Frank Pot, Gu van Rhijn Aimed at Improvement of Productivity, Flexibility and Ergonomics Neopost: Designing the Production Process in Manufacturing

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing2 Trends at Manufacturing From market perspective Pressure on delivery time Increasing competitiveness (costs, quality) Increasing variety in product types Fluctuations in production numbers In the internal operational management Throughput time versus real production time More focus on value adding activities Reducing costs work in progress Flexibility in process and organisation ‘Human factor is the most important resource’ (flexible, healthy, swiftly available) How can the design of the production anticipate on this?

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing3 Neopost: Design of a Flexible Assembly Line Neopost Neopost is part of Neopost SA (France) Development and production of envelope inserting machines (10,000 per year) 300 employees in the Netherlands Reason for the project Introduction of a new product demands a new flexible assembly line with the following preconditons: Flexible in numbers: output 20 to a maximum of 40 machines a day (formerly 16 machines): a total of 4,000 machines a year Flexible in product: mix of 3 different types of machines Must fit in the available space Start of the project (development product and process) July 2003; assembly line in use from February 2004

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing4 Neopost: the Old Assembly Line Step 1: routing from parts to pre-assembly of end-line Step 2: survey of the bottlenecks in the current situation Main flow

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing5 Neopost: Step 2 Bottlenecks Old Design No physical division between supply and material-work Storage of material under the assembly line Heavy bins with too much materials, not in accordance with requirements of the demand of the customer Batch building instead of one piece flow Individual targets instead of team work

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing6 Neopost: Step 3 Design New Assembly Line Assembly lower frame Pre-assembly lower frame Assembly upper frame Pre-assembly upper frame Testing and canning Packaging

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing7 Neopost: Step 4 Design and Organisation New Assembly Line

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing8 Neopost: Step 5 Realisation New Assembly Line

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing9 Neopost: Results Old workplaceNew workplace Bins and tools within reach; instructions for assembly and control tasks

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing10 Neopost: Results Ergomix sessionRack newRack old Supply racks in new situation are experienced by 75% as better/much better

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing11 Neopost: Fitting Plates Adjustable working height in the new situation is being judged as better/much better by all employees Old workplace fitting platesNew workplace fitting plates

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing12 Results Neopost Team responsible for result Team members switch flexibly between workplaces Demand flow: deployment of more or less employees dependent on customer demand Volume of material on basis of use (pull instead of push) Pre-assembly directly linked to end-line Quality check integrated in the work in the assembly line by employees themselves Maximum capacity % Efficiency + 25% old new Number of buffers between workplaces 7 of %

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing13 Results Design New Assembly Line, Explanation Productivity Productivity (ref. input team leader Johan Bos, 5 July 2005): Old situation, 2003: 16 machines a day with 27 persons assembly + 3 end check + 2 packing = 32 persons. Per day 2 persons per machine New situation, 2005: A maximum of 26 machines a day with 39 persons (19 permanent and 20 temporary workers), per day 1.5 persons per machine = 25% increase in productivity by different design assembly line, recurrent meetings about progress, better organisation of work Situation 2007: further increase of productivity to 35%