World Class Manufacturing (WCM) aineettoman pääoman johtamisen työkaluna

Tämän kvalitatiivisen tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella jatkuvan pa-rantamisen työkalun, WCM:n, roolia aineettoman pääoman johtajana. Tutkimuksen teoreettisessa osassa selvitetään aineettoman pääoman eri muotoja; inhimillistä, suhde- ja rakennepääomaa. Lisäksi tutkitaan WCM:n ideologiaa, sen käyttöönottoa ja eri osa-alueita. Teoriaosan lopussa selvite-tään WCM:n ja aineettoman pääoman yhteyttä toisiinsa ja niiden vaikutusta suorituskykyyn. Teoriaa tukemaan tehtiin empiirinen tutkimus case -organisaatiossa haastattelemalla organisaation toimihenkilöitä sekä työntekijöitä. Empiirisen tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää case –organisaation jatkuvan parantamisen mallin kehitystarpeita WCM:n ja inhimillisen pääoman näkö-kulmasta. Tutkimustulokset osoittivat, että WCM:llä voidaan johtaa aineettoman pää-oman eri muotoja – saaden siten myös suorituskykyä paremmaksi.

Managing manufacturing data and improving its accuracy

There are two main objects in this study: First, to prove the importance of data accuracy to the business success, and second, create a tool for observing and improving the accuracy of ERP systems production master data. Sub-objective is to explain the need for new tool in client company and the meaning of it for the company. In the theoretical part of this thesis the focus is in stating the importance of data accuracy in decision making and it's implications on business success. Also basics of manufacturing planning are introduced in order to explain the key vocabulary. In the empirical part the client company and its need for this study is introduced. New master data report is introduced, and finally, analysing the report and actions based on the results of analysis are explained. The main results of this thesis are finding the interdependence between data accuracy and business success, and providing a report for continuous master data improvement in the client company's ERP system.

Veneer Properties Determination for Plywood Manufacturing

The objective in this Master's Thesis was to determine and verify quality criteria for veneer in plywood manufacturing. In plywood manufacturing the veneer quality has a decisive part how well it can be produced to a final product. Modern equipment run at high speed and capacity. These machines require a good quality veneer to be able to maintain them. The quality criteria determination was done after the dominant veneer properties were determined. This research focuses to the birch veneer quality determination. The machines involved in the veneer manufacturing are introduced in the materials and methods section. The different veneer properties are determined and the measuring devices to measure these properties are examined. There are many parts in veneer manufacturing and these have different requirements to the veneer quality. To determine and verify these properties for every machine was the most demanding part of this Master's Thesis. During the research some new ideas and ways to measure veneer properties were also tested. Veneer properties and quality was followed in a factory environment and in a test runs at the Raute. Different machines were followed carefully in the production environment while for example test pieces were taken from veneers that broke on the line. Sample pieces were tested on site or delivered to Nastola for more extensive testing. Based on the tests and research the criteria for veneer to every machine involved in the veneer production were created. These veneer quality tolerances are recommendations to ensure that the machine operation will not be affected by the veneer quality.

Warranty Practices and Costs in the Industry of Welding Machines Manufacturing

The objective of the master’s thesis is to define the warranty practices and costs in the welding machines manufacturing company and do a proposal for a warranty policy based on the practices and costs. The study include a disquisition of the warranty practices in the subsidiaries and distributor sales. The disquisition of the warranty practices introduces the information relates to warranty period, warranty costs, including repair, spare part and other costs, the practices with the replaced parts, the utilization rate of the eWarranty system and information relates to special arrangements in the warranties. The warranty costs are defined besides the group level also separately per regions and product families. From some product families the disquisition is done per products. In this study is also done a proposal for a warranty policy for the company. The proposal speaks out the length of warranty period, the compensation of the warranty costs, the practices with replaced parts and usage of eWarranty system.

