Material flow : An analysis of a production area for improved material flow

Sammanfattning: Focus in the world today is quality and customer orientation. An organization needs to understand the concept of value from the perspective of a customer in order to keep up with expectations on quality, and the turbulent and global environment of today characterized by rapidly changing conditions. This master thesis project was conducted at ABB in Sweden during spring 2020. It is essential for ABB to have an ongoing focus on improvement to maintain a successful organization and enable a competitive future of quality and innovation. The aim of this project was to identify ways to improve material flow and reduce the amount of non-value-added activities that exist in a particular assembly process today. The objective of the project was to conduct proposals on realistic actions for improvement for implementation. Initially in the project a current state was performed and compiled into a specification of requirements and visualized through overall mapping of the material and communication flow. Two of the requirements were reducing the total lead time and ensure the same, or improved, physical and psychosocial work environment. The result of the current state showed that material is not available when needed, material shelves are not structured, and material flow is not optimal. Analysis methods used for analyzing the current state were material flow charts, value stream mapping and spaghetti diagrams. The outcome of the performed analyzes were then used as the foundation for a compiled list of problem areas. All previous performed work was then summarized, discussed and developed into a list of actions for improvement. This phase was performed by initially generating a great amount of ideas, which were then reviewed and evaluated in consideration of the specification of requirements. In addition to the final list of actions, a mapping of the future state was conducted to support the actions and visualize what a future state could look like if the actions are implemented. Lastly, the final list of actions was complemented with another list – a living document of the actions. This document gives the opportunity on a regular basis to monitor progress and should be regularly reviewed and updated. To ensure a successful implementation of improvement work based on the conducted action list, it is recommended to define and clarify responsibility for each action as well as target date and end date. Furthermore, the list should be continuously modified to ensure implementation. It is as well recommended to acknowledge implemented improvements in parallel with performing actions to maintain motivation. Additionally, participation in implementation and promoting dialogue, transparency and respect are valuable factors reducing the negative effects of the implementation of improvement concepts and contributes to a sustainable development of the improvement work.