Improvement of testing stage operations in a MTO company : a case study of lean manufacturing implementation

The increasing demand for high quality standards, high product customization and short delivery lead time is becoming the biggest threat for today’s manufacturing companies, which struggle to keep their competitive position in the market. Therefore, they are continuously pushed to search for new methodologies to improve the performances of the production plants, in terms of efficiency and responsiveness. Currently, the Lean Manufacturing approach represents the most effective instrument to achieve these goals, guaranteeing good results in relatively short time. This thesis illustrates, through a real case study, the implementation of the Lean Thinking principles in a non-repetitive company operating with a MTO production system, characterized by a high mix of products and low production volume. The analysis has been conducted in the Gazzada Schianno production plant of Ficep S.p.A., during a six-months internship. The context of application of the project is the testing stage of the manufacturing process for company’s best-selling product. The aim of this work is to verify the validity of Lean Manufacturing even in an environment which departs from the typical one of other case studies: the characteristics of non-repetitive companies, together with the MTO production system and the peculiarities of a testing stage make the outcomes of the project uncertain. The main focus is to evaluate the impact of the specific Lean tools selected for the purpose of this project in terms of reduction of the testing throughput time and of process variability. Among them, the development of standardized working procedures, the implementation of a daily production review routine, the creation of a defects’ registration program and the revision of the shop floor layout, integrating the concepts of 5S methodology, turned out to have the most prominent role in improving such performances. The methodology followed for the implementation of the work is the PDCA Deming’s cycle for problem setting and problem solving, supported by the use of the A3 thinking approach to provide a precise structure to the sequence of activities to be performed.