Lean spare parts delivery chain
Sammanfattning: AbstractWhen a product has been sold to a customer a new market arises for the company to earn profit from and to differentiate itself within. According to Bartwal, et al. (2010) the after sales market generally does not provide great revenues but good profits of the total revenue. In order to gain competiveness and live up to customer’s expectations a company needs to be efficient (Atkinson, 2004). He continuous that this can be accomplished if companies implement Lean. Lean is different tools and philosophies that are used to improve the productivity within a company and also to eliminate wastes.This thesis will answer what Lean philosophies should companies first start to implement and why, to become more efficient.This research was conducted at a manufacturing company of industrial equipment, competing on a global market.To succeed in the aftermarket companies have to: deliver the right part, in the right amount, to the right place, in the right time and to the right price. Implementing a production system like Lean the authors think can give a company the edge to win the aftermarket. In the case company where the research was conducted management had decided to implement Lean. By that they could be considered to be engaged and long-term thinking. This is one of the crucial factors to succeeding in implementing Lean (Achanga et al. 2006). The next step would be to start the cultural change of the rest of the company. The best way to do this is to find where applying a Lean philosophy would make a quick improvement. That improvement will show the co-workers what can be achieved with Lean and raise the motivation to participate in the cultural change. The five steps outlined in Womack and Jones (2003) is a good way to follow when implementing Lean. The first of these five steps is according to Womack and Jones (2003) to find out what the customer values. An additional step are to standardize processes, this would set a starting point for future improvements. If improvement work is done without a starting point it is impossible to know if a change made was for the better. Implementing a new culture and/or production system takes long time and companies have to have the courage to invest both time and money. Time for co-workers to be educated, time to work with the implementation and money for acquiring the right competence. With that and by being persistent the authors believe there is a good chance for success.To the company, which was studied in this thesis, our recommendation is to start by mapping and standardizing their processes to improve the flow. Extended cooperation with suppliers and distributors will give the company better visibility of the supply chain. When good visibility and suppliers delivering on time is reached the company can lower their safety stocks in their central distribution center. The authors believe that by implementing Lean the case study company will get a long-term investment which will pay off in a more effective working company and they will be more competitive in their line of business.
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