Methods time measurement on the optimization of a productive process: a case study

In order to maintain its competitiveness, the company object of this study identified the need for automation in the process for technological innovation. In this way, the present work sought to investigate the manual process of manufacturing meter caps of a Brazilian company in the service sector of electric energy meters and, for this purpose, analyzed the process for technological innovation, as well as its execution in the practice. The problem found in the company is the fact of the necessity of several workers to fulfil the production time, of the human being does not present constancy of production, possibility of repetitive effort injuries, among others. After due study of the process and analysis of the problem, a proposal was raised for the automation of the process. These changes imply the flexibility of the lines of production and changes in processes, which is the cause of many obstacles to productivity performance. It is the use of the Methods-Time Measurement process, a work measurement method that uses previously established times for the execution of totally Influenced by the human element, in an improvement project in a production line in the cap sector of the company's electric energy meters, seeking to eliminate losses that cause low productivity, which is compromising the fulfilment of the production plan and customer satisfaction. In the second part we will have an approach to the balance or production scheduling, its complexity and indicators to use. Continuous line implementation can bring significant benefits such as reduction of stops for adjustments 22 to 6 minutes, reduction in defects level by approximately 85%. These improvements also allowed a reduction in the number of operators from 3 shifts to 1 in a commercial shift.This work is supported by the Manaus Institute of Technology-MIT, through the Suframa program for Business/Government and Dowertech of Amazonia where the case study was carried out in the framework of the master's dissertation project by the University of Minho. Additionally, this work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - The Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013