Kettering University

UPS-SCS is experiencing a problem with sluggish product shipments due to the Paperless Picking process. A contributing factor is the random selections of skews without recognizing their zones. Another component of the problem is serialized products, where a pick person must search through a whole pallet of cases to find one specific case. Therefore, there must increased distribution from the UPS-SCS to the customer. Unfortunately there is a drastic decline in the account productivity. An analysis of the account operation is necessary to trouble-shoot the problem. This problem must be resolved to improve customer satisfaction and enhance productivity.

A material flow plan was developed for the DaimlerChrysler (DCX) Saint Louis assembly plant by Modern Engineering, Inc. The plan consists of an in-plant bulk material storage plan, station material layout plan, and a material handling plan. By using FactoryFLOW, AutoCAD, and following DCX standards, the engineer successfully developed a plan that requires 14 fork truck drivers, and has 51 of 58 station material displays approved. To improve these results, the engineer recommends moving the current plan of record conveyor away from the rail docks, to lower the number of fork trucks needed and improve storage availability. Rearranging some of the equipment display to increase green station status is also recommended.

A need for an improved method is needed to reduce cost and minimize cost of lost parts inside the warehouse and the implementation of the most accurate and effective process. RFID is a process that will work in the future in this warehouse, since metal and water detract the signal of the antenna. By implementing RFID in the near future, GE Transportation Rail will be able to improve their distribution process.

CSM Manufacturing Corporation has been running out of tools nearly every day, resulting in hours of down time and monetary losses. A new system was needed to eliminate this problem. After much thought, a database was created in order to record the flow of all tools as well as reorder any tools that were running low on inventory. The results were phenominal. What was about 7% of down time due to lack of tools was completely eliminated. CSM Manufacturing Corporation now has a system that controls the tooling inventory and allows for optimal production.

Currently at ATEK Medical, lithium ion batteries are packaged for Company A using a standard bar sealer and a very labor intensive process. The batteries are packaged in quantities of 1000 and take roughly 13 hours to complete a job. A double pouch method is used to provide a sterile barrier, which allows the batteries to be used in a medical environment. The package consists of the battery being bar sealed into a small inner pouch, which is the placed and bar sealed into a larger outer pouch. The outer pouch also requires a label on every one of the 1000 pouches. It was seen that the current process could be improved and has potential to become much more productive. The entire process is dependent on the operator and requires that person to have a part in every step. This thesis will try and prove a packaging system called the Pure Pouch as a viable solution to help improve the process. The Pure Pouch is a machine that is an automated bar sealer. The machine will index the pouches, seal the pouches, and print labels on the pouches all automatically. The operator will be required to insert the product into the pouch and cycle the machine. After investigating the Pure Pouch a cost and time analysis was used to help determine the results. The cost results show that the Pure Pouch system will be able to generate a cost savings of $94,000/yr over the old process. Also the new machine will cut the time needed to complete a battery job, of 1000, from 13 hours to approximately 5 hours. It was also calculated that the payback period on the machine is approximately 8 months and the return on investment is roughly 150%. With these results above conclusions and recommendations can be made. With regards to the Pure Pouch I believe the savings in time and money are proof that the machine is a valid and cost effective improvement on the current battery packaging process. I would recommend that the machine be presented to upper management and the customer for further approval. If approved by management and the customer the machine will have to be installed, qualified, validated before it can be used in production.

DE-STA-CO is located in 4 facilities causing strained communications and excessive part travel. This paper presents a consolidated layout based on lean manufacturing principles into a new facility.

During his project, the author implemented three different proposals to improve the Steelcase production line's overall productivity. His first proposal reduced the number of operators from 8 to 7 by holding each operator responsible for the quality of their own work. Then, his second proposal reduced the production line's overall cycle time by moving some of operator 7's work onto operator 4. Finally, his third proposal reduced the number of operators from 7 to 6 by changing the floor layout and rebalancing most of the operators' responsibilities. These proposals resulted in a 106% increase in parts produced per man-hour, a 51% increase in parts produced per 10-hour shift, and a successfully completed project.

