Internal material transports at Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB

Abstract: This report is the result of a master thesis work which has been carried out at Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB (SIT). The aim of the study has been to examine the possibilities of improving the internal material handling at SIT by making the flow of materials more efficient. SIT develops, manufacture and sell steam and gas turbines to industrial customers all over the world. The site in Finspång consists of a number of workshops which are geographical spread across a fairly large area. This creates a need for material movements and transports that does not add any value to the final products being made. To examine the possibilities of making the material handling at SIT more efficient, a description of the present situation and a mapping of the internal material flows have been made. With the mapping as a starting point, a proposal for how to improve the material flow is presented and analyzed regarding both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The proposal, which is overarching and describes general effects rather than details, suggests that SIT relocate the core engine assembly department from the area called “Centrum” to the area called “Norrmalm” and locate the incoming goods area as close as possible to the place of the consumption of the material. The analysis of the mapping shows that there is 180 kilometers of internal transports at SIT every week. In this distance, transport between different departments and different working stations in the same building, are not included. The need for transports exists mainly because of the fact that SIT has its incoming goods area located at Norrmalm, approximately 2.2 kilometers away from its warehouse building and by implementing the proposal given in this work, the weekly transport distance will decrease by 60 percent. Apart from the decrease in distance, the change will also make it possible to simplify the goods receiving process.