PROD 1024 Advanced Principles in Lean Manufacturing

PROD 1024 Advanced Principles in Lean
Manufacturing
Coursework
Individually read the Hydraulic Equipment Lines Limited data set and:
1. Produce a door-to-door value stream map of the current manufacturing
process.
2. Outline and answer the eight key questions for the future state design.
3. Thereby produce a future state map detailing the processes necessary
to operate the factory according to lean manufacturing principles.
4. Produce an implementation plan for the company to move from
present state to future state.
Notes:
1. Submission Date: Monday 23rd November 2020
Remember – this is an individual piece of coursework. If you
collaborate, you risk losing all your marks!
This coursework is intended to measure the following learning outcomes:
reflect on the significance of lean theory and the application of key lean thinking
principles;
critically analyse lean thinking in different engineering sectors;
formulate innovative proposals based on detailed knowledge of the tools and
techniques relating to the implementation of lean thinking;
Hydraulic Equipment Limited
Hydraulic Equipment Lines Limited (HELL), a subdivision of Heave Industries
(HeavIn), produces components and sub-assemblies for heavy goods vehicles. Your
client, Ms S. Noble, the production director at HELL, has asked you to analyse one
product family, hydraulic control sections. These are produced in several
configurations for different haulage vehicles and markets. The market for hydraulic
control sections covers both original-equipment heavy goods vehicle assemblers and
the aftermarket repair and overhaul businesses that support the road transport industry
worldwide. Ms Noble is under significant pressure to reduce costs and improve
profitability, and your project aims to increase her chance of achieving this at HELL.
As the company offers a wide variety of possible configurations, and the fact that the
exact configuration each customer requires can vary from order to order, hydraulic
control sections are made to order. A hydraulic control section currently takes 27 days
to go through the factory. This production lead time and a large order backlog have
resulted in HELL having to quote a 60 day lead time to customers. Unfortunately,
HELL’s original-equipment customers can not predict their exact requirements more
than 2 weeks before use. As a result they make frequent changes to the detail of their
orders 2 weeks before delivery. These changes lead to frequent expediting of batches
at the HELL factory.
Production Control at HELL releases customer orders to the factory approximately in
the sequence that they are received, the shop floor supervisors and operators “batch”
the orders together by configuration in an attempt to reduce the number of
changeovers. This also leads to expediting of orders.
The product
§ A hydraulic control section is a metal tube with a cast connector welded to
each end.
§ Hydraulic control sections are available in 50 different lengths, 2 diameters,
and with 2 different types of connectors. Each end of a hydraulic control
section can have a different connector. This means that HELL can potentially
supply 400 different finished hydraulic control sections. It is not known what
the demand for each individual specification is.
Customer requirements
§ 12000 hydraulic control sections per month.
§ Order size varies from 5 pieces up to 200 pieces. Average order size is 50
pieces.
§ 5 hydraulic control sections per box.
§ Several shipments each day by truck to different customers.
§ Each order from each customer varies in quantity and configuration.
§ HELL requires orders to arrive 60 days before shipping of finished hydraulic
control sections.
§ Customers may change the mix of configurations up to 2 weeks before the
shipping date.
Production Processes
All the hydraulic control sections follow the same basic factory routing:

material), painting (done at an external contractor’s premises), and finally
assembly of the connectors. The cast connectors are also machined at HEL’s
factory. Finished hydraulic control sections are shipped to customers daily.
§ Switching between tube lengths requires a 15 minute changeover at the
cutting, welding and deflash workstations.
§ Switching between tube diameters takes a 60 minute changeover at the cutting,
welding and deflash operations. This longer changeover is mostly due to a “1st
off” quality control inspection after such a changeover.
§ Switching between each of the two types of cast connectors takes a 2 hour
changeover at the machining operation.
§ Tubes are supplied by Devon Inline Enterprises (DevInE). The lead time for
obtaining tubes is 4 months (16 weeks). DevInE. deliver products every 2
weeks.
§ Raw castings for the end connectors are supplied by Essex Castings Ltd. The
lead time for obtaining castings is 3 months (12 weeks). Essex Castings Ltd.
deliver products every 2 weeks.
Work Time
§ 20 days in a month.
§ 2 shifts per day in each department.
§ 8 hours per shift, overtime added if necessary.
§ Two breaks each shift, 15 minutes per break.
o Manual processes stop for breaks
o Lunch is not paid.
HELL Production Control
§ Receives customer orders 60 days from shipment, and enter them to MRP
system.
§ Generates a “shop order” per customer order. This follows the product through
the entire production process.
§ Release shop orders to the factory 6 weeks before the shipment date to
accelerate MRP’s ordering of tubes and castings.
§ Issue a daily production list to supervisors in production departments.
Supervisors schedule shop orders through their department.
§ Receives customer configuration changes 2 weeks before shipment and
advises department supervisors to expedite orders as necessary.
§ Issues daily shipping schedule to Despatch Department.
Process Information
1. Cutting (the saw cuts tubes and rods for many HEL product families).
§ Manual process, 1 operator
§ Cycle time = 30 seconds
§ Changeover time = 15 minutes (length), 60 minutes (diameter)
§ Reliability = 100%
§ Inventory
i. 20 days of uncut tubes
ii. 5 days of cut tubes.
2. Welding workstation 1 (dedicated to the hydraulic control sections product
family)
§ Welds the first machined casting to the tube
§ Automatic process, with operator load and unload external to the
machine cycle
§ Cycle time:
i. Operator = 20 seconds
ii. Machine = 60 seconds
§ Changeover time = 15 minutes (length), 60 minutes (diameter)
§ Reliability = 90%
§ Inventory = 3 days of welded sections.
3. Welding workstation 2 (dedicated to the hydraulic control sections product
family)
§ welds the second machined casting to the tube
§ Automatic process, with operator load and unload external to the
machine cycle
§ Cycle time:
i. Operator = 20 seconds
ii. Machine = 60 seconds
§ Changeover time = 15 minutes (length), 60 minutes (diameter)
§ Reliability = 80%
§ Inventory = 3 days of welded sections.
4. Deflash workstation (dedicated to the hydraulic control sections product
family)
§ Automatic process, with operator load and unload external to the
machine cycle
§ Cycle time:
i. Operator = 20 seconds
ii. Machine = 60 seconds
§ Changeover time = 15 minutes (length), 60 minutes (diameter)
§ Reliability = 100%
§ Inventory = 5 days of deflashed sections.
5. Painting (hydraulic control sections are shipped to an outside contractor for
painting)
§ Painting lead time = 2 days
§ One daily truck pickup of unpainted sections and drop-off of painted
sections
§ Observed inventory:
i. 2 days at the painter
ii. 6 days of painted sections at HELL.
6. Connector assembly (dedicated to the hydraulic control sections product
family)
§ Manual process with 6 operators
§ Total Work Time per Piece = 390 seconds
§ Changeover time = 10 minutes fixture swap
§ Reliability = 100%
§ Observed finished goods inventory in warehouse = 4 days of finished
hydraulic control sections.
7. Machining of Castings (dedicated to the hydraulic control sections product
family)
§ Automatic machining process with one machine attendant
§ Cycle time = 60 seconds
§ Changeover time = 2 hours
§ Reliability = 100%
§ Observed inventory:
i. 20 days of raw castings from the supplier
ii. 4 days of machined castings.
8. Despatch department
§ Removes parts from finished goods warehouse and stages them for
truck shipment to customers.