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Topic Title: VSM only shared machines
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Created On: 10/09/2011 06:33 AM
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10/10/2011 11:48 AM
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MrVain0205
Heiko Neubrander



Hello everyone,
I'm a student from Germany and I'm about to graduate from University to get my bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering. The last part of my study is the bachelor thesis which is to be made in cooperation with a company. The company is relatively small with about 400 workers. The task is to optimize the production of a specific part by value stream design. It's about a gear wheel which has to be assembled of the actual gear wheel, two coils and a strip cage. The strip cage is a purchase part so I will disregard it. The whole part is no final product which goes to an external customer. It's a part which will get into the final product later. But I have to focus just on the assembled gear wheel. Now I have a few problems which I couldn't solve so far and I hope some of you can help me.

1) I'm not sure if I have the right product family. Actually I have 2 production branches which will become one later. I have the production of the actual gear wheel and I have the production of the coil. These 2 parts plus the strip cage will be assembled to the complete gear wheel. This assembly includes some more production steps.
Since I think it's better to first look at the value streams separately I don't know how to choose the product family. Is it better to choose only the product family for the final gear wheel or should I choose a separate product family for each detailed value stream? For Example, not every coil will be assembled to the gear wheel. So after the production of the coils, many coils will continue in different ways and not all to my focused final gear wheel.
(Notice: The final gear wheel is not to be sold to external customers, it is used in another part which is the final product, but I have to focus on the final gear wheel)

2) My second and most important problem is that the company has only machines which process many parts. They use only shared resources. So there's not only one machine which processes just one part. So beside the product family there are always many other parts which are to be processed at the machines. So actually I don't have a real downstream process.
How can I take account of the other parts when creating the current state map especially concerning to the capacity of the machines. For example, due to the customer we need to produce about 7 final gear wheels a day. So I get a takt time of 60 minutes, but the maximum cycle time of a machine is about 30 minutes. I would know that I have free capacity. Of course! This machine has to be used for other parts as well. So how can I create a current map with these restrictions and provide a meaningful conclusion?

I hope you don't have too much problems with my language. Especially my technical English skills are not the best. I already read many books including creating mixed model value streams by Kevin J. Duggan. But I haven't found a way to analyze a value stream which uses only shared machines. Since I couldn't find help so far I hope some of you understood my problems and can help me a little bit.

Thanks!

Heiko
10/12/2011 02:55 PM
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MarkRosenthal
Mark Rosenthal




The whole part is no final product which goes to an external customer. It's a part which will get into the final product later.


That is OK. The final assembly is your customer.
Your customer has a demand rate, that is the takt time for the operation you are studying.


1) I'm not sure if I have the right product family. Actually I have 2 production branches which will become one later.

[...]Since I think it's better to first look at the value streams separately


Yes. treat each of those branches as a separate value stream. Think of them like two rivers that later flow into one. Map them that way as well.


I don't know how to choose the product family. Is it better to choose only the product family for the final gear wheel or should I choose a separate product family for each detailed value stream?

For Example, not every coil will be assembled to the gear wheel. So after the production of the coils, many coils will continue in different ways and not all to my focused final gear wheel.


The coils are a separate value stream, with multiple customers - just like a little factory would be. The aggregated demand of those customers forms the takt time for the coils.


2) My second and most important problem is that the company has only machines which process many parts. They use only shared resources.

So beside the product family there are always many other parts which are to be processed at the machines. So actually I don't have a real downstream process.

How can I take account of the other parts when creating the current state map especially concerning to the capacity of the machines. For example, due to the customer we need to produce about 7 final gear wheels a day. So I get a takt time of 60 minutes, but the maximum cycle time of a machine is about 30 minutes. I would know that I have free capacity. Of course! This machine has to be used for other parts as well. So how can I create a current map with these restrictions and provide a meaningful conclusion?


The machine has a total operational takt time, so you have to map that as the requirement - ALL of the demand on that machine, not just your piece of it.

Your map at that point needs to show how the information flow(s) distinguish between the parts you are concerned about from the others that are just passing through.

What are the relative batch sizes?
How often does that machine serve YOUR value stream, vs. the others?
That is, in turn, going to drive batching and queing in front of, and after, the machine.

The faster that machine can cycle across serving its various customers, the smoother the flow through that bottleneck.
06/25/2012 12:38 PM
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felix
Lerry King



Heiko,

I come from China ,and what is email address I want to contact with you

Regards
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