A critical analysis of production system in furniture industry : the Cassina S.p.A. case

This report shows the analysis and the results of an internship by Cassina S.p.a, an Italian high design manufacturer company. This experience is related to the creation of a simple approach that could help in reorganizing the production layout including all the key elements to be considered, as well as a structured analysis of production policies adopted by the company. After a quick review on existing models, tools and approaches to layout reorganization, a list of variables, that should be generally included in such a work is drawn. Approaching the real business case, they are then split in different classes in order to create an organized and clear way of operating: path, complexity, relationships graph, product and machines info and other constraints. In this way, it has been possible to check the validity of available data and to understand which are instead the ones missing that need to be collected. Since the production system under analysis is characterized by a huge catalogue of different codes, it has been necessary to focus on the largest contributors in terms of volume of production and revenues. The eight products selected count for more than the 50% of the overall production volume. This first module ends with a new layout proposal approved by production managers and by stakeholders within the company. Results have been evaluated in terms of length of the path and its reduction as well as the overall decrease of the complexity index per each product. On the other hand, the second part is aimed at analyzing the current production policies adopted by Cassina S.p.A, looking for new ways to create a simpler procedure or at least a stronger knowledge and consciousness on real criticalities of the process. In particular, the main contribution has been the transformation of common knowledge into spreadsheets and graphs, since this department has always been managed on an experience-based way of doing. The critical steps have been the collection of key data, which created the basis for this work development in both its parts, but also the collaboration with all those actors working within this department.