Supply chain risks: an automotive case study

The supply chain is a complex system exchanging information, goods, material and money within enterprises, as well as between enterprises within the value chain. An effective supply chain management contributes to large corporate profits and it is therefore a valid path to reinforce the enterprises' competitiveness. However, supply chain is exposed to influences from undesirable factors both from the outside environment and the entities in the chain. Moreover, industrial trends towards lean production, increasing outsourcing, globalisation and reliance on supply networks capabilities and innovations, increase the complexity of the supply chain . Therefore, managers need to identify, and manage risks, as well as opportunities, from a more diverse range of sources and contexts. This paper contributes to identify and categorise supply chain risks based on a literature study and an automotive manufacturer’s viewpoint. The empirical results indicate suppliers and raw material prices as the major internal and external potential risks

Industrial waste management within manufacturing: a comparative study of tools, policies, visions and concepts

Industrial waste is a key factor when assessing the sustainability of a manufacturing process or company. A multitude of visions, concepts, tools, and policies are used both academically and industrially to improve the environmental effect of manufacturing; a majority of these approaches have a direct bearing on industrial waste. The identified approaches have in this paper been categorised according to application area, goals, organisational entity, life cycle phase, and waste hierarchy stage; the approaches have also been assessed according to academic prevalence, semantic aspects, and overlaps. In many cases the waste management approaches have similar goals and approaches, which cause confusion and disorientation for companies aiming to synthesise their management systems to fit their waste management strategy. Thus, a study was performed on how waste management approaches can be integrated to reach the vision of zero waste in manufacturing

Metal and Plastic Recycling Flows in a Circular Value Chain

Material efficiency in manufacturing is an enabler of circular economy and captures value in industry through decreasing the amount of material used toproduce one unit of output, generating less waste per output and improving waste segregation and management. However, material types and fractions play an important role in successfulness of recycling initiatives. This study investigates two main fractions in automotive industry, namely, metal and plastic. For both material flows, information availability and standards and regulations are pivotal to increase segregation, optimize the collection and obtain the highest possible circulation rates with high quality of recyclables. This paper presents and compares the current information flows and standards and regulations of metals and plastics in the automotive value chain

MATERIAL EFFICIENCY MANAGEMENT IN MANUFACTURING

Material efficiency is a key solution to provide a reduction in the total environmental impact of global manufacturing, which contributes to avoid generating larger volumes of industrial waste, to reduce extracting and consuming ever more resources and to decrease energy demand and carbon emissions. However, the area of material efficiency in manufacturing has been under-researched and related knowledge is limited. The research objective of this thesis is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge regarding material efficiency in manufacturing - to increase understanding, describe the existing situation and develop support for improvement. This thesis focuses on value of process and residual materials in material efficiency: to increase homogenous quality of generated waste with higher segregation rate, decreasing the amount of material becoming waste and reduce total virgin raw material consumption without influencing the function and quality of a product or process. To achieve the objective, material efficiency strategies, existing state of material efficiency in manufacturing and barriers that avert higher material efficiency improvement have been investigated. The results are supported by four structured literature reviews and two [MW1] empirical multiple case studies at large global manufacturing companies in Sweden, mainly automotive. Empirical studies include observations, interviews, waste stream mapping, waste sorting analysis, environmental report reviews and walkthroughs in companies to determine the material efficiency and industrial waste management systems. The empirical results revealed that material efficiency improvement potential of further waste segregation to gain economic and environmental benefits is still high. Determining different waste segments and relative fractions along with calculating material efficiency performance measurements facilitate improvements in material efficiency. In addition to attempts for waste generation reduction, avoiding blending and correct segregation of different waste fractions is an essential step towards material efficiency. The next step is to improve the value of waste fractions i.e. having more specific cost-effective fractions. Waste Flow Mapping proves to be an effective practical tool to be utilized at manufacturing companies in order to check and explore the improvement opportunities. In addition, a number of barriers that hinder material efficiency was identified. The most influential material efficiency barriers are Budgetary, Information, Management and Employees. The majority of identified material efficiency barriers are internal, originate inside the company itself and are dependent upon the manufacturing companies’ characteristics. As a result, management and employees’ attitude, environmental knowledge and environmental motivation, as well as their internal communication and information sharing, and companies’ core value and vision are the enablers for material efficiency improvement.MEMIMANINNOFACTURE - innovative manufacturing developmen

Product Design for Automated Remanufacturing—A Case Study of Electric and Electronic Equipment in Sweden

Remanufacturing is one of the main practices toward a circular economy and industrial sustainability. Remanufacturing is highly dependent on how circular products are designed and developed. Remanufacturing can also benefit from automation for efficiency, accuracy and flexibility. This paper, via a multiple case study, connects the three areas of remanufacturing, product design and automation and investigates how circular product design can facilitate automation remanufacturing processes. First, circular product design guidelines are discussed with regard to remanufacturing. Second, potential areas for automation at three remanufacturers of electric and electronic equipment are pinpointed. Finally, design guidelines are connected to the identified potential automation areas in each remanufacturing process and discussed together. According to our results, the main incentives for automating remanufacturing processes are mainly related to the work environment, efficiency and quality. In addition, several design guidelines can facilitate automated remanufacturing processes; for instance, the standardization of components, fasteners and remanufacturing tools across different models and brands can also facilitate automated remanufacturing, where products can easily and nondestructively be disassembled by a robot or a machine

Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing; FAIM 2014

Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing, held May 20-23, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and organized by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems, University of Texas at San Antonio; Includes bibliographical references; There are boundless upcoming factors that influence future of material waste in production. This broad range of factors needs to be scanned, categorized and analyzed in a structured way. This paper by a foresight study, aims to give an insight and increase awareness about external macro-level future trends concerning raw material consumption and waste generation in production. A limited pilot study indicated that technological forecasting and some reaction upon obvious trends are being taken, although in an ad hoc manner and without structured tools. However, political influences, economic visions and social-cultural shifts were seldom or never discussed. External macro trends and tendencies were examined through PEST analysis to identify potentials and opportunities influencing strategic decisions and innovation initiatives. It is vital to understand the whole picture of possible changes and not only considering the technological trends, but also other relevant development areas that might affect production in different ways

Sustainable Manufacturing through Material Efficiency Management

Material efficiency contributes to reduced industrial waste volumes, reduced extraction and consumption of virgin raw materials, increased waste segregation, decreased energy demand, and reduced carbon emissions, thereby generally mitigating the environmental impact of the manufacturing industry. However, the area of material efficiency in manufacturing is under-researched, and related knowledge is limited particularly at individual manufacturing sites and lower levels. These levels are crucial to achieve improved material efficiency, as a great amount of material is consumed and waste flows are generated on manufacturing shop floors. There are still gaps in both literature and industrial practice regarding material efficiency in manufacturing, where materials are consumed to make products and great volumes of waste are generated simultaneously. The research objective of this dissertation is to contribute to existing knowledge on management and improvement of material efficiency in manufacturing. To achieve this objective, three research questions were formulated to investigate material efficiency barriers, material efficiency tools and strategies, and material efficiency performance measurement. The results are supported by four structured and extensive literature reviews and also by five empirical case studies conducted at a total of fourteen Swedish global manufacturing companies. These empirical studies entail observations, interviews, waste stream mapping, waste sorting analyses, environmental report reviews, and company walkthroughs. A number of material efficiency barriers in manufacturing were identified, categorized and clustered to facilitate an understanding of material efficiency to effectively mitigate the barriers. The clustered barriers cited most often in the literature are budgetary, information, technology, management, vision and culture, uncertainty, engineering, and employees. In the empirical studies, vision and culture, technology, and uncertainty were replaced by communication. Most of the material efficiency barriers identified appear to be internal and are dependent on the manufacturing company’s characteristics. A number of tools and strategies were identified and some were used to assess, manage, and improve material efficiency in the manufacturing companies studied. Empirical studies indicated that certain criteria are necessary to select and use operational tools. These criteria include being hands-on, time efficient, based on lean principles, easy to use and learn, visualized, promoting engagement, and being connected to a predetermined goal. These criteria are essential for mutual understanding, intra-organizational communication, performance improvement, and becoming a learning organization. A model for a material efficiency performance measurement system was proposed that included the most common material efficiency-related key performance indicators from literature and empirical findings. The model divides material and waste flows into four main categories: productive input materials, auxiliary input materials, products, and residual output materials. The four main categories should be measured equally to realize material efficiency performance improvements in an operation. This research contributes to the research area of material efficiency and sheds light on different inter-connected aspects, which affect one another and contribute to assess, manage and improve material efficiency in a manufacturing context. The studied conducted and the results are presented in five appended papers. INNOFACTURE - innovative manufacturing developmen

Supporting production system development through Obeya concept

Manufacturing Industry as an important part of European and Swedish economy faces new challenges with the daily growing global competition. An enabler of overcoming these challenges is a rapid transforming to a value-based focus. Investment in innovation tools for production system development is a crucial part of that focus which helps the companies to rapidly adapt their production systems to new changes. Those changes can be categorized to incremental and radical ones. In this research we studied the Obeya concept as a supporting tool for production system development with both of those approaches. It came from Toyota production system and is a big meeting space which facilitates communication and data visualization for a project team. Four lean companies have been studied to find the role of such spaces in production development. Results indicate a great opportunity for improving those spaces and their application to radical changes in production development projectsEXPRE

Material efficiency in manufacturing

Developments, industrialization and mass production have triggered rapid increase of raw material consumption and great volumes of industrial waste, while industrial waste management infrastructure has not been developed with the same pace. One mean in striving for industrial waste management is the management of process materials. This paper introduces the performance measure sorting rate for each segment of waste material, along with a method for sorting analysis to help improving overall material efficiency and industrial waste management. The results revealed that more than 50% of combustible bins’ content could be separately segregated as plastic, wood, paper, cardboard and bio-degradable

Product Design for Automated Remanufacturing-A Case Study of Electric and Electronic Equipment in Sweden

Remanufacturing is one of the main practices toward a circular economy and industrial sustainability. Remanufacturing is highly dependent on how circular products are designed and developed. Remanufacturing can also benefit from automation for efficiency, accuracy and flexibility. This paper, via a multiple case study, connects the three areas of remanufacturing, product design and automation and investigates how circular product design can facilitate automation remanufacturing processes. First, circular product design guidelines are discussed with regard to remanufacturing. Second, potential areas for automation at three remanufacturers of electric and electronic equipment are pinpointed. Finally, design guidelines are connected to the identified potential automation areas in each remanufacturing process and discussed together. According to our results, the main incentives for automating remanufacturing processes are mainly related to the work environment, efficiency and quality. In addition, several design guidelines can facilitate automated remanufacturing processes; for instance, the standardization of components, fasteners and remanufacturing tools across different models and brands can also facilitate automated remanufacturing, where products can easily and nondestructively be disassembled by a robot or a machine.Funding Agencies|Swedish Government Innovation Agency (VINNOVA), Formas [2018-01591]; XPRES initiative; Swedish Energy AgencySwedish Energy Agency</p