Fernco, Inc. does not have a formal rewards and recognition process to provide its employees with incentives to be present and do their jobs right the first time. By establishing a formal rewards and recognition process, Fernco can continue being an industry leader for manufacturing and distribution of flexible PVC pipe connectors. In order to continually improve employee performance and productivity, Fernco should implement a formal rewards and recognition program to track and assess employee behaviors and provide an incentive for the employees to demonstrate positive behaviors consistently.

General Motor?s attrition program is causing the loss of many production workers at a very fast pace, therefore, to reduce headcount and increase utilization of production operations, an evaluation of Non-Value Added work was conducted. The focus of this report is the final assembly area, on both the cyclical and non-cyclical work force, and the valve body assembly area that is affected by changes in final assembly. Reducing headcount and producing efficient workstations and operators, and ultimately reducing cost was the goal of this thesis. Several alternatives are offered, analyzed for cost and effectiveness, and the best solution is determined.

If a driver fails to scan a package when he delivers it, UPS may be required to pay a claim for a lost package. Currently, about 1 in every 450 delivered packages does not have a corresponding scan. Available reporting systems do not reveal who is not scanning packages. UPS can develop a new reporting system that will show which drivers miss scans. This will allow UPS to train those drivers and make improvements.

In the rubber extrusion process, the die faces wear causing unnecessary scrap and down time. Do to unforseen circomstances, the author was unable to make a conclusion as to how the rubber die faces wear. Recommendation were made the company.

Industrial Engineering principles are an important part of manufacturing for members of the automotive field. This is especially important to Trio Tool Company, which designs and builds automated assembly, and gauge & testing machinery for major automotive suppliers. Unfortunately, Trio Tool Company does not address these principles, which occasionally leads to unsatisfied customers. However, Trio Tool Company is committed to improve its current process by implementing key Industrial Engineering principles into the design process. There are many variables, from floor layouts to work design, which go into Industrial Engineering, but Trio Tool Company will focus on implementing cycle time estimation in-house, apposed to hiring contractors to do it, and to address some key ergonomic guidelines for design. These two variables must be implemented into Trio Tool Company?s system so they are followed through on a regular basis. This will be in the form of checks and balances during the design and build process that will designate specific time periods for the engineers to evaluate the machines. This will allow Trio Tool Company to address some Industrial Engineering concerns, which will result in higher quality products, more efficient work and a more worker-friendly & safe work environment.

The Grand Rapids car wash is currently using drivers to wash and fuel their own vehicles when they return to the building. Due to current driver wages, it is more cost effective to use 22.3 employees (a 22.3 employee is a full time employee that works two part time shifts with a lunch in between shifts) and part time employee?s instead of full time employees to wash the vehicles. This project will change the car wash process from using the full-time drivers to now using the 22.3 and part time employees.

The XXX 001 material pull issue in a 3.5 million dollar total loss for the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and the supplier. Failure issues such as the material pull excellent communication between the supplier and the OEM are necessary to save time and money. If the recommendations would have been considered before production launch then it could have possibly resulted in a 1.5 million dollars saving that was necessary to correct the problem.

The following chapters in the thesis will cover in depth the tools used to accomplish the solution that converted the line from traditional batching of product to the one piece flow methodology of lean manufacturing. This will include a discussion of 5s, the 7 forms of waste, takt time, line balancing, and facility design. It will also include the organization of the transformation of the SMC Dialog/Plus line. A way forward or recommendations will be provided in the conclusion of this thesis.

The objective of this thesis was to determine a more efficient way of delivering early morning packages throughout the UPS Metro Detroit District. With this, it was important to ensure these packages were delivered by the guaranteed commit time, therefore ensuring customer satisfaction. Various tools were used in determining early morning operational improvements including that of the Service Provider Records; Microsoft MapPoint; and the United Parcel Service Electronic Tracking and Tracing System. Results indicated that the elimination of gateway congestion and reduction of driver travel was necessary in achieving desired improvements. Process Improvement conclusions signify that the establishment of meet points can be utilized in the elimination of gateway congestion while also assisting with the reduction of miles driven throughout the newly assigned delivery territories.

