A manipulação de materiais é uma das tarefas em que comumente empregam-se robôs para substituir o trabalho humano, dadas algumas vantagens como: maior precisão na manipulação de cargas e maior velocidade de execução da tarefa, bem como por aumentar a segurança do operador. Apesar dessas vantagens, os dispositivos robóticos são largamente empregados apenas em situações em que velocidade e precisão são indispensáveis, em outros casos, os equipamentos convencionais (como talhas, gruas e macacos hidráulicos) e os dispositivos específicos (aqueles fazem uso de molas e contrapesos), vêm sendo utilizados nas tarefas cotidianas, principalmente pelo fato de, entre outros, serem menos dispendiosos. Comparando-se estas duas soluções disponíveis, tem-se que os equipamentos tradicionais, apesar de sua simplicidade e versatilidade de movimentação, apresentam limitações quando são exigidas precisão e eficiência, enquanto os dispositivos robóticos apresentam alta complexidade tanto no projeto quanto na operação, representando uma solução cara e com movimentação restrita pela programação. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo estudar e propor uma solução intermediária entre a solução convencional e a robótica. O foco do estudo é o projeto de um dispositivo simplificado, que faz uso de molas e de um sistema de alavanca para manipular cargas. Um estudo preliminar desse mecanismo mostrou imperfeições quanto à força de contrabalanceamento. Com o intuito de corrigir esse erro foi usado um sistema de controle, que é constituído por um motor elétrico, um mecanismo de correção, sensores e um módulo controlador. O dispositivo proposto apresenta um controle simplificado, vez que a movimentação é feita exclusivamente pelo operador, possibilitando assim que o dispositivo apresente um baixo consumo de energia. Um protótipo é desenvolvido e os testes demonstraram a eficácia da solução. / The material handling is one task in which robot is commonly employed to replace the human work because it has some advantages such as, higher precision in the handling and higher speed of the task, and to increase operator safety. Despite these advantages, the robotic device is most employed only in situation that speed and precision are essential; in other cases, the conventional equipments (such as hydraulic jacks, cranes and pulley systems) and the specific device (which use springs and counterweight), have been used in daily tasks mainly because of they are less expensive. Comparing these two solutions, it is possible to say that the conventional devices, despite its simplicity and guidance, have limitations when the task requires precision and speed, while the robotic solution has higher complexity in both design and in operation, representing an expensive solution with a programming that restrict the movement. In this context, the present work has the objective the study and development of an intermediate solution between the conventional solution and the robotic device. The proposed study is based on a simplified device, which uses springs and a lever system to handle material. A preliminary study on this mechanism shows imperfections in balance force. In order to correct this error, a control system is used. The control system is constituted by an electric motor, a correcting mechanism, sensors and a controller. The proposed device presents simple control because movements are responsibility of the human operator moreover presents low power consumption, due to the use of springs. A prototype is developed and tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the solution.

<p><strong>Aim:</strong> More and more organizations worldwide want to develop products for global markets. At the same time, they need to make their products available in the global market to be competitive. One of today's trends to solve this problem of making products in the global market is by involving logistics to manage complex distribution requirements. Organizations have developed strategic alliances with companies all over the world to manage their logistics operations network. (www.chrobinson.com).</p><p>My research was aimed at understanding the coordination of logistics activities at the terminal.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method:</strong> I based my study on a combination of descriptive and exploratory type. As regards descriptive I presented my data collected in a descriptive analysis. Also I used the exploratory research to know exactly the implementation of logistics activities at Schenker's terminal and also to observe the activities, conduct interviews and administer questionnaires.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Result & Conclusions:</strong> The major results of my findings revealed that the existing management procedure of the outbound logistics system at Schenker terminal which involves material handling, transportation, distribution, cross-docking, customer service and information systems could not be seen as lean and agile. This is because of the existence of many problems faced by the terminal such as congestion, flows inefficiencies, excess scrap, too much manual documentation,  delays in deliveries, damages, poor customer service, return goods, idle equipment (forklift and trucks) and personal and high cost of operations.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Suggestions for future research:</strong> The study is limited in the sense that it does not include the whole supply chain; the terminal is just a part in the supply chain and whatever problems that are encountered are not experienced in the whole supply chain. This could lead to a broader basis of a future research project.</p>

