Change initiative:

3

Change initiative:

How resistance & obstacles can affect

organizations: From a blue-collar and manager

perspective; a case study of a

manufacturing company in Sweden

Förändringsarbete:

Hur motstånd och hinder kan påverka organisationer:

ur ett perspektiv från industriarbetare och chefer; en

fallstudie i ett tillverkningsföretag i Sverige

Jonas Jones Talai

Faculty: Health, Science & Technology

Educational programee: Industrial Engineering & Management Points: 30 ECTS

Supervisors: Stefan Hellman & Leo De Vin Examiner: Mikael Johnson

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Acknowledgements

Five years? – That is correct. It has been five years since I began a program called M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering & Management at Karlstad University. This period has been filled with anxiety, hard work and joyful memories that will be with me for the rest of my life. However, to obtain the title that I have worked towards from the start and begin calling myself an engineer, I am destined to finish the last course, a master thesis. This master thesis covers 30 ECTS and was conducted in Feb-Jun of 2016, during a period of four months. I would like to thank Swegon AB in Arvika for their welcoming and openness during the thesis. I would also want to give a big thank you to the supervisor at Swegon AB Erik Olsson and the blue-collar Anders Nordén for the opportunity to conduct the thesis at the company and also for the support along the way. I also want to send a big thanks to my supervisors for giving me good pointers to think about when conducting the research.

Lastly and foremost, I would like to show my appreciation by giving my family and close friends a big thank you for being supportive and helpful during these five years.

So what will happen in the future? – Only god knows but I am excited to see what the future beholds and I am truly ready to take on new challenges!

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Abstract

6

Keywords

Organizational change, change initiative, organizational culture, sustainable change, organizational resistance, Lean production, SMED, Toyota production system, Changeover, Setup-time, Setup reduction, Spaghetti diagram, and standardized work

Glossary

Batch size – Amount of products that intends to be produced. Blue-collar – Workers that usually works in a factory.

Bottleneck – A process that limits the capacity of the whole process line. Bottom up approach – Approaching the problem at the bottom of the

hierarchy.

Changeover – A process where one die is changed to another.

Change agents – Persons that helps to organization to change or transform. Continuous change – Changes that are ongoing and is implemented over time. Decision matrix – Can aid in evaluating different events and alternatives. Dies – Tools that can form material into parts.

Discrete change – Change that is not necessary permanent.

Feeding machine – A machine that feeds metal sheets into the excenter-press. Lead-time – Elapsed time, from the ordering point until the product is

received.

LP or Lean – Lean production, a philosophy on how to manage resources Nibbler – A tool used to cut metal sheet.

Organizational change – An organization that is going through a

transformation.

Reel – Helps the coil to rotate on its axel.

Production system – All activities included to complete and distribute a

7 Responsiveness – The ability to react quickly to customer demand.

SMEs - Small Medium Enterprises.

SMED – Single Minute Exchange of Die, a tool used to reduce the changeover

time.

Stakeholders – Individuals or groups that has any interest in the organization. Sustainable change – Changes that sticks over time.

Shadow-board – A board that displays and stores tools. Straightener – A machine that helps straighten metal sheets.

Transport module – Helps transporting material waste from the

excenter-press.

Output level – The amount of products produced in a period of time.

Organizational culture – Is included with values, norms and behaviors that

creates the environment of a company.