The purpose of this thesis was to make the operational efficiency of CovR Guard better. This was done by creating a new layout for the area. This layout was based around ways to reduce and eliminate the seven wastes of production. The results were a more organized work area, increased production and elimination of a partial team leader and an operator.

The standardized work template will standardize the gauging process for the entire Flint North Powertrain site. The desired results of this project, through proper research and a good presentation of the proposed strategy to the management and union team will convince the site to standardize the gauging procedure and in essence save Flint North Powertrain time, money and improve quality for the customer. Chapter Two will discuss the conclusions and recommendations that have been made based on the observations and analysis made in chapter four and five. This chapter will outline the final decisions that will be made for the solution to the problem. Chapter Three will discuss the research that was involved in preparing the thesis. It will also include the operator?s feedback and supervisor?s analysis of the current gauging process. It will also prove whether the thesis will save the site time, money, and improve quality for the customer. Chapter Four explains the performance testing of the gauging template. It describes the criteria used for testing as well as the environmental conditions. Chapter Five, the last and final chapter, discusses the gauge template results and testing analysis. This chapter presents the data retrieved from each analysis, and shows how the data is analyzed for the best gauging process.

The thesis demonstrated a process of using problem solving tools to find the root cause for the dimensionally incapable 2006 Yukon tail lamp.

This thesis discusses the creation of quantitative forecasting models within the context of the Model Creation Life-cycle while presenting tools and aids that were created to simplify creation of such models.

This thesis embodies the design of a Prairie Mountain Tractor Assignment Tool. The assignment criteria were determined through UPS cost savings initiatives and their hierarchy with respect to the assignment tool was determined through a survey of UPS management in Automotive, Feeder and Industrial Engineering departments. These criteria were then applied to the tool such that each tractor was assigned to a specific job based off of the tractor's odometer reading, model year and whether it had a twin axle. Tractors with lower miles were assigned to jobs that had a higher weekly mileage requirement. Jobs were also classified based off of the type of road and terrain encountered. These new schedules were then represented by an automated Gantt chart within the tool.

This thesis is presented with the goal of utilizing lean manufacturing at the Livonia Engine plant. The purpose is to eliminate waste throughout the Gen IV machining line. After investigating various ideas and angles, the process capability of the machines were calculated in hopes of reducing the frequency of both hand and CMM gage checks. The result freed 78 minutes on the plant floor. In addition to capabilities, modifications were made to the CMM process saving an additional 76 minutes per day as well as 730 sheets of paper. Other recommendations were also made.

This thesis is saving UPS $73000 by changing the Car Wash Operation in Toledo from a driver run process to a part time hourly driven process. The lower paid employees are spending more time completing the process because extra driving is involved, but the difference in pay rate is what drives the savings. It is the recommendation of this thesis to change the operation as soon as staffing limitations make it possible in order to feel the direct benefits of the cost savings as soon as possible.

This thesis is to show how the Time Value of Money no longer works to project the future value of money. The thesis proves how the Time Value of Money only projects the number of Dollars not the value of the dollars.

To improve layout efficiency during changes in sales volume, an automated slotting tool is necessary. In plants without a Warehouse Management System, an automated tool does not exist. This thesis conducts a pilot study at the Flint Processing Center, and generalizes the lessons learned on how to generate slotting rules for a particular area, and later incorporate them into a slotting program for future maintenance.

Workers compensation claims and insurance cost have been increasing since installing new assembly lines. For three years VITEC has been working to improve the workstations that are contributing to these workers compensation claims and insurance by performing an ergonomic analysis. Modifications can be done to the workstations without installing assembly lines. If the company budget allowed then modifications can be done on all of the workstations needed