I dagens samhälle ställs hårda krav på resultatförbättringar i företag och industrier. Det är vanligt att företag tar hjälp av någon eller några av de ledningsverktyg som finns utvecklade i just detta syfte, Lean Production är ett av dessa verktyg. Syftet med denna rapport är att ge en historisk bakgrund till Lean Production och att undersöka vilka tillvägagångssätt tre företag har valt för att implementera Lean i sin verksamhet. Vidare skall författarna undersöka om det finns några likheter mellan dessa tillvägagångssätt och Toyotas produktionssystem (TPS). Utvecklingen till det som idag benämns som Lean började redan 1911 då Fredrick Winslow Taylor presenterade sin artikel ”Principles of Scientific Management”. Henry Ford anammade Taylors idéer i sin nybyggda bilfabrik i Detroit år 1912 och utvecklade Fordismen, Ford blev sinnesbilden för rationell tillverkning. Under 1930-talet hade en annan biltillverkare, japanska Toyota, mycket stora svårigheter och hade svårt att överleva den västerländska konkurrensen. Företaget blev tvunget att genomföra radikala förändringar och påbörjade därför 1950 utvecklingen av sitt produktionssystem, TPS. Produktionssystemet, som byggdes runt fjorton principer, skulle visa sig få ett stort genomslag efter oljekrisen 1973. Amerikanerna började intressera sig för TPS och utifrån detta system utvecklades under 1980-talet det vi idag kallar Lean Production. De i studien undersökta verksamheterna, två av AstraZenecas fabriker samt Volvo Powertrains fabrik för kamaxlar presenterar olika tillvägagångssätt att arbeta med konceptet. Empirin har samlats in genom personliga och öppna intervjuer med personer som är väl insatta i verksamheternas förbättringsarbete. Den första fallstudien visar på ett mjukt tillvägagångssätt med mer fokus på företagskultur och på medarbetare än ren användning av verktyg. Den andra fallstudien visar på att fabriken valt verktygen framför medarbetarnas medbestämmande och bemyndigande. Det tredje fallstudieföretaget har arbetat med förbättringar en längre tid och har därför lyckats implementera både mjuka och hårda delar i verksamheten. För att lyckas med Lean och få konceptet att bli ett sätt att vara mer än enbart en uppsättning verktyg krävs att verksamheten på sikt implementerar såväl konceptets hårda som mjuka delar. Med hårda delar menas här resultatinriktade verktyg, medan de mjuka delarna fokuserar mer på medarbetarnas bemyndigande, självkänsla och medvetenhet. Fallstudierna visar tydligt att Toyotas fjorton principer inte är framtagna och finns av en ren slump. För att långsiktigt lyckas med Lean är det ett måste att alla principer återfinns i företagets arbetssätt. Finns inte alla principer med finns det en stor risk för att konceptet förblir en uppsättning verktyg som förbättrar företagets processer och försvinner inom ett antal år. En långsiktighet och kontinuitet måste finnas i arbetet och en alltför stor fokusering på kortsiktiga ekonomiska vinningar och korta ekonomiska mål är således inget att rekommendera för företag som vill att Lean skall efterlevas. / There are many important challenges for industry of today, and efficient manufacturing is one of them. To manage some of these challenges many businesses put a lot of faith in the management philosophy called Lean Production. The first objective of this report is to find out how three different Swedish companies have worked with the complex toolbox of Lean production and how they have implemented these tools. The second objective of this report is to analyze possible similarities between the implementations of Lean and the fourteen management principles of efficient manufacturing according to Toyota. In 1911 Fredrick Winslow Taylor published an article, “Principles of Scientific Management”, on how to make industry more efficient. Henry Ford, the father of modern cars, accepted Taylor’s ideas and applied them in his new car factory in Detroit in 1912. Taylor’s fundamental ideas together with Ford’s enterprising attitude and the modern assembly line led to large sales success of the T-Ford. Some decades later the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota interested themselves in the American management of making cars due to financial difficulties. In 1950 Toyota started the process of developing their own production management system, Toyota Production System. The Japanese production system was successful and lifted Toyota out of the financial crisis. The 1973 oil crisis limited the sales of big American cars in favour of smaller and cheaper Japanese ones. The American car makers paid attention and financed a research project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to develop an even better production system, Lean Production. The three case studies, two factories of AstraZeneca in Södertälje and a Volvo Powertrain factory in Skövde have developed different strategies in implementing Lean Production. The empirical studies are based on personal interviews with people understanding the development work in each organisation. The first AstraZeneca factory shows a noncommittal approach where the employees take a great part in the decision-making process. The second AstraZeneca factory shows a more strict approach where the result-orientated tools are in the centre of interest. The Volvo Powertrain factory has gained experience from this kind of development work through the past twenty years. They have had both the time and knowledge to implement a wide range of tools and methods. To make the Lean projects permanent and a way of life rather than just a set of tools it is important for organisations to implement both the human relation approach and the structural tool-oriented approach. The human relation approach focuses on the employees, their self-esteem and their right to be a part of the decision-making. The core of the structural approach is the result oriented tools and methods. The case studies clearly show that the fourteen principles of Toyota Production System represent a holistic view on logistics development. If some of the principles are not represented in a project there is a big risk that the project will fail. Resilience is the key word to increase the chance of being Lean.

