Purpose – The paper's aim is to focus on the productivity potential assessment (PPA) method which has been developed to measure and assess the productivity potentials at shop‐floor level in Swedish manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approach – A study was carried out in one day by two certified analysts using a highly standardised work process. The focus is on a selected bottleneck area of a factory. Measurement from the selected area is combined with a broad data collection to make an assessment of the potential for increasing the productivity in the factory. The results were fed back to the factory management orally on the same day and in a written report.Findings – The paper shows that the PPA method was not designed to be a research method. It is a practical method that is based on a systems perspective where as many factors affecting the productivity and productivity development are gathered in one day.Research limitations/implications – A consecutive article will present the result from the s...

Productivity Potential Assessment of the Swedish Manufacturing Industry

The productivity potential assessment method

Production companies frequently have to meet demands and requirements, both internal and external, which trigger a plan for change in different production areas. Assembly systems of today are heading towards more customised production, i.e. smaller batches, shorter cycle times and increased number of variants. As a result, companies have to find more flexible methods for assembling their products and become more proactive in the assembly system itself. Identifying new strategies becomes vital and can be achieved by designing the assembly system in a structured way with the most advantageous cognitive and mechanical Level of Automation.
The aim of this thesis is to show that by quantifying, measuring and analysing physical and cognitive Levels of Automation it is possible to enable competitive assembly systems. ‘If it is not Quantifiable it is not true’ – this is a common statement among engineers who rather use numbers than words when describing a phenomenon. This thesis will discuss the phenomenon of Levels of Automation from both a quantitative and qualitative point of view. Furthermore it will discuss whether it is necessary to have more than one level or dimension of automation and if so, what benefits this creates for industry when measuring and analysing Levels of Automation in their assembly systems.
‘The future assembly systems will consist of highly skilled operators...’ In order to choose and use the right level of automation, the choice itself has to be structured and well based. This thesis will discuss the importance of a structured method and an easy-to-use tool to visualise and quantify the levels of automation in the current state of a system. Furthermore, it will show how this could be used in a future analysis.
Lastly, this thesis will discuss the effects of changing mind-set from primary look at cost and productivity to also consider other parameters that could influence the system in order to be competitive.

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Quantifying Levels of Automation: To Enable Competitive Assembly Systems

Productivity Potential Assessment (PPA) has been used in 45 studies of manufacturing companies in Sweden. The overall conclusion is that there is a great potential for improving the efficiency and ultimately the profitability and the ability for long term survival of these companies. The key issue is to start with the basics; in terms of correct operation and set-up times, routines for follow–up of times and costs, manual work standards, ideal cycle times for machines, and so on. Too many companies are trying to make shortcuts, intentionally or against better knowledge, investing time and money in expensive IT support system and the latest management philosophy. These investments usually never pay off as intended because of the lack in basic information about actual times and costs. To retrieve the basic information, scientifically founded engineering methods and a lot of hard work is needed. Every operation for every product and every variant need to be measured, analysed, revised, and continuously updated. Ignore that and every management and support system will fall flat.

Results and Conclusions from the Productivity Potential Assessment Studies

Production System Assessment and Improvement: A Tool for Make-to-Order and Assemble-to-Order Companies

Purpose:– To develop and test a model and software-based support system for better understandingof the interactions between man-machine-maintenance-economy (MMME), and enable cost-effective decisio 

Productivity Potential Assessment of the Swedish Manufacturing Industry

Citations

The productivity potential assessment method

Quantifying Levels of Automation: To Enable Competitive Assembly Systems

Results and Conclusions from the Productivity Potential Assessment Studies

Production System Assessment and Improvement: A Tool for Make-to-Order and Assemble-to-Order Companies

A computerised model to enhance the cost-effectiveness of production and maintenance dynamic decisions : A case study at Fiat

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