Balansering av produktions- och kundorientering för att minska ledtider : En studie inom processindustrin

This Master’s thesis has been performed at Minelco AB, a company selling minerals customised for industry. The production of these minerals is process-based with long set-up times. But due to customers’ increased demands for shorter lead times, the company needed to review their inventory holding and thus find necessary changes. These necessary changes led to questions whether the products should be manufactured to order or to stock in order to meet the customers’ requirements.Therefore, the aim of this study led to an investigation of how a company with process-based production could balance production-oriented and customer-oriented production strategies in its operations in order to meet the demand for shorter lead times without increasing the costs. Hence, the focus of the study was further to determine the inventory levels for each selected product at the company.The methods used in this study were literature review, observations and interviews. In addition, production and delivery data were collected from the company’s production and delivery schedules.The theories, which the analysis is based upon, were within the areas of production strategy and inventory management. Literature concerning process industry was also examined in order to understand the special features of this kind of industry.Three different classes of products were identified by an ABC-analysis. Together with this analysis and the customer requirements on the products, different production strategies were identified. Thereafter, appropriate stock levels were calculated and presented.Finally, the results of the study showed that a company can use different production strategies for different products. Based on the ABC-analysis, production strategy should be determined for the most important products first. Different strategies will highlight different management requirements for different product groups and hence identify how much cubic and space each product need in the inventory/production so that specific requirement on shortened lead times can be met for all products.Validerat; 20111107 (anonymous