The development of productivity in the construction industry has long been at a steady state compared to the manufacturing industry. Studies have shown that, amongst other things, waste on construction sites can reach up to one third of the total production cost. This has been observed from different aspects, and change is forthcoming. This thesis aims to provide a foundation for an increased productivity at production sites of building bridges. It is primarily based on a field study at Skanska, at a bridge construction site near Grängesberg. Via continuous interviews with the whole production crew, construction workers and management, information on interference and possibilities of improvement at the work site has been documented. Moreover, Lean has been studied and attention has been brought to simple methods and approaches that can contribute to an increase of productivity. The purpose of this thesis was to inform Skanska and its team of recurring disruptions and improvement prospects, and to suggest simple methods so that future projects can be run more profitably. During the field study approximately ten disruptions have been documented, which directly interfered with the production. Most of these were due to different forms of communication failures. Late deliveries and reinforcement problems were the most common disorders. Furthermore, we have found room for improvement within the visual management, where resources and technology are available, but are not utilized to its fullest potential. In conclusion we analyzed and gave suggestions of simple methods for improvement using Lean as support, were tools like Five Why’s and SMART goals were used.

Denna kandidatuppsats baseras på en fallstudie om hur styrningsmodellen Lean har implementeras på OKQ8:s stationer. Studien ämnar vidare undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar utfallet samt undersöka hur Lean har påverkat effektiviteten på stationerna. För att besvara detta har intervjuer genomförts med personal på OKQ8. Studien analyserar hur faktorer så som stress, arbetskraftsflexibilitet och delaktighet har påverkat utfallet av implementeringen. Vidare har även nyckeltal använts för att analysera om Lean har lett till att organisationen har blivit mer effektiv. Det författarna har kommit fram till är att Lean kan tillämpas inom OKQ8:s stationer och bidra till högre effektivitet, dock implementeras inte Lean full ut inom OKQ8.

Lean is a management philosophy that enhances customer value through waste elimination and continuous improvement in a system by applying lean principles, practices, and techniques. The focus on lean implementations and research had been typically a single company without extension to the entire supply chain. When the concept of lean is implemented across the entire supply chain, however, it is referred to as lean supply chain. The purpose of this thesis is to create a structure from theory and practice of lean in the supply chain, which will enhance understanding of the field.  The thesis is based on a comprehensive review of articles on lean in the supply chain using structured content analysis approach. The reviewed articles are classified based on the articles’ basic characteristics and contextual issues or ideas. Also, a case study of an aerospace industry was conducted in order to gain insight on lean in supply chain from a practice perspective.  Lean in the supply chain as a supply chain management strategy aims at applying the lean concepts to the whole functions within the entire supply chain members: suppliers, focal organisations, distributors, and customers. From the literature review and the case study, it is found that researchers and practitioners view lean in the supply chain as a transformation process in the supply chain which results in a transformed and competitive supply chain called lean supply chain. The studies show that the attributes and outcomes of the major result of lean in the supply chain (lean supply chain) help in better understanding of the field. Lean supply chain is found to be linked to the following benefits: improved quality reduced cost, improved delivery, high flexibility, reduced shortage, etc. Also, it is distinguished from the traditional supply chain by the following attributes: Long-term relations with suppliers, effective communication and information sharing, integrated supply chain members, continuous improvements, and predictability. The transformation and the benefits are linked to the implementation of lean principles, practices and techniques in the supply chain. There is no rigorous and general purpose process in the implementation of lean in the supply chain; however, general and adaptable steps can be followed. Choice and order of implementation of lean tools and techniques depends on suitability, situations, preference and familiarity. It is found that from the literature review that the research approach on lean in the supply chain is structured towards gaining in-depth knowledge of the field. The emphasis on the supply chain members; suppliers and focal organisations by the authors of the reviewed articles shows their importance in the supply chain.

