Lean assemble-to-order manufacturing at Ericsson

Abstract

This article describes the findings and results from an improvement project concerning a production line at an Ericsson plant in Sweden. The article is a type of a case study that describes activities and discussions in an improvement project. A value stream mapping showed that only a few percent of the throughput time was really adding value to the customer. In an improvement project the involvements of all employees are important. Interviewing and education of workers/operators lead to that they also contribute with suggestions to improve the production flow. Value stream mapping though often classified as a lean technique is a technique for improvements of most kind of productions, here it is applied to a situation that must be classified more agile than lean. A selection of generated, and rather general, solutions were implemented: reduced buffers; more of a 'one-piece' flow; a reduced waiting time by adding work tasks; a more levelled manufacturing and efficient flow was created by a recombination of processes and a reallocation of work tasks. Our article hopefully stimulates students and practitioners to find improvement activities in similar situations and projects.