Streamlining of a information flow and the design of a new ordering tool, in a manufacturing company: A case study conducted at Volvo Construction equipment
2021 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (university diploma), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
The aim with the study was to find new ways for the information to travel between the different parts of an order process. With the help of Lean methods, analyse the current situation of the process to find which waste that occurs today. Subsequently to see if Lean methods can help prevent that waste emerges in the process. With the help of this analysis one can create a requirement specification for how a new digital ordering tool should be designed to further improve a customer order process the research questions that are going to be answered is:
RQ1: How can Lean methods help minimize waste in an information flow within a customer order process?
RQ2: How can a digital ordering tool be designed to improve a customer order process?
The research methodology was that a case study was conducted at a manufacturing company where they construct attachments for wheel loaders. The primary sources that were collected for the empirical data was through unstructured and semi-structured interviews and observations. In the empirical data secondary sources was used complement the primary sources and these were provided by the case company. A literature study was used to create the theoretical framework. The theoretical framework was later used to find similarities and differences with the empirical data. The data in the theoretical framework was obtained from scientific articles and books.
Through the analysis it was discovered that three waste occurs in the process and they are waiting, defects and unused employee creativity. The process is lacking visualization in the material that the sales personal can use in the field today, A new ordering tool can be used to help the visualization and communication between the design engineers and the dealers.
The Conclusions regarding the study are that lean methods can help find and prevent waste in a process. The 7+1 waste helps to find which waste that occurs in the process today. Later can the 5 whys and JIT methods help understand and counter the wastes that are found. first implementation of a new ordering tool, should contain one product family and it should contain fixed options that the customer can modify its product with. The fixed options should be the ones that generates most value for the company. For a first implementation of a new ordering tool, it should contain one product family.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. , p. 56
Keywords [en]
Lean, order process, information flow, communication, ordering tool
National Category
Mechanical Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-54589OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-54589DiVA, id: diva2:1562570
External cooperation
Volvo CE
Subject / course
Product and Process Development
Supervisors
Examiners
2021-06-092021-06-082021-06-09Bibliographically approved