Införande av lean inom industriella administrativa stödprocesser med fokus på visuell styrning : En fallstudie på ABB GA Products

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate how industrial administrative support processes and visual control can be streamlined, visualized and communicated by the introduction of lean.  To be able to answer the aim of the study, three research questions have been formulated: 1. Which non-value adding activities are limiting the efficiency of the administrative support processes and the visual control, within the industrial orders and shipping departments? 2. How can the support processes and visual control within the industrial orders and shipping departments, potentially be streamlined, visualized and communicated by the introduction of lean? 3. By the introduction of lean, what potential metrics will visualize and communicate the industrial administration support processes within orders and shipping departments? Methodology: A case study, a benchmarking study and literature review have been performed in order to answer the research questions. The literature review is based on a study of lean from a strategic and operational perspective, with a main focus on support processes and visual control. The case study was based on value stream mapping of support processes combined with observations and interviews in the area of visual control and visualization of workplace and information. Furthermore, the benchmarking study was based on observations and interviews of performed lean transformation and visual control. Collected data from the case study and benchmarking study have been analysed with the support of the literature. Findings: Non-value adding activities that are restricting the efficiency of the support processes and visual control, were identified and present opportunities for improvements. The support processes had different wastes, lacked guiding principles and were found to be unstable and unstandardized. The lack of visual control could be traced back to the lack of structure and design of daily meetings, control boards, suitable lean metrics and management of identified challenges. Factors like absence of framework for continuous improvements and visual workplaces and information, were identified. A new structured and pedagogical design was proposed. The new design include an introduction of lean within management, the design of an action plan, the selection of guiding principles and a redesign of value streams. Furthermore, the proposed design include a new design of daily meetings, control boards, lean metrics and a new framework for continuous improvements and visualisation of workplace and information in order to streamline and visualize support processes and visual control. Implications: The purpose of the research study has been achieved by solving the research questions. By the identification of non-value adding activities a new efficient design has been proposed. However, only one case study was performed, therefore its ability to create scientific value, can be regarded as limited. Recommendations: For further studies, it would be of interest to study several businesses with similar problems in order to increase the generalizability of the study and the ability to create scientific value.