practical research. The goal was to increase the process stability, flexibility and to reduce cost. The measurements include formalization of the whole process and implementing supplier evaluation system. The part includes detailed proposal of such system. The goal of this thesis was to verify a hypothesis that application of lean thinking tools can help with optimizing the cutting tool procurement process. The hypothesis was verified on theoretical level. The actual implementation of the measures will show the real benefits for the company.

Customer satisfaction in healthcare organizations has higher priority than in industrialcompanies because the patient is the customer and the health of patient is the aim. So, amethodology like Lean which can help to increase patient satisfaction is practical and usefulfor implementation in healthcare sectors. This dissertation is based upon a Lean healthcare inthe emergency ward of Sahlgrenska hospital and explains that the main step of Leanhealthcare is to change the culture from traditional thinking to Lean thinking. In order toreach this goal, the research instruments used are: interview, triage data base, spending timeat emergency ward, and value stream mapping. The focus of this thesis work is to find thebest combination of medicine doctors and surgeons that would optimize the performance. Byusing Arena simulation software, it has been identified that three medicine doctors and threesurgeons can decrease the non-value added time and total time in sequence 13.1% and 1.6 %for each patient. Indeed, the 5S steps in all parts of the emergency ward have been practicedas best suited to the surroundings of the ward. The place of Triage room two for the patientswho arrive by ambulance is extended for better and faster service. A Lean team is trained forfollowing up the Lean principles in the ward and report the progress to the management.The results and suggestions are in two kinds. First are short term suggestions like to hire onemedicine doctors and two surgeons, to hold more training classes for all staff, and to allot anumber for each patient bed. Second are long term recommendations such as to change thelayout of the emergency ward and use a partition instead of a room.

This project was carried out because of a need for increasing the production efficiency atSKANSKA Byggsystem. The current production takt is 20 modules per week which at first stepshould become 24 modules per week and in a second stage, 28 modules per week.In this regard, the lean approach is applied to modify the procedures the productionprocesses are based on. Value Stream Mapping is used as one of the lean tools to illustratethe total image of the operations and lead times. Although it is essential to consider both theproduction and administrative procedures in analysis and implementing Lean tools, in thisproject the focus is on production operations and material flow rather than the informationflow.In the empirical study, different production areas in the factory are considered and thematerial flow is described from storage of raw material until storage of finished modules. Theempirical study has resulted in a description of the current situation of the factory andcurrent value Stream Map is drawn based on that.In the analysis part, different areas of waste in the production stages are defined andmodifications for eliminating waste and increasing efficiency are suggested; having the maincriterion of enabling the production to produce 28 modules per week, these changes haveresulted in a future state Value Stream Map of the factory. In addition, modificationsregarding the factory layout and outsourcing strategy are described as well.Finally, it is discussed that with minor changes it is possible to produce 24 modules per week.It is shown that by keeping the same resources and production methods, it is impossible tohave 28 modules per week, although, outsourcing the bathroom module results in a greatimprovement, however this is not enough for providing required extra capacity. The mostapplicable approach is to implement the changes and improve the production procedures toget to the maximum available capacity and add extra resources to provide the requiredcapacity of 28 modules per week. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Orient. na IETA Eng. Joaquim Soares / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Mecânica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010