Arvika Smide is a supplier to the automotive industry with a focus on advanced drop forgings including powertrain and bearings. The great experience and high quality is Arvika Smide’s speciality. Today's competition in the industries puts high demands on the efficiency where each company has a quest for perfection. Arvika Smide has been through the thesis of Karlstad University, called for a situation analysis of aftertreatment whose effectiveness has not been fully desirable. The department includes the production steps blasting, quality control and packaging. The thesis contains the results from the situation analysis and comparisons of the calculations for selected reference period Q4 2009th. The basis for the situation analysis has been carried out by extensive studies of production in close cooperation with the department's operators. For monitoring and developing of the current situation the project Bläster 2010 was started, which is an efficiency project aimed at developing 5S-work of the department and reach the goal of an e-factor of 1.0. The Efficiency factor should work in a central part in the process which is the most important key figure. A number of suggestions based on the current situation analysis are presented which is seen as inspiring ideas for further work. The result reveals a number of factors affecting the cause of the current situation. The absence of a well-established production system, for example Lean Production together with communication, is the more abstract problems, while the mechanical defects of the blaster machines represents another significant part.

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Visualization plays a key role in the concept of Lean. Lean was developed in Japan as a business philosophy in order to lead to an activity, where only steps that contribute to customer value of the final product are being performed. By defining the customer value and establish visualized standards, it is possible to see when situations differ from the standard. Then it’s possible to lead the process back on track. This approach generates an activity that evolves and improves its ability in meeting customer needs. And that has a great potential to make operations more profitable and competitive. Siemens Turbomachinery AB in Finspång manufactures complete power generation systems, based on the company’s own produced gas and steam turbines. The company has for years worked to establish a Lean-based thinking. The Procurement function, within the Supply Chain Management department (GP) is responsible for purchasing the supply system of the gas turbine and has since 2007 worked with visualization as a daily management tool. However, the existing concept fails when it comes to conveying a holistic approach from a given standard, and to support the daily work and to progress. The purpose of this thesis is to suggest a visualization concept for the Procurement function. The concept has to be developed and generate a result in line with the Lean work on SIT. Because of shortcomings in standards of the Procurement function, a significant part of the thesis was spent on the identification of the current status. The identification of the current status resulted in: A system description of Operational purchasing role in supply chain, the survey of the main activities as well as a visual process description containing the main process, and some of the deviations/wastages identified during the identification process. It has been found that the visualization methodology is inconsistent among GP’s groups. Because the final product is processed cross-functional, we believe that there should be greater focus on communication and on the comprehensive view that conveys the whole. Visualization of GP’s common leverabel can in that sense foster interaction and lead to even better results. The visualization concept was finally summarized into: Static goal images to promote employee commitment for the final product, of a group board to operate and develop the internal operations, and of a project board which aims to highlight the department's common leverabel. The concept is based on the Lean philosophy and has the potential to be introduced in other groups within GP. A prerequisite for the implementation of the boards is a clear division of responsibilities in which participation and individual responsibility is the most important. It’s preferable that the visualization concept continues to evolve, but it’s also important to avoid deviation from the proposed standard in order to counteract inconsistencies. The signal levels of the deliverables must be continuously updated through discussions with internal customers. This is to reflect the client's needs and gradually refine and improve the signal levels and hence the company's performance

This research is a cross sectional study which is conducted as an email survey. Accordingly, 22 companies have been surveyed to investigate the tendency and barriers for SMEs in Sweden regarding implementation of lean production. For that, barriers are categorized into two categories. The first category includes the ones which prevent SMEs from starting lean production (introduction barriers). The second category encompasses the ones which SMEs face while they are implementing lean production (implementation barriers). Moreover, to obtain a better view about problematic areas in lean transformation for SMEs, improvements and achievements of the investigated companies in their lean implementation processes have been assessed. However, it was not a detailed or in depth analysis, since the main purpose of this research was not to assess SMEs progress, rather it was to identify the hindrances in SMEs’ path to become lean. The results from this survey showed that most of the lean principles are applicable in SMEs. However, SMEs have problem with lack of time, management support, finance, resistance to change, change process, and training.  In addition lack of skilled employees for implementation of lean production was found as the biggest introduction barrier for SMEs. Moreover, the result of this research shows that small companies do not show tendency to implement lean production.

