On the link between materials preparation design and performance

Licentiate thesis, 2016

Materials preparation is used in materials supply systems to arrange materials in accordance with the requirements from the assembly. Kitting and sequence based materials supply are two examples of when materials preparation is used in industry, where different part variants are collected to packages intended for one or multiple assembly objects. The use of materials preparation in industry is increasing along with the increasing amount of part variants in need of handling in the production system, while knowledge on how the materials preparation should be designed in regard to the materials preparation performance objectives of quality, flexibility and time efficiency, needs further research. In addition, rapid developments in information technology calls for new research in terms of how the new technology fits in the materials preparation process. The purpose of the thesis is to expand knowledge of how the desired performance of materials preparation in terms of flexibility, quality, and time efficiency influences the design of materials preparation. In the thesis, results are presented from literature studies, two multiple case studies and an experiment. The results presented focus on how options in the materials preparation design influence the materials preparation performance. An experiment, focusing time efficiency, together with two case studies on flexibility and quality performance, respectively forms the empirical basis of a framework for how the performance requirements influence the materials preparation design, in terms of the links between the studied design variables and the performance requirements. The framework also considers the materials preparation context and trade-offs in the materials preparation design in regard to the three performance requirements. The thesis contributes to practice by providing guidance to the materials preparation designer in terms of the performance to expect when choosing among options of the materials preparation design variables. The theoretical contribution of the thesis pertains to the developed framework that describes the relation between materials preparation design and performance.