Reducing lead-time at a steel manufacturer - Identifying and eliminating time waste in the value stream

Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Program
Supply chain management (MPSCM), MSc
Publicerad
2013
Författare
Johansson, Mikael
Malmhäll-Bah, Robin
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Time is today a critical resource just as capital and labour. Wasted time is undesirable for all companies, and thus, waste should be eliminated. In order to attack and eliminate time waste it is important to know what waste is, and to begin with a comprehensive understanding of the logistical and the production process. Lean production is developed to do more with less – less time, less space, less machinery, less materials, while still giving the customers what they want. Lean defines waste as activities that do not add any value for the customers, or activity that the customer is not willing to pay for. This is the definition used throughout this thesis. The focal company for the thesis is a steel manufacturer. Today, the focal company has a general lead-time of 10 workdays. However, the management of the focal company feels that it would be a good competitive advantage to reduce the general lead-time. Therefore did the management decide to execute a project involving a comprehensive evaluation of the existing lead-time at one of their productions sites, SSC. The purpose of this project is to identify time waste and other insufficiencies, in order to find ways of reducing the general lead-time for its customers. The final conclusions will present a recommendation for a new general lead-time. In order to achieve the purpose of this thesis, theory and models have been used as an analysing framework. The main theory in the framework has been Lean production, and the main model used to identifying waste in the value stream has been Value Stream Mapping. Value stream mapping has been performed on the value streams within the production site of the focal company. These value stream maps have then laid the foundation for the analysis and the conclusion. Furthermore, has planning activities as production planning, optimization and transport planning also been explored an analysed in order to find time waste or insufficiencies. The findings of the exploration showed that the current throughput time in the production is around four days, and that the majority of this time is waste. The largest time wastes in the production is queues in front of machines or in buffer stock, and storage time in the outbound deliveries. Furthermore, the exploration of the current lead-time showed that the majority of the general lead-time is devoted to accumulating order volumes, in order to be able to optimize the material use. The conclusions in this master thesis are that there are possibilities to reduce the lead-time by eliminating time waste. The conclusions are that the new general lead-time can be seven workdays, instead tend days, which is a reduction of three workdays. Most of this time is reduced by: stabilizing the material handling processes, implementing paced withdrawal at the pacemaker process, implementing a new IT-system and to book transports in advanced.
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Övrig industriell teknik och ekonomi , Transport , Other industrial engineering and economics , Transport
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