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.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka hur väl kalkylerad produktionskostnad/tid  överensstämmer med verkligt utfall, samt att identifiera effektivitetsökande åtgärder i produktionen. En empirisk studie har gjorts för att kunna kartlägga produktionstiden samt att hitta möjliga förbättringsområden. Ledtiden för ett projekt, bestående av 32 st. väggelement har undersökts varvid produktionen har klockats vid fyra olika tillfällen varje dag tills projektets slut. Resultatet av produktionsanalysen blev att den verkliga produktionstiden nästan var dubbelt så lång som den kalkylerade tiden. En stor anledning och flaskhals var att många väggelement blev liggande efter avslutat arbete och bromsade upp efterkommande väggelement. Företaget besitter stor potential till att bli en effektiv producent av väggelement och genom att implementera aktiviteter inom Lean i verksamheten, t.ex. standardisera arbetssätt och fördela arbetsfördelningen bättre, skulle man i framtiden, med stor sannlikhet klara produktionstider som kalkylerats. För att ytterligare öka kunskapen om vilka förbättringar som behöver göras inför framtiden, samt att bedöma validiteten av resultatet i denna rapport, bör fler tidsmätningar uföras i produktionen.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to develop a generic model to be applied on to a Swedish company. In order to reduce variations in quality, production time and work routines.  The study starts by investigation of the relevance of this thesis and continues with providing relevant theories on the subject. Then a model was developed for continues improvement projects with different keys that can be applied in the different steps of the model. The keys show the importance of involving the employees in continuous improvements projects. The model is aimed to be applicable to different kinds of project and depending of the size of the project, different keys can be utilized. The purpose of the model in this thesis is to decrease variation in quality, production time and work routines at a case company. The case company in this study is International Färg AB who is a manufacture of protective coatings. During the testing phase of the model, planning, analysis and measurements has been performed in order to achieve suggestions that would lower the variation within the production at the case company.  The result of this thesis and the model is that with the use of the model developed in this thesis it is possible to achieve lower variations in the production. The thesis is aimed to be suitable to Swedish industrial companies. The authors provide a generic user-friendly model.  From the results recommendations to the case company has been developed. The thesis end with a discussion about topics not fully covered in the report.

