Improving maintenance in high-volume manufacturing

The aim this thesis is to investigate the current state of the maintenance in case company and to identify process bottlenecks. After recognizing the process bottleneck equipment, situation is analyzed thoroughly by using root cause analysis. Based on the root cause analysis, improvement activities are performed and measured. Current state analysis is conducted from production downtime and spoilage data available. Final implicantions are measured by using overall equipment effectiveness as indicator. As a result of the high volume nature of beverage can manufacturing, it is essential to keep equipment in excellent condition. Therefore, theoretical section is focusing on maintenance in manufacturing environment and connected to company’s business. Moreover, background theory discusses the total productive maintenance and process improvement. The empirical section is qualitative research based on implementation of choosed method. This study is conducted as action research to case company. The current state was measured before the implementation, similarly situation is measured two months after the new method implemented. The method was modified from the original idea of Milton Keynes plant located in England. The method, tagging system, was implemented according to Six Sigma DMAIC roadmap. Additionally, beverage can manufacturing process is explained in this section. The results of the study are visualizing the implications after the maintenance method improvement. As a result of the tagging system implementation, overall equipment effectiveness improved significantly during the two month evaluation period. Therefore, it can be summarized that when improving company’s maintenance method, it will actualize as better production figures and business result. In addition, challenges related to the maintenance in the company were also identified in communication between personnel. Implementation of the tagging system increased the amount of communication related to maintenance activities. Tag review meeting practice was established and is held on regular basis which involves whole organization as shared tags between departments