Logistics plays a crucial role in companies’ ability to sustain competitive on the market. Time is regarded as one of the important metric in terms of logistics, since time influences the lead time of the products, which results in the vital advantage of speed. The recent business environment forces Kinnarps Production AB, a manufacturer of furniture, to optimize their inventory material flow in a way of increasing their capability and capacity to load more distribution containers with goods daily. The present circumstances of the material flow are associated with number of negative factors. An automated guided vehicle (AGV) system is operating and handling the distribution of goods. Wrong sequence of activities, long transportations, high transportation delays, waiting time, varying numbers of AGVs, wastes, bottlenecks are among the important issues to be considered. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the material flow in Kinnarps Production AB’s inventory seven and to improve the AGV system activities within. Concepts associated with identifying waste were used by separating value-adding activities from the non-value added ones. The usage of ideal reference systems techniques were the base for identifying problems. Concrete literature regarding AGV’s design system was applied in establishing different statements about the material flow and identification of problems. Different methods and techniques were used in approaching the research, but most above others is the case study approach. Numerous amounts of secondary data have been employed in verifying the collection of other data carried out by primary data collection as well as verifying the qualitative and quantitative analysis. A mapping of the current system was established with respect to orders, times and distances. Numbers of congestion points were identified, non-value adding activities were eliminated or decreased, rearrangement of sequencing of different activities was considered and different pallets arrangement system was established. A stochastic model was used in identifying the AGV’s time variables in the system and estimating appropriate amount of AGVs within the inventory. All the findings from different calculations and estimations were associated with Kinnarps Production’s future increased demand. Different issues and considerations were analyzed and appropriate suggestions were given for elimination of the negative factors in the inventory or their decrease. Among the most influencing results was the proper amount of AGVs in the inventory area, pallets rearrangement, different stocking policy, rearrangement in the sequence of activities, increase of the buffer for pallets used for loading containers, new conveyor system for the incoming goods in the inventory, transportation layout changes resulting in blocking free routines, separate control system, decrease of the effect of stoppages. All these findings are considered to optimize the material flow and increase the system capacity contributing to an increase of the daily containers outgoing from Kinnarps Production AB.

In today‟s manufacturing environment, different parts manufactured in-house and bought from suppliers are often assembled together into a finished product. Competition has made it very important for companies to deliver a customized product on a promised date. However, when inventory items are missing at the time of production, lead times for products become uncertain and this makes it difficult to fulfill a customer order on the promised date. It is thus important to explore the causes of missing items at the time of production in order to solve such a problem. This Master of Science thesis carried out through a case study at Fläkt Woods in collaboration with Jönköping University is about the problem of not finding specific inventory items in the locations specified by the computer system. It is delimited to inventory items which are physically within the company premises or which according to the computer system are within the premises of the company. The questions at issue have been what the causes of the problem of missing items within the company are and how to effectively reduce the problem. The thesis has been carried out over an entire academic semester as a full-time work in the company. The sources of the problem have been found to be the result of the work procedure, the underlying software used during work (the in-house developed ERP system), stealing from orders, ineffective barcode scans, re-sequencing at the component manufacturing department (called pre-manufacturing in the company) due to the need to fulfill multiple objectives, set-up times at the component manufacturing department and human errors among others. The suggestions given include: modification of the work procedure and the underlying software used at work, increasing effective scanning and using some checks at critical points in the material flow. Areas for further research are given to further reduce the impact of the problem on the production system.

In this thesis was a model developed, in order to improve deficiencies in existing literature regarding the layout problem and to give companies a comprehensible user-friendly procedure on how to design competitive production processes, plant layouts and material handling systems. The model consists of six phases that can be used sequentially in order to design, evaluate, implement and maintain effective plant layouts and material handling systems. The model can also be used to examine and optimize processes. The first four phases of the model were tested successfully in a case study at Holtab AB, a medium sized manufacturing company in Tingsryd.