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This document is the statement of independent and original contribution to knowledge represented by the published works in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (by publication). The thesis reviews the impact of research work conducted between 1992 and 1998 on various concepts to improve the economy and emissions of gasoline engines in order to address environmental and legislative pressures. The research has a common theme, examining the dilution of the intake charge (with either recycled exhaust gas [EGR], excess air, or the two in combination) in both conventional port injected [MPI] and direct injection [G-DI] combustion systems. After establishing the current status of gasoline engine technology before the programme of research was started, the thesis concentrates on seven major pieces of research between 1992 and 1996. These explored a subsequently patented method of applying recycled exhaust gas to conventional port injected gasoline engines to improve their economy and emissions whilst staying compatible with three-way catalyst systems. Nine other studies are reviewed which took place between 1992 and 1999 covering other methods of improving gasoline engines, specifically direct injection and two-stroke operation. Together, all the studies provide a treatise on methods to improve the gasoline engine and the thesis allows a view from a broader perspective than was possible at the time each study was conducted. In particular, the review identifies a range of strategies that use elements of the research that can be used to improve economy and emissions. Four major categories of systems researched include: conventional stoichiometric MPI engines developed to tolerate high EGR rates [CCVS]; two-stroke G-DI engines; G-DI engines operating stoichiometrically with high EGR rates; and G-DI engines operating with high dilution from both excess air and EGR. The findings of the studies illustrate that although good fuel economy improvements and emissions can be obtained with EGR dilution of stoichiometric engines, the highest fuel economy improvements require lean deNOx aftertreatment [LNA] and these, in turn, require new aftertreatment technologies and preferably new fuel specifications. The development of suitable LNA and the cost of implementation of these approaches represents one of the main barriers to improving gasoline engine fuel economy and emissions.

Denna uppsats handlar om implementering av Lean-konceptet i praktiken. Syftet är att utreda vilka faktorer som kan påverka personal inom en organisation, att trots vetskap, inte implementera ett koncept i praktiken. Här har studien valt att se närmare på Migrationsverket, som är en statlig organisation som har infört ett Lean-koncept.  En kvalitativ undersökning har gjorts i form av intervjuer med handläggare vid en mottagningsenhet inom Migrationsverket. Sammanfattningsvis, trots införandet av Lean koncept i receptionen på den svenska Migrationsverket, är det svårt för tjänstemän att använda det på grund av olika faktorer såsom: stress, utmaningen att arbeta smidigare, hög arbetsbelastning, hög grad av administrativt arbete.

Nowdays an efficient production is critical to achieve for companies competing on the market for steel cutting tools. One of such companies is Halmstad based Tooling Support Halmstad AB that manufactures threading-taps, threading-dies and parting off tools, towards a centralized warehouse in Schiedam, Holland. The large amount of different products, approximately 2500 is a big contributor to the problem along with a new order system that creates a demand of low setup times. Previously the company was forwarded orders through quarter based prognoses which enabled planning of the production over a longer time span. Currently the newer order system ZENIT is in use and the company thereby gets their orders weekly. This type of customer orders effects the production in terms of weekly orders having a variety of different products, which in turn creates a larger amount of setup work that prolongs the lead times even further. The purpose of this project has been to survey the present production in the end manufacturing state of the thread taps in order to come up with improvement proposals which will lead to a more flexible production and less sensitive to irregular demand. The factory consists of several production lines. Our work has been limited to the end manufacturing state of the thread taps in one of the 9 production lines, line 435. Based on the limitation our work has followed the production and order use of thread taps from the local storage to precisely before the wash. Value stream mapping and the SMED-method has been useful during the work process. With these tools proposals have been generated towards a production flow with a divided lead time compared to the current state and a decreased setup-time by 26%

