An Analysis of the Kitting Process at Electrolux Mariestad

Sammanfattning: In order to meet goals set by the Electrolux Group, the factory in Mariestad has been changed significantly with the introduction of two new assembly lines. Kitting has been implemented along with a new material replenishment system. Several new products have also been introduced and these three elements have caused a rather chaotic situation at Mariestad in the beginning of 2011. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the effectiveness in the kitting process for the assembly line and give suggestions for improvement. The goal is then to reach a conclusion that improves the effectiveness of the kitting and therefore the efficiency of the whole assembly operation. In order to reach this goal, specific data was gathered and analyzed with regard to kitting efficiency and complexity. A special program was built and installed on the kitting stations which collected important data about the kitting. The data was then analyzed in Excel and used in a simulation of the kitting area. An extensive complexity analysis was also done, from an article and product point of view. The results show that there is a strong correlation between the efficiency of the kitting and the size of the articles to be kitted. Bigger articles take longer time since they more boxes are needed to reach the desired batch size of the kit. An interesting connection is found between kitting time and batch size, where the kitting time per article would decrease with an increased batch size, but only up to a certain point where it would start to increase again. The results from the complexity analysis give an insight into how article and product complexity affect kitting. The results show that there is room for improvement. The suggestion for Electrolux is to get articles which take the longest time to kit, pre-kitted from suppliers. A complexity analysis from the production side is also recommended as it would benefit the whole production process.