Intern materialhantering är ett ofta bortglömt område inom logistik, ett ämnesområde som annars i takt med den snabba och globala utvecklingen har fått ökad uppmärksamhet de senaste åren. I detta examensarbete studeras den interna materialhanteringen på Fläkt Woods ABs fabrik i Jönköping begränsat till flödet mellan godsmottagning och slutmontering. Syftet med fallstudien är att undersöka vilka problem som finns med den nuvarande interna materialhanteringen samt ge förbättringsförslag för hur den skulle kunna utvecklas för att minimera antalet produktionstopp orsakade av materialbrist. Studien har en abduktiv ansats där datainsamling genom dokumentation, observationer och intervjuer ligger till grund för en flödeskartläggning av tre produktgrupper som företaget bedömt vara mest intressanta att studera. Utifrån flödet identifieras möjliga problem och med hjälp av ett analytiskt ramverk klassificeras dessa för att urskilja de problem som leder till produktionsstopp. Studien visar att dessa handlar om att komponenter av någon anledning är felaktiga/skadade, lagras in/plockas på ett felaktigt sätt eller att det sker felaktigheter vid godsmottagning med avseende på registrering och sortering. Genomförda litteraturstudier ligger till grund för ett teoretiskt ramverk innehållande principer som bör tas i beaktning vid arbetet med intern materialhantering. Ramverket är en utgångspunkt för de förbättringsförslag som tas fram för att lösa de problem som bedöms orsaka produktionsstopp. Övergripande sett hamnar förbättrings­­förslagen inom tre skilda områden. Det första området berör problem orsakade av mänskliga faktorer vilka kan minimeras genom ökad motivation, produktkunskap och helhets­förståelse. Område nummer två täcker fysisk förflyttning av material samt registrering av detta i affärssystemet vilket bör ske på ett standardiserat och mer säkert sätt. Det tredje området innefattar ett behov av utökad mätning och uppföljning av de problem som uppstår i flödet för att få ökad kontroll över vad som sker. Studenterna rekommenderar företaget att, förutom att implementera föreslagna förbättringar, också studera det teoretiska ramverket för att kunna tillämpa detta på ytterligare problem som studien har identifierat men som ligger utanför studiens omfång. / Internal material handling is an area within logistics that receive little attention. Logistics on the other hand has received increased attention in recent years due to the fast and global growth of markets. The aim for this report is to study the internal material handling at Fläkt Woods AB’s factory in Jönköping, Sweden. The study is limited to include activities from receiving goods until the start of final assembly. The purpose with this case study is to identify potential problem within the current setup of the internal material handling system and provide suggestions for improvements in order to minimize downtime in production caused by lack of material. Based on an abductive approach, the data collection performed via documents, observations and interviews lays the foundation for the compilation of a number of flowcharts. These flowcharts describe the flow for three separate product groups which the company previously has identified as most interesting to map. With the flowcharts as a starting point potential problems are identified and, with the use of an own-composed analytical framework, also classified in order to sort out problems that are likely to cause downtime in production. The study states that these problems originate from damaged/defective components, incorrect storing/picking or occur due to errors when recording and sorting newly arrived goods. Literature studies are the basis for a theoretical framework containing a number of principles that should be taken into consideration when handling material internally. This framework is the base on which the presented suggestions for improvements rely. The suggestions can be divided into three separate areas. Problems caused by human factors can be minimized by increased motivation, increased knowledge and a more comprehensive view within the workforce. All kinds of physical movement along with registration in the ERP-system should be conducted in a more standardized and secure way. A need of increased measuring and monitoring has also become evident in order to increase control over different types of undesirable events. Beside implementing the proposed suggestions for improvement the students also advice the company to study the theoretical framework in order to be able to apply it on other problems. This study identifies quite a few other problems, but due to the scope of the study they are not further analyzed.

Aim: More and more organizations worldwide want to develop products for global markets. At the same time, they need to make their products available in the global market to be competitive. One of today's trends to solve this problem of making products in the global market is by involving logistics to manage complex distribution requirements. Organizations have developed strategic alliances with companies all over the world to manage their logistics operations network. (www.chrobinson.com). My research was aimed at understanding the coordination of logistics activities at the terminal.   Method: I based my study on a combination of descriptive and exploratory type. As regards descriptive I presented my data collected in a descriptive analysis. Also I used the exploratory research to know exactly the implementation of logistics activities at Schenker's terminal and also to observe the activities, conduct interviews and administer questionnaires.   Result &amp; Conclusions: The major results of my findings revealed that the existing management procedure of the outbound logistics system at Schenker terminal which involves material handling, transportation, distribution, cross-docking, customer service and information systems could not be seen as lean and agile. This is because of the existence of many problems faced by the terminal such as congestion, flows inefficiencies, excess scrap, too much manual documentation,  delays in deliveries, damages, poor customer service, return goods, idle equipment (forklift and trucks) and personal and high cost of operations.   Suggestions for future research: The study is limited in the sense that it does not include the whole supply chain; the terminal is just a part in the supply chain and whatever problems that are encountered are not experienced in the whole supply chain. This could lead to a broader basis of a future research project.