This report is the result of a thesis performed at Westermo Industrial Ltd with its headquarters in Stora Sundby and it sums up the author's studies for University Engineering in Innovation, Production and Logistics at Mälardalen University. The main goal of the thesis was to identify problems and suggest actions that lead to the reduction of the repair time from 3 weeks to 2 weeks. The key questions that were answered in order to achieve the thesis objectives are:   What are the biggest challenges that make the repair process time last for 3 weeks?   What are the necessary means and measures in order to reduce the repair length to 2 weeks?   The author adjusted the work to the Swedish repairs, repair issues that arise from sell unit Westermo Data Communications AB with its office in Västerås and performed the status report by mapping the repair process, through using observations, interviews and bibliography research studies. A flow map of four sub-processes (Inbound Delivery, BackOffice, Repair Department, and Logistics) was made and each section was observed, where also the employees were interviewed. Data that has been collected was analysed by the author and the decision to execute a workshop that affects Repair Department and Logistics was made. Consequently to this, these two services will prove to have the greatest impact on repair time.   It is notified that the main reason for the repair process length today is so long is due to the fact that the owner of the repair process does not exist, which leads to so many unanswered questions and unclearness through the whole process, which occur and result in the situation where the process does not work as a whole, but each sub-process is acting separately on its own. Problems also arise because of the persons that are bound to the process, where both engineers at repair department are specialized in their own field and cannot perform the second engineer's work. Furthermore, due to the incomplete description that is usually provided by the customers, makes even more difficult to define the problem, which is yet another reason why the repair time is so long today.   The suggestions for improvement that are recommended, in the first place to reduce the length of the repair process - is to create an entirely new position within repair process – the owner. In order to correct the deficiency with incomplete error descriptions from the clients, they should introduce network-based fault reports, which contain a number of mandatory fields that the customer must fill out in order to describe the problem and the conditions that existed when the fault with their unit occurred. This would simultaneously also eliminate the waiting length on the warranty of the unit if it is not applicable, and a response regarding that particular repair for the customer. Furthermore, training of repair engineers should be initiated for them, so they will be able to fix all units coming in for repair. The key objective here is to reduce the waiting length when the unit is on wait to be treated by the "right" engineer.   In future, with the aforementioned, and other improvement proposals that are developed and explained in this report, repair time can be significantly reduced, which will further on improve the entire repair process.

På Samhalls produktionsenhet i Norrköping bearbetas artiklar för bland annat kunden Plastemas räkning. Målet för företaget är att bli lönsamma 2014 och därför har en omorganisation påbörjats. För att nå fram till målet har en satsning på Lean valts som tillvägagångssätt då lokalen och lagerytorna upplevs som oorganiserade. Eftersom det mest framstående behovet av förändring anses vara mer ordning har 5S valts som arbetsmetod. En kartläggning av nuläget utfördes genom mätningar, kontakt med ansvarig för Plastema-avdelningen och en medarbetarenkät för att fastställa vilka förändringar som behövdes respektive var möjliga att utföra. De problemområden som identifierades var lokalens layout och avsaknaden av rutiner för produktionen och för städning. Utöver dessa områden behandlades även ett önskemål om en revision av nuvarande arbetsinstruktioner och produktionsuppföljning som framfördes av arbetsledaren på aktuell avdelning. Resultatet som presenteras i rapporten består av en ny layout för lokalen som förväntas minska transporttider, samt ge en bättre tillgänglighet till materiel. Ytterligare åtgärdsförslag som presenteras rör produktionsuppföljning i form av en whiteboardtavla, samt rutiner för uppstart och avslut av produktionen. Även en rekommendation för uppdatering av befintlig arbetsinstruktioner har tagits fram.

Trunk lean over the stance limb during gait has been linked to a reduction in the knee adduction moment, which is associated with joint loading. Differences were examined in knee adduction moments and frontal plane trunk lean during gait between subjects with knee osteoarthritis and a control group of healthy adults. Additionally, subject variability in human motion data presents a challenge to researchers when trying to detect differences between subject groups. The individual differences in neutral posture between subjects is a source of variation in joint angles. A method was developed using principal component analysis (PCA) to objectively reduce this inter subject variability. Gait analysis was performed on 80 subjects (40 osteoarthritis). Models were developed to define lateral thoracic tilt, as well as pelvic tilt. The trunk and pelvis frontal plane angles were used to describe trunk lean and pelvic tilt. Angles were calculated across the stance phase of gait. We analyzed the data, (i) by extracting discrete parameters (mean and peak) waveform values, and (ii) using principal component analysis (PCA) to extract shape and magnitude differences between the waveforms. Osteoarthritis (OA) subjects had a higher knee adduction moment than the control group (α=0.05). Although the discrete parameters for trunk lean did not show differences between groups, PCA did detect characteristic waveform differences between the control and osteoarthritis groups. The data show that subjects display similar waveform shapes, however waveforms vary in magnitude, suggesting a variation in posture between subjects. The results from the PCA reveal that the first PC, which captures the most variation in the data, represents this variation in magnitude. The second PC describes a significant difference in range of motion between the subject groups. Subjects with knee OA were found to have a different range of motion of their pelvis and trunk than control subjects. These changes are consistent with a strategy to lower the knee adduction moment. As an alternative to conventional subjective methods, PCA should be employed to reduce inter subject variability in order to ensure objective analysis in human motion waveform data. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-14 14:43:53.127