Technology roadmap for new sales support and management system for crane manufacturing company

Sales configurators are essential tools for companies that offer complicated case specifically crafted products for customers. Most sophisticated of them are able to design an entire end product on the fly according to given constraints, calculate price for the offer and move the order into production. This thesis covers a sales configurator acquisition project in a large industrial company that offers cranes for its customers. The study spans the preliminary stages of a large-scale software purchase project starting from the specification of problem domain and ending up presenting the most viable software solution that fulfils the requirements for the new system. The project consists of mapping usage environment, use cases, and collecting requirements that are expected from the new system. The collected requirements involve fitting the new sales system into enterprise application infrastructure, mitigating the risks involved in the project and specifying new features to the application whilst preserving all of the admired features of the old sales system currently used in the company. The collected requirements were presented to a number of different sales software vendors who were asked to provide solution suggestions that would fulfil all the demands. All of the received solution proposals were exposed to an evaluation to determine the most feasible solutions, and the construction of evaluation criteria itself was a part of the study. The final outcome of this study is a short-list of the most feasible sales configurator solutions together with a description of how software purchase process in large enterprises work, and which aspects should be paid attention in large projects of similar kind.

Contract manufacturing networks structure and supply chain management

The usual objectives that companies have for subcontracting are studied in this thesis. The case company’s objectives for contract manufacturing now and in the future are identified. The main objective of the thesis is to create a focused model for the structure and supply chain management in the contract manufacturing network. This model is made for case company’s certain profit center. The different possibilities and their advantages and disadvantages for the structure and supply chain management are examined trough a theoretical review of literature. The possibilities found are then examined from the case company’s point of view. The case company point of view is established based on the opinions of the case company’s representatives. The outcome of the thesis is that the star shaped structure with supply chain management centralized to case company would be the best choice for the case company to manage the contract manufacture network.

Has concentration evolved similarly in manufacturing and services? A sensitivity analysis

Our first objective is to compare the degree of concentration in manufacturing and services, with special emphasis on its evolution in these two sectors, using a sensitivity analysis for different concentration indices and different geographic units of analysis: municipalities and local labour systems of Catalonia in 1991 and 2001. Most concentration measures fail to consider the space in which a particular municipality is located. Our second objective is to overcome this problem by applying two different techniques: by using a clustering measure, and by analysing whether the location quotients computed for each municipality and sector present some kind of spatial autocorrelation process. We take special account of the differences in patterns of concentration according to the technological level of the sectors.

A state-space approach for measuring regional manufacturing production indices

In this paper we propose a latent variable model, in the spirit of Israilevich and Kuttner (1993), to measure regional manufacturing production. To test the validity of the proposed methodology, we have applied it for those Spanish regions that have a direct quantitative index. The results demonstrate the accuracy of the methodology proposed and show that it can overcome some of the difficulties of the indirect method applied by the INE, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics.

A dynamic analysis of asymmetric shocks in EU manufacturing

Available empirical evidence regarding the degree of symmetry between European economies in the context of Monetary Unification is not conclusive. This paper offers new empirical evidence concerning this issue related to the manufacturing sector. Instead of using a static approach as most empirical studies do, we analyse the dynamic evolution of shock symmetry using a state-space model. The results show a clear reduction of asymmetries in terms of demand shocks between 1975 and 1996, with an increase in terms of supply shocks at the end of the period.

Gender diversity and innovation in manufacturing and service firms

Traditionally, researchers have considered the innovation process as being gender neutral. However, recently some studies have begun to take gender diversity into account as a determinant of firms’ innovation. This paper aims to analyse how the effect of gender diversity on innovation output at firm level is sensitive to team size. Using the Spanish PITEC (Panel de Innovación Tecnológica) from 2007 to 2012 for innovative manufacturing and service firms, we estimate a multivariate probit model to analyse how gender diversity both in R&D teams and in the total workforce affect product, process, marketing and organizational innovations. Our results show that gender-diverse teams increase the probability of innovating, and this capacity is positively related team size. Gender diversity, in both the R&D department and the total workforce, has a larger positive impact on the probability of carrying out product and organizational innovations in larger teams than it does in smaller teams. This effect is less clear-cut in the case of marketing and process innovation, where the impact is only significant for micro and small firms. Finally, size effects are of greater importance when we distinguish between the manufacturing and service sectors. JEL Code: O30, O31, J16

Engendering Group Support Based Foresight for Capital Intensive Manufacturing Industries - Case Paper and Steel Industry Scenarios by 2018

