Organisational Hurdles for Scrap Reduction in Manufacturing

Abstract: The purpose of this report is to identify the main challenges involved with scrap management in the manufacturing context. The work was conducted in collaboration with Cummins-Scania XPI in Södertälje. In order to conduct the work, a literature review covering the areas of quality management in the manufacturing context was conducted. In the end, Total Quality Management was chosen as the main theoretical framework that was used to identify the organisational challenges for scrap management. With respect to how this work was carried out, a Current State Analysis was used for the evaluation of the case company's practices. Data gathering was carried out through component testing and interviews. The results indicate that several points for improvement exist in the assembly and salvage lines, with the main ones being adherence to documentation processes, motivation of scrapping decisions, and more centralised data management. Moreover, it was shown that unjustified risk aversion may lead to undue scrapping of components. The results are immediately relevant and useful for the case company but have the potential of being valuable for other companies, as well. Namely, the methodology laid out in this report can be replicated and produce valuable insights in all manufacturing contexts. On the other hand, factors such as the type of scrap generated affect the applicability of this report's findings to different contexts. For instance, production lines with scrap consisting of solid metal parts will find more immediate use from this report compared to production lines with more chemically complex scrap, such as circuit board designs with adhered batteries.