Projects

Huidige afstudeerprojecten

 

Geert Boelens

The research project is initialized by the company to look further at the internal efficiency. After having worked on the shopfloor for a week, I found out that there was a lot to investigate and analyze. I started with an MMO (Multi Moment Opname) registration, or Work sampling registration, to look on what activities what time is spent. After this there were 10 interesting items to investigate further. From this 10 I picked 5 to really investigate further: transporting material, getting instructions, formation, walking around, searching tools. These 5 items I studied further by the SMED methodology, observation, talking with the shopflooor-manager, and video recording.

Key words: MMO (Work Sampling), efficiency, SMED, Routing

 

Jorrit Nicolai

The research is dual focused. The first focus lies on the design and implementation of performance measurement focused on the production process alone. With the measuring of performance it helps Tomin Verpakken monitor production processes and to choose the production processes which need improvement.

The other focus lies on improving a production process thru lean manufacturing. Processes are measured, wastes get reduced and improvements are made. The main focus hereby lies on line balancing. This has resulted in an implementation of paced lines with tact times. The study goes on by an analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of the tact time processes and how the company can improve processes on their own thru lean manufacturing in the future.

Key words: Performance Measurement, Lean Production, Tact (Cycle) Times, Short Cycle Work, Reduction of Wastes

 

Pieter Hoondert

DC is a producer of high quality cocoa products for the industrial market. At the moment the maintenance is done on reaction base. In the future DC wants to maintain their installations on basis of the TPM filosofie. During this project I monitored the present maintenance situation of DC. After that I developed an TPM implementation plan for DC.

Key words: Possibilities for TPM implementation at DC process site

 

Tineke Bolhuis

With the rising competition level and a relative expensive production, Philips DAP Drachten is looking for ways to improve production at their production plant. Management in Drachten is searching for ways to reduce their costs, to keep being competitive as in China ( subsidiary ). They believe lean manufacturing should provide some good solutions. Besides the cost aspect, quality improvements and delivery improvements should also be attempted with lean manufacturing. At this moment Philips DAP Drachten is implementing the lean manufacturing approach within a part of their production system. The part of production process ODF (Order Driven Factory) is put in flow, as an attempted to produce lean. First successes are booked and now the rest of the production should also become lean. Value stream mapping should create an overview of the situation at the production location. These should also define the next kaizen events within production. Integration between supplier and production is my focus point. My master thesis project should give a clear analysis of this situation and provide suggestions for improvement.

Key words: Lean manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping, Integration between supplier and production

 

Floris Minderman

This project is about an assembly line, designed with lean principles by another student of the University of Groningen, one year ago. The new design should have led to an improvement of the efficiency. One year later the efficiency was still on a low level (70%), while other assembly lines reached figures of above 100%.

From an analysis of the assembly line it became clear that the low efficiency was caused by de-motivated employees and miss-management. With (scientific) literature, solutions are described and an improvement plan was written. Two examples of improvement are: a more tight capacity planning and motivating employees by creating “team spirit”.

The second part of the project, implementation of the improvements, will be conducted in the next two months. After that, the implementations will be evaluated. The thesis includes a generic model which can be used by improving efficiency in other (assembly) lines.

Key words: Efficiency improvement, motivation, performance criteria, sociotechnical system vs. lean operations, action research, change management.

 

Laurens Aakster

This research is aimed towards the identification of additional information exchange opportunities in food supply chains. All participating organizations in food supply chains (farmers, raw material processors, food manufacturers, wholesalers, food service providers, retailers) are facing an increased pressure on their margins, new and more tight quality and safety regulations including complete track and traceability. The management of food chain actors have to deal with strategic dilemmas and need to rebalance their current operations. In this research the potato chain is analyzed in detail to identify the key information requirements for food chain actors and their availability throughout the chain. The validity of these results will be tested in other food chains.

Key words: Supply Chain Management, Food Chains, Information requirements, Potato, Key performance indicators, decision support

 

Arjan Kampman

The research project focuses on the subject of revenue maximization. Based on this subject, PwC developed a concept called the Revenue Maximizer, which has been implemented at the telecom industry for a long time. Through similarities in business structure and type of processes, the idea arose to apply this concept at logistic service providers.

The thesis will focus on the added value of the concept in both industries, on the fit between the RM methodology and logistic service providers and on functional improvements of the concept. Literature, internal information and expertise of PwC will be used in the thesis. Also a pilot project at a large logistic service provider will be used as a case study, to understand the operational aspects of the concept.

Key words: Revenue Maximizer, Revenue Assurance, Revenue Management, Business process improvement, Efficiency & effectiveness, Process reengineering, Added value, Functional improvements

 

Rob  Arndts

The company of my thesis focuses on the production of diagnostic catheters, balloon catheters and stents for endovascular usage. The calibration department makes sure the product specifications are guaranteed by calibrating the tools which are used by various other departments in the company. The goal of my research is to give recommendations to increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of the calibration department by looking at outsourcing options and implementation of lean principles. The first step is to create an insight in the processes by using actor activity diagramming and cost analysis. This will serve as an basis for optimization actions.

Key words: lean service, outsourcing, efficiency, costs

 

Gijs Spil

 The objective of the study is to unlock how stakeholder engagement can be done most effectively and efficient, in order to improve the probability that a project becomes sustainable. The study researches one project management methodology and a change management methodology that are introduced within Shell to streamline project management. The areas of these methodologies that are focused on stakeholder engagement are compared with the stakeholder engagement performed in a major IT project. Various stakeholder engagement elements are identified that increase the likelihood on project sustainability and recommendations are provided on how to put these into practice.

Key words:Project management, Effective stakeholder engagement, and Project sustainability