Optimizing Production flow & Component Logistics : Master Thesis Advanced level, 30 credits.Product and Process Development.

Sammanfattning

Introduction: Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) struggle with maintaining production and logistics efficiencies. When working in production, strategic planning is esential to have. However, would the organization plan production by pen and paper? By an advanced ERP system? Or by a simple MRP system? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to prepare an Small and medium-sized (SME) for the implementation of an MRP or ERP system through the lean approach. Q1: Which of the ERP or MRP systems is most suitable for a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), and what preparations are required in production and inbound logistics to implement the selected system? Q2: How can lean tools optimize production flow and inbound logistics in a Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)? Method: This paper uses a mixed-method strategy was utilized for data collection in this project. The qualitative data collection was done through internal and external interviews, where the internal interviews were conducted in the case company to find both bottle necks and the dream scenario of the desired state. The external interviews were conducted with engineers that work within the field of ERP and MRP. And one interview occurred with a senior lecturer to collect theoretical insights. The project group followed the production and created Value Stream Mapping for each product family, to further reveal the unnoticed bottlenecks. In the analysis of the case company, the project group created a GAP- analysis to find the GAP between the initial state of the company and the desired state of the company in the purpose of improving the initial state and strive after desired state. The conclusion of the case study is: organization looking for implementing new technology should know their current processes and improve them before implementing a new technology such as ERP or MRP II. The second statement is that all the organizations have different needs to what strategy to use when improving existing processes. The third statement is that organization should know their purpose of why it is implementing the technology to be able to choose the right system.