Improvements in Internal Logistics : A Case Study at SSAB Oxelösund - Logistics Development Department

Abstract

Internal logistics is a combined performance of human resources, machines, transportation, and storage system. Thus, different elements and factors are involved in the internal transportation such as human factors and system functions. Moreover, Internal transportation is an important part of production activities because of its close cooperation with production processes. Since the largest portion of the logistics costs is related to transportation, improvements in transportation will lead to a significant increase in profits. The purpose of this thesis is to make improvements in the internal transportation of SSAB. Improvements here means identifying involved wastes in internal transportation, then give recommendations and suggestions to eliminate those wastes. This is a single case study at SSAB Oxelösund. SSAB stands for Svenskt Stål AB formed in 1978 and is well-known because of its special steel products. This company produces steel products for both standard and special orders and uses. All the underproduction plates have to go through a chain of operations to become the finished products. Different operation can be mentioned as cutting, painting, sorting, etc. Material movements in this chain of operations are done with the help of special cassettes and carriers. Cassettes are the main resources intheinternal transportation of SSAB and availability of empty cassettes plays a key role in the whole production process of the company. There are three departments that are involved with internal transportation at SSAB Oxelösund. Four research objectives are designed to cover the purpose of this study. In the following, several interviews and observations are done to collect the qualitative part of data gathering. The quantitative part of data collection is done with exporting data series from company’s database. Theoretical frame work ismainly based on Lean and logistics theories. Analysing the collected data and comparing the results with theoretical frame work lead to identifying the wastes in different areas related to defined research objectives. Different wastes are identified in carriers and drivers’ performances, treatment stations, etc. Therefore, specific recommendations are given based on the identified wastes in order to eliminate those wastes. The recommendations are presented to have faster and optimized material flow. Additionally, areas for further research and an Impact/Effort matrix are provided for future implementations and analysis