Productivity increase valve and pipe assembly: An investigation of how to improve the manufacturing process in a large variant production environment

Abstract

Increasing productivity is an ever present challenge in the manufacturing industry where demands on resource utilisation and reduced tied up capital are increasing constantly in order to match the competition and stay ahead as a world class truck manufacturer. The investigated part of the production is assembling one of the most complex fractions of the truck, with high variances in workload and in the end two different brands through the same work flow creating an unstable process hard to predict. This project has been conducted using a structured way of first gathering, for the most part, primary data which is then used to analyse and develop a solution with the Volvo Production Systems as a base (the principles of Lean production adapted to Volvo Trucks). By improving the process stability with the tools 5S and standardized work an increase in productivity of 49 percent will be reached within a few months while the improvement within one to two years will be 107 percent. This is due to a reduction of all seven wastes, reduction in lead and a reduction of work in progress. The solution is based on an integration of 5S and standardized work, making the two tools work together in a profitable way compared to implementing them separately.