University of Twente Student Theses

Login

Preventing line congestion at Aebi Schmidt Nederland

Klijnsma, T. (2013) Preventing line congestion at Aebi Schmidt Nederland.

[img] PDF
1MB
Abstract:This report is about preventing line congestion at the welding and surface process at Aebi Schmidt Nederland. Aebi Schmidt is active worldwide in traffic area cleaning and maintenance; the production facility in Holten, the Netherlands, produces snow clearance and de-icing machines. The manufacturing process at hand is divided into six main processes: Tack welding, seam welding, blasting, primer coating, baking, and final paint coating. Products are baked in the oven after each paint coating. The different product types are categorized as top parts, bottom parts, tail pieces, frames, and integral designs. Frequently, long queues arise at the welding and surface treatment process. In an effort to explain and provide possible solutions for this problem, the welding and surface treatment process is modeled as a queuing network. With queuing network analysis it is possible to analyze the current situation in terms of performance measures such as cycle time and work in process. An Excel tool was developed to perform the queuing network analysis for both the current situation and for several scenarios, based on data collected from time registrations and inquiry. The following conclusions were drawn:  The time registrations are prone to many errors and inconsistencies, which makes the data collection in this research more time consuming than necessary.  <<Not available in public version>>  Of the six tested scenarios, adding a blasting cabin was the most impactful but also the most expensive solution. Increasing seam welding work hours and decreasing seam welding process times were the most effective solutions. The following recommendations were made:  Improve time registration, by implementing forms or a tracking system.  <<Not available in public version>>  Attempt to decrease seam welding process times, or increase work hours at welding.  Attempting to decrease outages at blasting will help prevent congestion, and is probably not a very expensive option. It is recommended to implement preventive maintenance or other methods to reduce variability in mean time to repair and mean time to failure.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:52 mechanical engineering
Programme:Industrial Engineering and Management BSc (56994)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63818
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page