Today it becomes more and more important to work with continuous improvements to stay ahead of the competitors. Pfizer in Strängsäs started working with continuous improvements in 2010. By the end of 2012, the company’s goal is to reach 24 improvements per employee at the factory. Their project has two main purposes; to examine the need and possibilities for visualization regarding continuous improvements at the production department and to develop a concept for visualisation of the entire factory’s continuous improvements. To attain the information required to examine the needs at the production department, interviews with relevant employees at the department were conducted. Using interviews as a benchmarking instrument was also helpful in getting different points of views. The benchmarking was performed both internally at the factory and externally at Atlas Copco Craelius AB. To attain information about the visualization of the entire factory’s continuous improvements interviews were conducted with stakeholders. There have been different methods used to get as a good result as possible. Risk analysis, product function analysis and brainstorming have been executed to get information to both parts of the project and by that ensuring the result. The end result of the production department showed that two of the sections, the fermentation and the purification, are in need of visualization; visualization by using improvement boards would increase the possibility to communicate the information regarding improvements to relevant staff. However, this need varies between the two departments, resulting in different boards for each one. There will be a need to establish routines on how to use the boards to ensure that they fulfil their purpose. Through recurring meetings with a fixed agenda there will be an opportunity for everybody to discuss and process the work regarding these continuous improvements in an efficient and just way. The result for visualization of the factory’s work with continuous improvements is a concept with suggestions of different features that can be included on a wall in the entry hall. The concept’s purpose is to make it easy for employees and visitors to understand how well the factory embraces and handles these improvements. There will also be a feature that makes it possible to headlight successful improvements, relevant meetings and important groups at the factory. / Arbetet har utförts vid Pfizers fabrik i Strängnäs. Pfizer har varit beläget i Strängnäs sedan 2003. Pfizer i Strängnäs har ett väl utvecklat arbete med ständiga förbättringar. Alla är involverade i arbetet och i år är målet att det ska genomföra 24 förbättringar per person på fabriken. Denna rapport har två huvudsyften; undersöka behov av visualisering av förbättringsarbetet på produktionsavdelningen och konceptframtagning för visualisering av hela fabrikens förbättringsarbete på en avsedd vägg vid entrén. Under arbetets gång har intervjuer genomförts med personal på produktionsavdelningen för att undersöka vilka behov, krav och möjligheter som finns. Intervjuer har även genomförts i benchmarkingsyfte. Benchmarkingen med tillhörande intervjuer har utförts internt på Pfizer på avdelningar som idag har någon form av visualisering och externt på Atlas Copco Craelius AB för att få en inblick i hur andra tagit sig an visualisering. Intervjuer har även genomförts med personal som haft ett intresse av att utveckla visualiseringen av hela fabrikens förbättringsarbete för att få information till den delen av arbetet. Diverse andra metoder har använts så som riskanalys, produktfunktionsanalys och idégenerering för att få fram resultatet för de båda huvuddelarna av rapporten. När det gäller visualisering på produktionsavdelningarna blev resultatet att två av sektionerna, reningen och odlingen är i behov av att visualisera sitt förbättringsarbete med hjälp av förbättringstavlor för att lättare kunna kommunicera arbetet till all relevant personal. Dock så skiljer sig behoven något i hur visualiseringen bör utföras då de arbetar på olika sätt och kommit olika långt i sitt arbete med förbättringar. Tavlorna kommer att behöva rutiner för att dess syfte ska kunna upprätthållas. Genom kontinuerliga schemalagda möten med en bestämd dagordning så bör förbättringsarbetet kunna diskuteras och bearbetas på ett effektivt sätt. Resultatet gällande visualiseringen av hela fabrikens förbättringsarbete är förslag på ett koncept med funktioner som skulle kunna innefattas på väggen. Genom konceptet kan alla enkelt göra sig införstådd i hur fabriken ligger till när det gäller antal förbättringar. Det har även valts att lyfta fram viktiga och stora förbättringar för att kommunicera ut dessa till personalen och motivera dem till fortsatt bra förbättringsarbete. Grupper och möten som är relevanta för förbättringsarbetet har också fått platser på väggen tilldelade sig.

This thesis is a feasibility study into how Fresenius Kabi may rationalize their destruction process in regards to cost, recycling, and work environment. The two main objectives are to identify scrap flows and the possibility to improve or replace the equipment that is now carrying out the physical scrapping. The flow has been visualized by a flow chart of the material and communication. A chart of the problem established to visualize where improvements are necessary. Based on the problems proposals are presented on how to improve the flow thru the plant. During analyze of the physical scrapping equipment it was also necessary to take a deeper look at how they are carrying out there work today, how does the procedure look like, working environment and where are the weaknesses. On this basis, the problem where analyzed and suggestions for improvement were created.  As today`s equipment is not effective enough a simplified specification established in order to more easily be able to design new equipment. A number of different solutions have been developed and eventually the two best was compared to visualize who fits best. Fresenius Kabi strives to achieve a high environmental awareness therefore this report also looks in to how they handle their waste today and if this is possible to improve it, especially with regards to the possibility to recycling the waste in the best way. Lean and Supply chain management has been used as a theoretical foundation for this report. This report resulted in proposals of how to change scrapping equipments, working environment and the flow of communication to achieve a more efficiency flow of material trough the plant.