Implementing Lean Manufacturing philosophy at Kalmar Industries with focus on continuous improvements.

Abstract: Background: To stay strong and competitive in the business high productivity and low manufacturing cost are crucial. Kalmar Industries know that they have potential to accomplish better results if they engage all employees to cooperate. Due to the financial crisis other things have been prioritised and not enough Lean thinking exercised in the organisation. Through better understanding and clearer vision they will achieve to work together and strive towards same goals. Problem description: Financial crisis has forced Cargotec to deprioritise their improvement work which currently is highly unstructured. Only limited a number of employees are involved. Through structured way of working employees would be convinced. Thus, favour all parts within the organisation. Purpose: To develop a system where all ideas and suggestions could be gathered and visible for the whole organisation. Objectives: Analyse, improve and present a better solution for Cargotec. Deliverables: 1. Analysis which contains certain information and takes following aspects into consideration: -Definition of current way of working with continuous improvement -What obstacles could occur with a new system -How can the organisation engage all operators and deliver correct message throughout the organisation. III 2. IT based system which supports and displays the improvements and their progress. Method: This master’s thesis was approached with a qualitative method to capture the entirety of the problem. Data analysis was collected from literature study, several interviews at Cargotec MAU Lidhult and bench-marking against Electrolux, Haldex Traction and Höganäsbolaget . This thesis was performed iterative-ly, particular in the stages of empiricism and analysis. Conclusion: The developed system provides visibility and helps departments to work cross functionally. Through simplicity more employees would be engaged in the organisation and new improvements would be generated. Cargotec needs improvement teams consisting of operators as well as representatives from several support functions. These teams will have fortnightly reconciliation meetings to achieve a higher level of cross functionality. When introducing it is important to deliver the right message to the operators, which is “Never-ending improvements benefit both employees and enterprise”. In the long run, Cargotec MAU Lidhult will stay as a strong competitor in the business.