In recent times of global turmoil, the need for uncertainty management has become ever momentous. The need for enhanced foresight especially concerns capital-intensive industries, which need to commit their resources and assets with long-term planning horizons. Scenario planning has been acknowledged to have many virtues - and limitations - concerning the mapping of the future and illustrating the alternative development paths. The present study has been initiated to address both the need of improved foresight in two capital-intensive industries, i.e. the paper and steel industries and the imperfections in the current scenario practice. The research problem has been approached by engendering a problem-solving vehicle, which combines, e.g. elements of generic scenario process, face-to-face group support methods, deductive scenario reasoning and causal mapping into a fully integrated scenario process. The process, called the SAGES scenario framework, has been empirically tested by creating alternative futures for two capital-intensive industries, i.e. the paper and steel industries. Three scenarios for each industry have been engendered together with the identification of the key megatrends, the most important foreign investment determinants, key future drivers and leading indicators for the materialisation of the scenarios. The empirical results revealed a two-fold outlook for the paper industry, while the steel industry future was seen as much more positive. The research found support for utilising group support systems in scenario and strategic planning context with some limitations. Key perceived benefits include high time-efficiency, productivity and lower resource-intensiveness. Group support also seems to enhance participant satisfaction, encourage innovative thinking and provide the users with personalised qualitative scenarios.

Defining the location factors of new manufacturing site in chemical industry

The objective of this thesis is to examine the factors that have an impact on the location decision of new manufacturing site and to create the relative order of importance of these factors by analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The decision making process especially related to the location selection and the measurement of the location factors are also examined. In theoretical part the character of decision making process and the relevant methods are introduced. Based on the previous studies of other researchers, the location factors are examined and the main research method, analytic hierarchy process, is also introduced. The empirical part of the study mainly follows the phases of decision making process and is emphasized on the main stages of analytic hierarchy process; building the hierarchy, defining the priorities and analyzing the results. The hierarchy is constructed from seven main criteria which all have several sub criteria. The evaluation of the hierarchy is implemented at the group decision making –laboratory and there can be seen significant differences between the importance of criteria. The final stage in the study is to create the appropriate measurement scales to the chosen criteria.

Reducing Manufacturing Costs of the Screen Dryer’s Hot Section by Design

In this thesis, the purpose was to find the cost distribution of the screen dryer and the largest cost factors. The hot section of the screen dryer was revealed as the biggest cost factor, so composing new cost efficient solutions were directed to it. DFMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly) was chosen to help the design process. DFMA is a product design strategy developed for taking manufacturing and assembly costs into account at the early stages of the design process. In the theory part of the thesis, other methods of economical design and tools needed for estimating manufacturing costs are introduced. In the empirical part, the hot section of the screen dryer was divided into sub-assemblies and their manufacturing costs were estimated. The design propositions were directed to the self-manufactured assemblies and parts. The new manufacturing costs were calculated for the developed propositions. Lastly, the most cost efficient solutions were summarized. The savings on the self-manufactured assemblies were about 40 %, which was about 13 % of the combined total costs of the hot section.

Production planning development in global manufacturing company

Larox Corporation is a provider of full service filtration in solid and liquid separation. Larox develops, designs, manufactures and supplies industrial filters. By Larox’s continuous development principle, a project for more efficient production was started. At the same time production planning was taken under review. Aim for this Master’s thesis was to find software designed for production planning purposes replacement for old Microsoft Excel based method. In this Master’s thesis current way of production planning was thoroughly analyzed and improvement targets were specified and also requirements for new software were assigned. Primary requirements for new software were possibility to production scheduling, planning, follow-up and also for long-time capacity planning and tracking. Also one demand was that new software should have data link to Larox’s current ERP-system. Result of this Master’s thesis was to start using Larox’s ERP-system also for production planning purposes. New mode of operation fulfils all requirements which were placed to new system. By using new method of production planning, production planners can get more easier and reliable data than from current system.

On Doing Successful ICT Business with Russian Manufacturing Enterprises

This Master’s thesis addresses different approaches using which a foreign IT company could enter Russian manufacturing industry with its enterprise information systems and IT services. In order to define the most suitable market entry approach, several aspects related to Russian manufacturing enterprises are studied. These aspects include challenges of doing ICT business with the previously mentioned enterprises, their perception of ICT role and their ICT preferences, as well as their buying behavior related to acquisition of information systems (IS). The study results show that there are several challenges that can be faced by a foreign IT vendor when starting conducting ICT business with Russian manufacturing enterprises. The results also show that Russian manufacturing industry is still rather immature in sense of business process automation, and its IT buying behavior is rather specific and complicated. The results suggest that an efficient way to approach these enterprises is through a network of trusted partners that consists of reliable Russian IS integrators and business consultants having established connections to Russian manufacturing companies and possessing the needed competence.