Setup time reduction by using lean and maintenance tools
Abstract: In today’s society it is increasingly important for production companies to reduce waste during production to gain as much profit as possible. This leads to companies implementing techniques such as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and lean to various degrees. These techniques use different kinds of tools to continuously improve every process they are applied to.The purpose of this master thesis is to reveal the amount of time wasted during a scheduled maintenance and show how much that can be saved. The focus during the scheduled maintenance will be on reducing the setup time by converting internal setup time to external setup time. The company produces their products in batches to customer orders.As a part of the thesis, a literature study was performed to gain enough knowledge about lean and TPM. The literature study explains what lean is and informs on how a “lean mentality” is needed for implementation. After the mentality requirement has been revealed the tools needed to implement lean are presented. TPM can in some cases be seen as a tool to implement lean but it includes other lean tools as well.After analyzing the data gathered during the master thesis, it is concluded that the source of the waste comes from many different parts of the scheduled maintenance. The two biggest sources of the waste are a lack of planning and the need to blast the machine parts. Multiple solutions are suggested. The suggestions focus on different parts of the waste problem to in the end eliminate all of the waste.The company choses to implement some actions to start organizing the work stations better and to simplify the planning. These are a scheduled maintenance wagon to organize and store all tools needed and a planning tool to reduce waiting time that can occur during production.After implementing lean, it is clear that the company can increase their value added time even further. This increase in value added time can continue to rise if the company decides to fully evolve in to a company with a lean mentality.
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