Värdeflödesanalys av leveransprovning : en fallstudie på Sandvik Materials Technology

Sammanfattning: The findings in this thesis summary is based on work and studies at Sandvik Materials Technology Tubes’ (“SMTT”) department for Material End Testing (“MET”), a unit responsible for various testing and measurements that are aimed and ensuring that the produced material meets or exceeds the customer’s specifications. SMTT is an Industrial Manufacturing company. It has discovered that Lead Times related to the MET are irregular. The MET is one of last steps before the product is delivered to the Customer. Today, SMTT recognizes that the irregular Lead Times affect the overall delivery flow and SMTT further understands that it cannot effectively control and predict the Lead Time for the MET process.   There are a couple of goals with the Study and Thesis work. The primary goal has been to find non value added activities within the Material Testing Process through the use of a tool used within “Lean Production” called “Value Stream Mapping”. Another goal has been to find new or highlight existing Key Performance Indicators (“KPI”) that are relevant for the evaluated flow.   The Value Stream Mapping is indicating and identifying that there are deficiencies within the material end testing process. The problems found in the value flow can be corrected and thereby increase the control of the lead time. Primary findings suggest that improved communication and better inter and intra departmental cooperation could have positive effects. In terms of new KPI’s, the analysis is indicating that more can be done to track tests that yield test results that are below the customer’s acceptance standards. This new KPI can be called “Deviating Test Results”. The reasons for offending tests vary. Overall, only a small percentage of the tests are abnormal when compared to tests with nominal results. Thus a vast majority of the tests satisfy the customer’s specifications and ultimately those tests are approved.   More work is necessary to fully investigate the details of the new proposed KPI – Deviating Test Results. If abnormal test results can be categorized and quantified in an effective way, it would be possible to get closer to finding the root cause for a test sample with a substandard composition. With a quantity indicator, the samples with the highest problem frequency could be addressed first. In the end, the process would benefit if the bad samples could be eliminated before reaching the MET Process. Another area that could be studied further is the MET’s Inspection Tests. These are the tests as measurements that requires the presence of person overseeing the process. This can be a Customer or another Representative/Person. One area of interest would be to identify Inspection Test Results as KPIs. Data would be collected during the test and it could later be analyzed in ways to give additional insights. Today there is no such data collection. There may be correlation between test results, Lead Times, and time on-hand. A goal would be to calculate the Inspection Sample’s total throughput time, especially as it directly relates to the MET Process.