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Development of the Packaging Material Process at Plastal AB Simrishamn

Linde, Erik and Winsborn, Pierre (2003) MIO920
Production Management
Abstract
In the automotive industry, it is common that the customers provide the suppliers
with the necessary packing material needed for delivery of the goods. The reason
for this is that it makes the handling and unpacking of incoming goods at the
customer easy, but it also makes sure that the quality of the packing material is
high, and that the transportation damages of the goods are minimised. It should
also serve as a support for the supplier, since the supplier would not have to worry
about the quality and the distribution of the packing material.
Plastal AB in Simrishamn is one of the bigger suppliers for the Swedish automotive
industry, and uses customer owned packing material for the delivery of many
of its products. Although the... (More)
In the automotive industry, it is common that the customers provide the suppliers
with the necessary packing material needed for delivery of the goods. The reason
for this is that it makes the handling and unpacking of incoming goods at the
customer easy, but it also makes sure that the quality of the packing material is
high, and that the transportation damages of the goods are minimised. It should
also serve as a support for the supplier, since the supplier would not have to worry
about the quality and the distribution of the packing material.
Plastal AB in Simrishamn is one of the bigger suppliers for the Swedish automotive
industry, and uses customer owned packing material for the delivery of many
of its products. Although the customer owned packing material has many advantages,
it also limits the freedom of action for Plastal, since Plastal has to adapt to
its customers’ procedures when it comes to lead times, ordering procedures, total
allowed amount of packing material and other restrictions.
The last years, the customers have become tougher on the packing material,
and as a consequence of this together with poor, internal control at Plastal, there
has been a lot of problems. An important one is that about 15 unanticipated
emergency stops in machines at Plastal occurred during 2002 only, which lead to
that machines had to be closed down and production reorganised. Such incidents
are serious since they decrease the service reliability, and put the quality of the
whole production at risk. The direct cost of this and some other problems amount
to more than 1.5 MSEK annually, a figure that will probably increase in the future
as the customers become even harder on the packing material.
To minimise the above problems, it is important for Plastal to act as early as
possible for an improvement of the packing material process. We believe that the
best way to do this is to optimise the use of the packing material by integrating
the whole process in Plastal’s computer system. This enables automation with
increased control as results, which also reduces the risk of having emergency stops.
A lot of other problems will also disappear thanks to this change.
The economic impact of this is that Plastal will save more than 1.2 MSEK
annually according to our calculations. The payback time for the necessary investment
is only 2 months, making it highly prioritised and desirable. Moreover, the
disturbances in the production connected to packing material will be diminished,
making the whole production process more efficient. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Linde, Erik and Winsborn, Pierre
supervisor
organization
course
MIO920
year
type
M1 - University Diploma
subject
other publication id
03/5188
language
English
id
2007335
date added to LUP
2011-06-30 16:18:30
date last changed
2011-06-30 16:18:30
@misc{2007335,
  abstract     = {{In the automotive industry, it is common that the customers provide the suppliers
with the necessary packing material needed for delivery of the goods. The reason
for this is that it makes the handling and unpacking of incoming goods at the
customer easy, but it also makes sure that the quality of the packing material is
high, and that the transportation damages of the goods are minimised. It should
also serve as a support for the supplier, since the supplier would not have to worry
about the quality and the distribution of the packing material.
Plastal AB in Simrishamn is one of the bigger suppliers for the Swedish automotive
industry, and uses customer owned packing material for the delivery of many
of its products. Although the customer owned packing material has many advantages,
it also limits the freedom of action for Plastal, since Plastal has to adapt to
its customers’ procedures when it comes to lead times, ordering procedures, total
allowed amount of packing material and other restrictions.
The last years, the customers have become tougher on the packing material,
and as a consequence of this together with poor, internal control at Plastal, there
has been a lot of problems. An important one is that about 15 unanticipated
emergency stops in machines at Plastal occurred during 2002 only, which lead to
that machines had to be closed down and production reorganised. Such incidents
are serious since they decrease the service reliability, and put the quality of the
whole production at risk. The direct cost of this and some other problems amount
to more than 1.5 MSEK annually, a figure that will probably increase in the future
as the customers become even harder on the packing material.
To minimise the above problems, it is important for Plastal to act as early as
possible for an improvement of the packing material process. We believe that the
best way to do this is to optimise the use of the packing material by integrating
the whole process in Plastal’s computer system. This enables automation with
increased control as results, which also reduces the risk of having emergency stops.
A lot of other problems will also disappear thanks to this change.
The economic impact of this is that Plastal will save more than 1.2 MSEK
annually according to our calculations. The payback time for the necessary investment
is only 2 months, making it highly prioritised and desirable. Moreover, the
disturbances in the production connected to packing material will be diminished,
making the whole production process more efficient.}},
  author       = {{Linde, Erik and Winsborn, Pierre}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Development of the Packaging Material Process at Plastal AB Simrishamn}},
  year         = {{2003}},
}