During year 2004 Ålö AB made significant change in their production
process. The production of front loaders is nowadays highly automated with
short operation times. To be able to control their process in a better way
Ålö recently decided that they needed a tool for simulation of their
production and to shift patterns.
This final thesis started with a pilot study in Ålö's factory in Brännland.
This was conducted in order to get a better knowledge of the process and to
get to know people that later on would be needed for support. After
extensive collecting of production data, such as volumes, queues and shift
patterns, I had gained enough raw materials in order to start building the
simulation tool. The software used for simulations is Simul8. This final
thesis ranges over the whole process: from orders generated by the
company's customers and all the way to assembled loaders. The only step
that has been left out in this simulation is the last step, which only is a
test of the front loaders hydraulic system.
The theoretical section in this final thesis is focused on Lean-production,
since the company changed their strategy to Lean-thinking during the big
changes in the production process in 2004. The factory has transformed from
producing loaders from raw material to today's process. Now days the
process is an assembly line with almost all components bought in from
suppliers.
There are a number of conclusions that can be drawn based on my results. To
make the process less vulnerable for variations in the production I suggest
that Ålö increases the buffer of empty carriers for the conveyor between
their assembly line and their welding line. Another conclusion that my
simulation can verify is that there is no idea in increasing the amount of
carriers in the total conveyor system if the buffer between the welding
line and the assembly line is not increased. Finally, I present fact that
shows that Ålö's management need to negotiate for continuous running of
their paint shop. Without this negotiation the total output will decrease
with at least 52 front loaders, just because the PIA val...
