Lead Time Reduction Case study:BEAB etikett & system AB

Abstract: In today’s competitive business world, companies require small lead times, low costs andhigh customer service levels to survive. Because of this, companies have become morecustomer focused . The result is that companies have been putting in significant effort toreduce their lead times.The purpose of this master thesis was to reduce lead time at BEAB etikett & system AB(BEAB) by focusing both on ordering and production times. In order to achieve this allprocesses from receiving an order to shipment of the order are mapped in a current statemap. Some changes based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) were implemented.The results were then mapped in a future state map.BEAB has more than 30 years experience of producing labels in different sizes andshapes. The products’ range varies from hanger labels on clothing to self adhesive labelsfor pallets. Due to globalization and stiff competition, the 8 days lead time at BEAB hasto be reduced so that they could maintain their customers, and even increase theircustomer base.It was found that the most appropriate mapping method for lead time reduction wasValue Stream Mapping (VSM). From the results achieved by VSM it was obvious thatthe press machines were bottlenecks. In order to increase their capacity, their change overtime should be reduced. Another observation derived from the VSM, was that a neworder passing through the ordering department is an unnecessary step. Some otherrecommended changes based on applying TPS are:• Reduction of work in process inventory (WIP)• Reduction of waiting time between press and converter• Stop the process to build in quality (this sounds awkward)• Collect more information• Implementation of the 5S methodologyBy implementing these changes, the future state map was created and the total lead timewas reduced from 8 days to 6 days. The production lead time reduced from 4.35 days to 4days.