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Adapting Risk Management from an Integral- to a Modular-based Production Process

Henrikson, Mikael LU (2020) VRSM01 20182
Risk Management and Safety Engineering (M.Sc.Eng.)
Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate how an adaptation from an integral production system to a modular production system would affect the risk management. A literature study of different production systems has been made, to compare the integral to the modular, and to gain knowledge on how an adaption from an integral production to modular could be made. This was done in cooperation with Tetra Pak, which are currently undergoing a change to a modular system. Information regarding risk management and modularisation has been obtained both through a literature study and interviews at Tetra Pak. The interviews were held with experts within modularity, and the literature obtained was often recommended from the modularity expert that Tetra... (More)
The aim of this study was to investigate how an adaptation from an integral production system to a modular production system would affect the risk management. A literature study of different production systems has been made, to compare the integral to the modular, and to gain knowledge on how an adaption from an integral production to modular could be made. This was done in cooperation with Tetra Pak, which are currently undergoing a change to a modular system. Information regarding risk management and modularisation has been obtained both through a literature study and interviews at Tetra Pak. The interviews were held with experts within modularity, and the literature obtained was often recommended from the modularity expert that Tetra Pak has recruited.
Tetra Pak is a large packaging company which currently have 15 different packaging lines. These are to be reduced to 1 modular packaging line. This may influence the current risk management, which have been researched in this thesis. Tetra Pak’s idea is to maintain likeworthy packages of today, but instead of using 15 packaging lines, create them by using 1 modular line.
In the thesis, the author describes both risk management in general, but also modular and integral production systems. It also describes the current risk management system at Tetra Pak today, how it would be in the future if no change is made to it, and an analysis on what might need to be altered to improve the adaptation to a modular production.
The main results from this thesis were that a change in how the ownership is divided is needed. By dividing the responsibility to modules instead of packages much of the risk management would be simpler, e.g. when doing a risk analysis. It was also discovered that there was a great potential in reusing information when doing risk analysis, as well as development. This because the modules are interconnected instead of the completely separated packaging lines of today. A reduced risk in losing competence was also discovered in the analysis. As a concluding remark, the author suggests Tetra Pak on how to proceed with these findings. (Less)
Popular Abstract
How will Tetra Pak adapt their Risk Management system when changing from 11 packaging lines to 1 modular packaging line?

Tetra Pak is undertaking an enormous reorganisation! They are changing from approximately 11 packaging lines to 1 ultimate packaging line, the” Next Generation Packaging Line” (NGPL). Do they need to adapt more than they think?
Tetra Pak is today one of the largest packaging companies with their roughly 23 000 employees. They have as it is 11 different packages that they provide. These are made in 11 different packaging lines, which all require spare parts, competence on how to operate each one, and development done for each packaging line separately. In addition to this, Tetra Pak offers certain customisations,... (More)
How will Tetra Pak adapt their Risk Management system when changing from 11 packaging lines to 1 modular packaging line?

Tetra Pak is undertaking an enormous reorganisation! They are changing from approximately 11 packaging lines to 1 ultimate packaging line, the” Next Generation Packaging Line” (NGPL). Do they need to adapt more than they think?
Tetra Pak is today one of the largest packaging companies with their roughly 23 000 employees. They have as it is 11 different packages that they provide. These are made in 11 different packaging lines, which all require spare parts, competence on how to operate each one, and development done for each packaging line separately. In addition to this, Tetra Pak offers certain customisations, which leads to that Tetra Pak currently must have a vast competence on the different packaging lines, as well as a huge warehouse for storing spare part and a high ongoing cost for research and development.
Tetra Pak is on the verge of exchanging these packaging lines to 1 single complete line (NGPL). The NGPL will be modular, which means that the parts of the packaging lines are changeable to produce different packages depending on what modules that are in use.
There is a lot of change needed to be done at Tetra Pak to be able to successfully complete this adaptation, and a lot of questions that need to be answered.
How will the responsibility look like in the future, when the system they are using now with 1 person responsible for 1 packaging line/package when they instead of 11 packaging lines/packages and corresponding responsible have 1 packaging line but still 11 packages? Another aspect is how to do the risk assessment when the packages will be compiled of modules instead of being created in one piece. These are question that I will answer in this summary.
A study in collaboration with Tetra Pak has been made to determine the risks with adapting to a new packaging system. Since the system is not yet created, this has been done by a literature study as well as interviews with knowledgeable people at Tetra Pak. When doing the literature study, the expertise of Tetra Pack as well as their consultant within modular design was used to obtain the best reading material. After the study was done, Tetra Pak was described by the author by 4 factors that were chosen as the most important to analyse. These factors were chosen based upon the literature study and was among other about the responsibility over the packaging lines within Tetra Pak. Tetra Pak was then described by using the same 4 parameters, but after the adaptation to a modular packaging line. The results were then compared and analysed to obtain the more important changes within the organisation and within what parameters the current risk management would yield in a misfit if kept as it is today.
As mentioned in the introduction, one of the more important discoveries was that the structure of who and how a person was responsible for a package would need to be altered. There needs to be many people in charge, so just switching to having 1 person responsible for everything was not a valid option. However, one way to do it would be to have 1 person responsible for each module instead. By doing this, many of the other issues that were discovered were also facilitated. For example, doing a risk analysis for all the different constellation of modules would take a lot of time. However, if one risk analysis would be done for each module and that analysis would be used in all the constellations, the total amount of risk analysis needed would be greatly reduced. Both suggestions are direct advice to Tetra Pak on how to facilitate their adaptation. In addition to these suggestions, there were multiple objectives that by switching to a modular production process were greatly facilitated, e.g. the costs of research and development as well as the risk of losing irreplaceable competence. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Henrikson, Mikael LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
The case of the production of packaging machines within Tetra Pak
course
VRSM01 20182
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Risk Management, Production Systems, Modular Production, Integral Production, Adaptation
language
English
id
9003038
date added to LUP
2020-02-04 09:20:54
date last changed
2020-12-03 14:26:14
@misc{9003038,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this study was to investigate how an adaptation from an integral production system to a modular production system would affect the risk management. A literature study of different production systems has been made, to compare the integral to the modular, and to gain knowledge on how an adaption from an integral production to modular could be made. This was done in cooperation with Tetra Pak, which are currently undergoing a change to a modular system. Information regarding risk management and modularisation has been obtained both through a literature study and interviews at Tetra Pak. The interviews were held with experts within modularity, and the literature obtained was often recommended from the modularity expert that Tetra Pak has recruited. 
Tetra Pak is a large packaging company which currently have 15 different packaging lines. These are to be reduced to 1 modular packaging line. This may influence the current risk management, which have been researched in this thesis. Tetra Pak’s idea is to maintain likeworthy packages of today, but instead of using 15 packaging lines, create them by using 1 modular line. 
In the thesis, the author describes both risk management in general, but also modular and integral production systems. It also describes the current risk management system at Tetra Pak today, how it would be in the future if no change is made to it, and an analysis on what might need to be altered to improve the adaptation to a modular production. 
The main results from this thesis were that a change in how the ownership is divided is needed. By dividing the responsibility to modules instead of packages much of the risk management would be simpler, e.g. when doing a risk analysis. It was also discovered that there was a great potential in reusing information when doing risk analysis, as well as development. This because the modules are interconnected instead of the completely separated packaging lines of today. A reduced risk in losing competence was also discovered in the analysis. As a concluding remark, the author suggests Tetra Pak on how to proceed with these findings.}},
  author       = {{Henrikson, Mikael}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Adapting Risk Management from an Integral- to a Modular-based Production Process}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}