The case studies have been conducted with two businesses with different industrial processes and of different sizes. The objective of the case studies is to identify improvements using the framework for management implementation. Detail of the case study companies are in Chapter 6.
Both case study companies made the researcher aware that there were problems at the businesses that, if solved, could improve business performance.
3.13.1 Problems Identified at the Businesses
A review was held with both case study businesses to establish which problems were affecting business performance. One common barrier identified that caused problems was that there was very little senior management commitment to preventing problems. It was also clear that there was no understanding of quality techniques that could be implemented in the business in order to minimise business waste.
Case Study 1 issues consisted of:
Tooling: the process has stopped due to production tooling being broken or worn out, meaning there is no tooling available to manufacture components.
Waiting for a setter: the process cannot manufacture components because there is no setter available to set the machine to produce parts. Setting: there is a setter available and the machine is currently being set.
Waiting to be set: the machine has just completed the last components of a batch and requires setting for the next production run of manufactured components.
Waiting for material: there is no material available, therefore no components can be manufactured.
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Electrical: the process has broken down and is not producing components because of an electrical fault with the machine.
Waiting for instruction: the machine is capable of producing components but the machine is not producing components because a specific instruction is pending from the management.
Case Study 2 issues consisted of:
Manufacturing cannot produce components because of a long lead time for drawings from the design department.
Manufacturing cannot produce components because of a long lead time in Bills of Materials from the design department.
Components have to be part sprayed and moved to complete the paint process because the paint booth is not large enough to powder coat components.
Inconsistent paint thickness causes quality issues.
Static shocks are causing a potential health and safety issue.
There is a significant volume of powder coating paint waste due to the powder coating paint not being recycled.
There are large holes in the curing oven that causes significant heat loss.
Component damage is occurring because the jigging trolley is not strong enough to support the components during internal transport in the factory.
Masking tape is currently used once and then thrown away; this is resulting in a large cost from using masking tape that is £25 per metre a roll.
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3.13.2 Documentation and Data Control
It is important to have controlled documentation and data control. The researcher utilised documentation such as academic publications, reports, responses to questionnaires, interview notes, letters, meeting minutes, case study notes, concept ideas and planning notes and electronic data in Microsoft Word and Excel formats.
Documentation collected for this research was used to support the develop of a sustainable framework for the use by manufacturing SMEs. The researcher also used specific company data to support it’s the analysis process.
The researcher received privileged information from the case study SMEs, which they provided in the expectation that their business information with regard to performance data would be kept confidential, and this wish will be respected throughout this thesis. Their business trading names will also be kept confidential. On the completion of this study, this information will be shredded and destroyed.
3.13.3 Data Collection in the Case Studies
Data was available in Case Study 1 and collected on a weekly basis; however the management of the business did not review, analyse or take actions for business improvement. The data already available in Case Study 1 was used to identify business issues that could be used in the case study.
Case Study 2 did not collect any data on business issues. People who were involved in the case study were involved in the process of reviewing current methods of operation; problems were then identified from the case study.
Impact of the Pilot Scheme
The same approach used in the pilot scheme was also used in the case study work for Case Study Companies 1 and 2. Using the methodologies detailed at the beginning of this chapter, the issues identified in Case Studies 1 and 2 were used as the basis of the case study. Five people from both case study companies were shown the framework and began to use the framework to
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identify solutions to the problems. A detailed account is documented in the case study section of this thesis.
A review with the people involved with the case study proved that the framework worked as designed. After completing the case study work, it was discovered that in order to be successful, not all CI techniques that were originally included in the framework were required. The framework was modified accordingly; the final framework is shown later in this thesis.