The Productivity Potential Assessment at Ekornes in Sykkylven, Møre and Romsdal.

Abstract

This thesis explains a PPA study conducted at Ekornes' shop floor bottle-neck in their factory in Sykkylven. As their goals towards the end of 2016 are to save 210 mill NOK and increase productivity by 4% in their sewing- and sconce departments the management was eager to get an objective view of their actual productivity potential and suggestions to improvement measures.

The PPA method is divided into four levels, where level 1 withstand of a work sampling study and an overall equipment efficiency calculation, level 2 withstands of common KPIs for the company and level 3 withstand of a summary of level of production engineering and an assessment of the work environment. Level 4 is not a formal part of the PPA method, but this level withstand of the most important results of this thesis; suggested improvement measures with calculations regarding their impact on productivity. And nevertheless, the reason why the PPA level 4 is not a formal part of the PPA is challenged with the implementation of the lean tool A3 report.

The main results from the conducted research are that Ekornes' productivity potential is presented and the productivity increase of three cases with implemented improvement measures have been calculated. Ekornes' productivity can actually be improved a lot by not so large measures;

Implement a Kanban system: 21% calculated productivity increase. Improve their existing sewing robot: 46% calculated productivity increase. Combination of three improvement measures: 85% calculated productivity increase.

Keywords: PPA, Lean Manufacturing, Production Development, Work Sampling, Manufacturing System, Root-Cause Analysis, A3 report, Norwegian Company.