Julio J. Garcia-Sabater

The impact of Kaizen Events on improving the performance of automotive components' first-tier suppliers

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the possibility of improving production indicators by implementing Kaizen Events. The teams are composed of both managers and operators with the aim of developing and/or implementing improvements in three to five days. Methodology – The empirical research will consists of the description of the results obtained in 11 industrial companies from the automotive components industry. In each company, we have followed up different interventions over a 9-12-month period. Findings – We shall present the initial situation, the activities carried out by the companies and the evolution of manufacturing performance approximately three months after the activities were finished and qualitative conclusions on the carrying out of Kaizen Events. Value – There has been little empirical research to establish the degree of improvement of the production indicators in companies advancing towards lean production. The paper tries to fill this gap.

A capacitated material requirements planning model considering delivery constraints: A case study from the automotive industry.

JIT delivery practices require that only what is requested is sent. The simplified solution generally accepts that only, what is going to be sent is what is produced, with minimum inventory. Due to the turbulent environment within the plant, the reality is very different. Such simplifications are not viable and buffers between the delivery process and the production process are often allocated. In this paper we present a single model that successfully integrates the delivery, the production, and the supply process. The model that this paper presents includes usual operations plan objectives (production and delivery) but also regularity constraints that keep the system feasible under JIT approach. both objectives on a single model. This model has been successfully implemented in an engine plant of a global automaker which is now planning the operations (supply, transform, assembly and delivery of the plant) with it. Due to the specific characteristics of the tools used at the factory the model was divided into two different models that could be solved sequentially with a large gain in efficiency. The paper ends with some remarks about the implementation process and future research lines…

Etapas en la evolución de la mejora continua: estudio multicaso

Objeto: El modelo de evolucion de la mejora continua en las empresas esta en un estado intermedio de desarrollo. En investigaciones previas se han planteado y validado las etapas o niveles y los comportamientos o conductas asociadas a cada una de ellas en los procesos de mejora continua. Sin embargo no esta clara la relacion entre etapas, rutinas entendidas como conjuntos de comportamientos y facilitadores. En este trabajo se propone una definicion conceptual diferenciada para los facilitadores y para las conductas de la mejora continua. Tambien se ha recopilado y resumido un listado de los facilitadores que dan soporte al desarrollo de la mejora continua en la empresa y propone un modelo de cuando y como se activan los facilitadores y el impacto que tienen esos facilitadores para ir avanzando en las diferentes etapas de evolucion del programa de mejora continua. Diseno/metodologia: Estudio cualitativo multicaso con 4 empresas medianas, lideres en sus sectores, y con recursos economicos. Aportaciones y resultados: Presenta una propuesta de relacion entre facilitadores, etapas de evolucion y sus conductas asociadas y pone de manifiesto que la evolucion de la implantacion de la mejora continua no se trata de un continuo incremental, sino que existe un punto de discontinuidad entre las etapas 3 y 4, que exige un cambio radical en el proceso de implantacion. Valor anadido: Extiende el modelo de Bessant et al (2001) explicitando como avanzar en el desarrollo de la implementacion de unos niveles a otros superiores a traves de la activacion de los facilitadores adecuados. Tambien presenta ejemplos de aplicacion que pueden resultar muy ilustrativos para los directivos de produccion. Ademas, plantea una secuencia de activacion de los facilitadores que permite orientar a los mandos en la toma de decisiones relacionadas con la implantacion y despliegue de la mejora continua en sus empresas.

Competence Acquisition, Encouragement and Development in Smart Organizations: Some Examples

A good competence and knowledge management is required in smart companies to achieve and maintain competitive advantages. In this context, competence acquisition, encouragement and development are needed to hire and retain talented employees in these companies. In this paper, we describe briefly some examples according to these three dimensions.

Wiki as an Activity Learning

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the design of an activity based on wiki technology in a Higher Education environment, specifically in engineering studies. The issues proposed here are based on the previous experience of the authors by developing a wiki activity in the field of industrial engineering. Wiki is considered a type of Web 2.0 technology that enables users to work together on the Web. The research literature reports a number of experiences with wiki-based collaborative writing in education. However, to enable all the advantages as far as possible, a clear specific description of the activity is mandatory for both students and teachers. This work confers guidelines as to how wikis will be developed and evaluated. Regarding developing wikis, the content of this task is specified in collaboration with the instructor. Regarding assessments, the quality of the wikipage and possible competences developed should be considered. The methodological design presented herein intends to act as a basis for the wiki-based collaborative writing approach. In addition, a list of assessment indicators that can be the basis for a future research line related to an automated tool for evaluating wiki is provided.

Fundación Espurna: A Case Study on Social Entrepreneurship

This work presents the case of Fundacion Espurna, a non-profit NGO that helps the intellectually disabled to find work, founded in 1996. It began with very little capital and cared for five people, but it has multiplied its capital more than 200-fold, now cares for more than 500 different people each year, and has over 200 workers of whom more than 50% have some kind of disability.

A practical model for managing inventories with unknown costs and a budget constraint

The economic production quantity method is one of the simplest models to control production and inventory. However, the assumptions on which it is based make its application difficult in practical situations. In most companies, set-up and inventory costs are unknown, or may not even exist as such, although other data are known, such as available capacity in machining hours and limits set by the financing subsystem. The present work offers a multi-item inventory model that sets reference values using known values such as inventory investment limits and production capacity. In order to confer the proposed model’s larger practical content, a spreadsheet available to be downloaded has been implemented. Finally, the model dynamics is illustrated as a numerical example obtained from a real company.

Analisis del grado de consistencia entre diferentes modos de evaluar las competencias transversales de creatividad, pensamiento crítico, liderazgo y trabajo en equipo/red

Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por la Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (PIME/2016/A/027/A) “La evaluacion pareada como metodologia para la evaluacion del pensamiento critico de los alumnos”.

Coordination Mechanism for MILP Models to Plan Operations Within an Advanced Planning and Scheduling System in a Motor Company: A Case Study

The aim of this paper is to present a coordination mechanism between MILP models for planning operations within an integrated planning tool. The mechanism presented allows co-ordinate planning models between different domains (procurement, production, transportation), the different planning horizons (mid-term, short-term and very short-term) and between the different planning periods. This mechanism has been design to ensure coordination and integrity between the different plans while meeting the expectations of the different stakeholders involved in the planning process of an automotive plant. The proposed mechanism was implemented in an Advanced Planning and Scheduling system for an engine assembly company.

Five Information-Based Key Factors for Innovative Companies

In this paper we propose five common points for companies to innovate and adapt to constant change. For this, we study the interdependence between the organizational structure and information flows in generating ideas. It has been observed that to practice innovation, a company must develop an efficient and effective information management, considered as a principal resource or value for making decisions. This research is based in grounded theory which allows, through the collection and analysis of qualitative data, to build new theory.