Frank Pot, Gu van Rhijn

Aimed at Improvement of Productivity, Flexibility and Ergonomics

Neopost: Designing the Production Process in Manufacturing

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing2

Trends at ManufacturingFrom market perspective• Pressure on delivery time• Increasing competitiveness (costs, quality)• Increasing variety in product types• Fluctuations in production numbers

In the internal operational management• Throughput time versus real production time• More focus on value adding activities• Reducing costs work in progress• Flexibility in process and organisation• ‘Human factor is the most important resource’ (flexible, healthy,

swiftly available)How can the design of the production anticipate on this?

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing3

Neopost: Design of a Flexible Assembly Line

Neopost • Neopost is part of Neopost SA (France)• Development and production of envelope

inserting machines (10,000 per year)• 300 employees in the Netherlands

Reason for the projectIntroduction of a new product demands a new flexible assemblyline with the following preconditons:• Flexible in numbers: output 20 to a maximum of 40 machines a day

(formerly 16 machines): a total of 4,000 machines a year• Flexible in product: mix of 3 different types of machines• Must fit in the available space• Start of the project (development product and process) July 2003;

assembly line in use from February 2004

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing4

Neopost: the Old Assembly Line

Step 1: routing from parts to pre-assembly of end-line

Step 2: survey of the bottlenecks in the current situation

Main flow

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Neopost: Step 2 Bottlenecks Old Design

• No physical division between supply and material-work

• Storage of material under the assembly line• Heavy bins with too much materials, not in

accordance with requirements of the demand of the customer

• Batch building instead of one piece flow• Individual targets instead of team work

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing6

Neopost: Step 3 Design New Assembly Line

Assembly lower frame

Pre-assembly lower frame

Assembly upper frame

Pre-assembly upper frameTesting and

canning

Packaging

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Neopost: Step 4 Design and Organisation New Assembly Line

M1 M2 M3 M5 M8 M9M6 M7M4 M10 M11 M12 M13 M15 M16 M17M14

BF1 BF2 BF3 BF4

VM1 VM2 VM3 VM4 VM5 VM6 VM7 VM8 VM9 VM10 VM11 VM12 VM13 VM14 VM15 VM16 VM17

FT1

VM18 VM19 VM20 VM21 VM22 VM23 VM24 VM25

PT1

IB1

FT2PT2

IB2

FT3PT3

IB3

FT4PT4

IB4

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Neopost: Step 5 Realisation New Assembly Line

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing9

Neopost: Results

Old workplace New workplace

Bins and tools within reach;instructions for assembly andcontrol tasks

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing10

Neopost: Results

Ergomix session Rack newRack old

Supply racks in new situation are experienced by 75% as better/muchbetter

TNO Quality of LifeDesigning the Production Process in Manufacturing11

Neopost: Fitting Plates

Adjustable working height in the new situation is being judged as better/much better by all employees

Old workplace fitting plates New workplace fitting plates

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Results Neopost

• Team responsible for result• Team members switch flexibly between workplaces• Demand flow: deployment of more or less employees dependent

on customer demand• Volume of material on basis of use (pull instead of push)• Pre-assembly directly linked to end-line• Quality check integrated in the work in the assembly line by

employees themselves

Maximum capacity

16

40

+ 150%

Efficiency

+ 25%

old new

Number of buffersbetween workplaces

7 of 8 1

-87%

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Results Design New Assembly Line, Explanation Productivity

Productivity (ref. input team leader Johan Bos, 5 July 2005):

Old situation, 2003:16 machines a day with 27 persons assembly + 3 end check + 2 packing = 32 persons. Per day 2 persons per machine

New situation, 2005:A maximum of 26 machines a day with 39 persons (19 permanent and 20 temporary workers), per day 1.5 persons per machine = 25% increase in productivity

by different design assembly line, recurrent meetings about progress, better organisation of work

Situation 2007: further increase of productivity to 35%