In recent years increasing growth rate of all industrial fields generated an emerging energy demand and consequent environmental problems worldwide. Defining environmental profiles of products and systems using environmental tools, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is a critical issue for sustainable mining. In order to tackle the increasing environmental challenges and air emissions induced by surface coal mining, alternative material handling options are needed to be evaluated. This research study aims to provide a robust LCA model in selection of the alternative material haulage systems as a decision support system. The main objectives of this thesis study are: i) contributing to the national archived data by gathering data about haulage systems from an open pit coal mine, ii) constructing life cycle inventory from the acquired environmental data, iii) performing life cycle assessment of both material haulage systems in an open pit coal mine according to their environmental burdens, iv) conducting uncertainty assessment, and v) suggesting improvement in stages where emissions are critical. In order to accomplish these objectives, comparative LCA from cradle-to-grave was carried out in SIMAPRO 7.3 to determine life cycle environmental impacts of off-highway mining trucks and belt conveyors in coal transportation. Climate change and acidification were selected as major impact categories considered to be major concerns in mining industry. The results of this study revealed that off-highway trucks had 1.9 times greater impact on acidification category than belt conveyors, on the other hand, belt conveyors had 1.6 times greater impact on climate change. NOx emissions caused 96 percent of the acidification impact. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion led to 95 percent of the climate change effect. The obtained results also indicated that the highest impact on all selected impact categories were generated from the utilization stage of the trucks operated by diesel oil and utilization of belt conveyor systems operated by electricity. The main novelty of this study is that it is one of the first LCA studies in the Turkish mining industry where considerable amount of emissions occur due to material handling. This study also advances the current knowledge about environmentally critical processes in material handling systems and places recommendations for both alternatives aiming better decision making. The results of the study are expected to provide a decision support system for the mining industry.

<p>Logistics plays a crucial role in companies’ ability to sustain competitive on the market. Time is regarded as one of the important metric in terms of logistics, since time influences the lead time of the products, which results in the vital advantage of speed. The recent business environment forces Kinnarps Production AB, a manufacturer of furniture, to optimize their inventory material flow in a way of increasing their capability and capacity to load more distribution containers with goods daily. The present circumstances of the material flow are associated with number of negative factors. An automated guided vehicle (AGV) system is operating and handling the distribution of goods. Wrong sequence of activities, long transportations, high transportation delays, waiting time, varying numbers of AGVs, wastes, bottlenecks are among the important issues to be considered.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the material flow in Kinnarps Production AB’s inventory seven and to improve the AGV system activities within.</p><p>Concepts associated with identifying waste were used by separating value-adding activities from the non-value added ones. The usage of ideal reference systems techniques were the base for identifying problems. Concrete literature regarding AGV’s design system was applied in establishing different statements about the material flow and identification of problems. Different methods and techniques were used in approaching the research, but most above others is the case study approach. Numerous amounts of secondary data have been employed in verifying the collection of other data carried out by primary data collection as well as verifying the qualitative and quantitative analysis.</p><p>A mapping of the current system was established with respect to orders, times and distances. Numbers of congestion points were identified, non-value adding activities were eliminated or decreased, rearrangement of sequencing of different activities was considered and different pallets arrangement system was established. A stochastic model was used in identifying the AGV’s time variables in the system and estimating appropriate amount of AGVs within the inventory.</p><p>All the findings from different calculations and estimations were associated with Kinnarps Production’s future increased demand. Different issues and considerations were analyzed and appropriate suggestions were given for elimination of the negative factors in the inventory or their decrease. Among the most influencing results was the proper amount of AGVs in the inventory area, pallets rearrangement, different stocking policy, rearrangement in the sequence of activities, increase of the buffer for pallets used for loading containers, new conveyor system for the incoming goods in the inventory, transportation layout changes resulting in blocking free routines, separate control system, decrease of the effect of stoppages. All these findings are considered to optimize the material flow and increase the system capacity contributing to an increase of the daily containers outgoing from Kinnarps Production AB.</p>

<p>In this thesis was a model developed, in order to improve deficiencies in existing literature regarding the layout problem and to give companies a comprehensible user-friendly procedure on how to design competitive production processes, plant layouts and material handling systems. The model consists of six phases that can be used sequentially in order to design, evaluate, implement and maintain effective plant layouts and material handling systems. The model can also be used to examine and optimize processes. The first four phases of the model were tested successfully in a case study at Holtab AB, a medium sized manufacturing company in Tingsryd.</p>