Reduced cycle time and work in process in a medical device factory : the problem and a proposed solution
Name
232668312-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
15.88 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
aeaa740a01c92d2b0f0d793ea03bd6e5
Author(s)
Qian, Yi, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisor(s)
Stephen C. Graves.
Alternative Title
Reduced cycle time and WIP in a medical device factory : the problem and a proposed solution
Date Issued
2007
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Many manufacturing firms have improved their operations by implementing a work-in-process (WIP) limiting control strategy. This project explores the application of this concept to limit WIP and reduce cycle time for the Becton, Dickinson and Company's manufacturing facility in Tuas, Singapore. BD's Eclipse Safety Needle production line is facing increasing pressure to reduce its high WIP and long cycle times. With the forecast of increasing demand, the current production control practice will sooner or later push the shop floor space to a limit. We divided the overall system into three manageable sub-systems and analyzed different strategies for each. This paper documents the approaches to Needle Assembly machine (AN) and downstream machines, as well as the inventory policy for Needle Shield (NS) and Safety Shield (SS) molded components. At AN and downstream, we can achieve significant reduction in cycle time and work in process by eliminating the unnecessary early start of production and extra delay caused from the current planning method, by reducing transfer batch sizes and by applying mixed scheduling policy at AN. We can obtain further improvement by implementing a CONWIP release rule. For the stocking of NS and SS molded parts, a simple periodic review, base stock inventory policy can effectively reduce the current inventory level by more than 40%, as well as reduce the inventory variation.
Description
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 46).
Subjects
Mechanical Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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