Towards standardised machine elements at a packaging provider

Abstract: The purpose of this Master Thesis is to propose a standardisation process, to act as a support when developing standardised machine elements within Tetra Pak. The standardisation process has the intention to investigate the potentials to reduce the variety of the machine elements by applying common elements in several machines. The standardisation process is developed through altering between literature studies concerning product development and standardisation and real life observations. The studied literature is adapted to the specific purpose and the proposed process is applied to one machine element and is then refined to maximise the usability. This thesis results in a proposed standardisation process, but also potential cost reductions that will be obtained if implementing standardised machine elements. The standardisation process is developed to fit general machine elements within distribution equipment at a packaging provider. It is applied and tested on one machine element, the belt brake. If it is applied to other areas and in other industries it may have to be refined. If standardised machine elements are applied it will give rise to less required resources in areas such as: spare part handling, development and purchasing, it will also give rise to economies of scale. The value of this thesis is a standardisation process which aims to reduce the variety of applied machine elements within the distribution equipment.