Undvika det 9:e slöseriet: identifiering och anpassning av behov och krav vid implementering av visuella styrtavlor i ett litet tillverkande HVLV företag

Sammanfattning: Lean has been adapted by various industries and applied to differing processes in the world as a means of improvement and competitiveness. In the implementation of Lean, the focus is usually on eliminating the 7 + 1 wastes (Muda) through continuous improvement. In most previous cases, the result of the implemented continuous improvement has been far from successful, and further resulted in the 9th waste also named as, "Improvements in vain" or "Wasted improvements". One of the important tools for supporting implementation of Lean and continuous improvement is daily production meetings and visual management. In manufacturing companies these tools are common for facilitating the surfacing of the problems in production, identify the root causes and develop solutions for them. As other Lean tools, daily production meetings and visual management should be customised to the needs and requirements of different industries and companies to avoid the 9th waste. Small manufacturing companies with high variety and low-volume production, has their own challenges, needs and requirements. Therefore, the aim of this thesis project is to describe how visual control boards can be adapted to the needs and requirements of a small manufacturing company with low volume and high variety to facilitate the challenges of communication and coordination of daily work and continuous improvement. The project was conducted primarily in a Swedish small company named Ztift AB, which produces locks and security solutions with high range of variety of products and low production volumes (HVLV). To achieve the objective of the project, initially, the literature of the related area was reviewed, two other manufacturing companies were studied and two experts were consulted. In addition, Ztift was studied through observation and interviews. Based on the outcomes of the study, two solutions were developed and implemented to meet the requirements and needs of Ztift as well as its maturity level in Lean implementation. The solutions were visual production boards for continuous improvement and daily operations. The solutions were followed and improved continuously during four weeks after implementation. Finally, a meeting at Ztift was made to explore the outcomes of the implemented solutions.