Production process design in the sheltered workshop of VMI

VMI houses a sheltered workshop for the assembly of high-volume, low-variety products. In recent years, the production processes of the sheltered workshop have not evolved with the increasing production quantities. They cause productivity losses and have too low process capacities. In addition, VMI intends to expand the product portfolio, which will increase the workload further. Therefore, we develop a new production process design for one product that serves as a pilot approach for the other processes. For this purpose, we determine the current performance of this production process and analyse it to define the improvement focus. Hence, we design a new production process with changes in the facility layout, material supply, process and workstation design, and work method. We experiment with a physical test setup to determine whether the new process design is feasible. The results show that the new process design significantly improves the process performance in terms of quality, lead time, costs, and ergonomics. Moreover, the capacity of the process increases exceptionally. Finally, we propose a plan to implement the new process design and determine that the new process design has a quick return on investment.