Kapacitetsökning i tillverkningsprocesser genom eliminering av förluster

Sammanfattning: An increased demand from customers requires that a company has the ability to respond to potential requests. Based on an increased demand this results in either that the supplier has space for more customer orders or an understanding of how capacity can be increased in production. An investment in a new machine may be an option to solve the company´s problems. Another option is to identify possible losses and make the current working process more efficient instead of investing in a new machine.   The bachelor thesis has been carried out at the company Proton Engineering AB in Skillingaryd. In today´s situation, Proton Engineering uses manual, semi-manual, completely automated machines in the manufacture of products in steel, aluminum and stainless steel. In the current situation, there is a high demand for products manufactured on the semi-manual bending machine 2705. The operation in the machine runs in two shifts and manned by one operator in each shift. Bending machine 2705 has been used for several years and Proton Engineering claims that the age of the machine affects the productivity negatively. To achieve increased productivity on the bending machine 2705 it requires the company to meet the increased demand from customers.   The purpose of the study is to investigate how Proton Engineering can produce more units per unit of time thus increase the productivity of the bending machine 2705. The objective with this bachelor thesis is to detect a more profitable solution for increased productivity and increased revenue than investing in a new machine. Two questions that are asked in the study are: “What are the main reasons of causing the manufacturing process inactive on machine 2705 during planned production time?”and “What are the most important action proposals to increase the average pace of the machine?”.   In order to identify the utilization of the bending machine 2705 and identify the underlying factors that prevent the machine from producing products, a frequency-study has been carried out during bending & cutting and also during the set up time. In addition, an analyze of the cycle time has been carried out in order to gain a greater understanding of the operator's work at the machine.   The result shows that the bending & cutting has a direct productionof approximately 42% and the direct switchof the set up time gives a value of approximately 23%. The other percentage of distribution is therefore considered as a loss of work and gives room for improvement opportunities.   Based on the frequency-studies and analyzes of the cycle time on the machine 2705, a possible investment in a new machine is not the solution to Proton's problem in today's situation. An estimated production potential of 140% for shifts 1 and 130% on shift 2 has been made using adjustments in the current situation that do not provide any costs for Proton Engineering.