Identification of improvement areas in the goods receiving process at GE Healthcare

Abstract: This report is a result of the final project of the authors’ Master of
Science degree that was conducted at General Electric Healthcare’s Umeå
Plant. The project was initiated to contribute to the efforts already taking
place in order to improve the plant’s delivery reliability. Though there were
many factors involved, some of the problems were found to be associated with
the internal material receiving process. The focus of this report is
therefore on mapping and developing this process with respect to lead time
and variability in lead time.

To suit this specific task, the three improvement philosophies of Six Sigma,
Lean and Theory of Constraints were combined to make up the working model of
the project. Six Sigma was used to attack the process variation and Lean to
minimise waiting time and increase the value to the customer. Theory of
Constraints was used to maximise throughput by identifying and strengthening
the weakest link. To tie the three philosophies together the Plan Do Check
Act-cycle was used, intended to encourage systematic improvements of the
process.

By mapping and evaluating the current state of the goods receiving process,
five improvement areas were revealed, namely: lack of process follow up,
quality inspection as a process constraint, lack of first in first out-flow
and ineffective space utilisation, insufficient process deviation management
and disturbances in the material flow caused by material shortages.

Suggestions to solving the discovered problems have been developed in
cooperation with the process operators and summarised in an action plan. One
of the suggested changes is to calculate the costs associated with handling
and inspection of deliveries and then incorporate this cost in the selection
and evaluation of suppliers. Another part of the action plan is to evaluate
the process capability of the suppliers to determine the need for quality
inspection at arrival. Regarding the process operations, automatic
registration, simplified handling through pre-packaging and first in first
out handling routines are suggested to speed up the flow. A system for
regular process follow-up and deviations management is also proposed.

A secondary purpose of the project has been to contribute to the knowledge of
student led improvement work by reflecting on experiences from performing
research related to the primary purpose. Besides the support that the project
working model is contributing with, the most important success factors were
found to be a common understanding and agreement of the purpose of the
project, active involvement and participation by operators and management and
regular project follow-up together with key persons.