Improving material flow and production layout using Value Stream Mapping : A case study in a manufacturing company

Abstract

The movement and handling of material are necessary activities, however, commonly regarded as waste. Moving and handling material more times and over longer distance than necessary is time consuming, costly and unproductive. Therefore, a suitable material handling (MH) system with appropriate facility layout is advocated. The purpose of this thesis is to explore options for material flow improvements and handling of material in production area. This comprises of a study of the material flow from storage to production areas and the handling of material in production section A. If necessary for improvements of material flow, a change in layout design will be recommended. The research approach for this thesis is a case study where data has been collected from documents, observations and interviews. The study shows that 9 % of the production time of one article is spent on manual material handling (MMH). These activities are classified as both waste and necessary, however not adding any value. The same applies for the material flow. Unnecessary distances of movements are caused by the current location of storage, operations and lack of proper structure for handling and moving material. The contribution of this study is a list of suggestions for improving the material flow and handling. Changes for improvements are, namely, availability of appropriate equipment, storing materials closer to the operations and investing in automation and vision systems with cameras of robots. The material flow and the way the material is handled can further beimproved by a change in the layout of the production area. Connecting and rearranging operations can shorter and ease the movement of material with ample space to handle the material.