Run-up-time – The elapsed time needed to make the machine ready to start. WIP – Work in progress, refers to all materials inside the plant such as, raw

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List of contents

1. Introduction ... 11

1.1. Problem ... 12

1.2. Purpose ... 13

1.3. Case study description ... 14

1.4. Limitations ... 15 1.5. Report structure ... 15 2. Methodology ... 16 2.1. Research Approach ... 16 2.2. Research Design ... 16 2.3. Literature study ... 17 2.4. Case study ... 18 2.5. Research methods ... 19 2.6. Data collection ... 20

2.6.1. Primary Data - Observation & Practice ... 21

2.6.2. Primary Data - Interviews... 22

2.6.3. Primary Data – Measurements & SMED ... 24

2.6.4. Secondary Data – Company Data ... 24

2.7. Data analysis ... 25 2.8. Trustworthiness ... 26 3. Theory ... 28 3.1. Organizational change ... 28 3.1.1. Sustainable Change ... 29 3.2. Lean Production ... 31 3.2.1. SMED ... 33 3.2.2. Changeover ... 35 3.2.3. 5S ... 36 3.2.4. Standardized work ... 37 3.2.5. Waste Management ... 38 3.2.6. Spaghetti diagram ... 39

4. Findings from the Case Study ... 40

4.1. Company Description ... 40

4.1. Financial reports ... 40

4.2. Layout around the press ... 41

4.3. Excenter-press Sangiakomo 130T ... 41

9

4.1. The Implementation of SMED ... 44

4.2. Waste Management ... 46

4.2.1. Waiting waste ... 46

4.2.2. Non-utilized talent waste... 46

4.2.3. Motion waste ... 46

5. Result & Analysis ... 48

5.1. List of Improvement Opportunities & Improvement Suggestions ... 48

5.1.1. Other Improvements... 55

5.2. Savings in Time & Money ... 58

5.3. Organizational change – three categories ... 60

10

Figures

Figure 1 - Structure of the report ... 15

Figure 2 - Shows the techniques used as a research approach ... 16

Figure 3 - Flow diagram of the case study process ... 19

Figure 4 - The development change process ... 30

Figure 5 - Diagram over turnover & operating profit ... 40

Figure 6 - The layout around the press ... 41

Figure 7 - Picture of the excenter-press ... 42

Figure 8 - Example of a part produced in the excenter-press ... 43

Figure 9 - Efficiency of the excenter-press ... 43

Figure 11 - Shows all 72 activities ... 45

Figure 10 - Shows the internal and external activities... 45

Figure 12 - Movement made by the operator during a typical changeover ... 47

Figure 13 - Example of fasteners used in the excenter-press ... 49

Figure 14 - Rotation locks the joint (Boellhoff, 2016) ... 50

Figure 15 - Light axial pressure (Boellhoff, 2016) ... 50

Figure 16– Example of a clamping (Grabcad, 2011) ... 50

Figure 17 - The operator measures the length of the transport module. ... 51

Figure 18 - The operator measures the length where the transport module is supposed to be ... 51

Figure 19 – The height is marked on the die ... 52

Figure 20 – Transport module with marked numbers ... 52

Figure 21 - Example of where to place the bin... 52

Figure 22 – How it looks today ... 52

Figure 23 - The fastener where no tools are needed ... 53

Figure 24 - The fastener where tools are needed ... 53

Figure 25 - Shows the reel system and its arms ... 53

Figure 26 - An example of where to put the new nibbler ... 55

Figure 27 - The pole at the straightener ... 55

Figure 28 – Where the completed parts comes out ... 55

Figure 29 - An example of how it could look like at the end of the process line .. 56

Figure 30 - The drawers is a bit messy and unorganized ... 57

Figure 31 – Shows that the workplace can be a bit chaotic ... 57

Figure 32 - The orange hammer is an example of how to shadow the board ... 58

Tables

Table 2 - External activities that could be completed while the machine is running ... 45

Table 3 - Unnecessary activities ... 45

Table 4 – Wastes identified ... 46

Table 5 - List of improvement opportunities ... 48

Table 6 – Rating values and what each value means. ... 59

Table 7 - Activities with improvement opportunities. ... 59

11

1. Introduction

This chapter gives the reader the opportunity to obtain an overall picture of the background and the purpose of the master thesis. First by a small introduction concerning organizational change, followed by a problem overview. The intention is also to help the reader to recognize how the research questions were generated and where they have its origin from.

12 1.1. Problem

To access a good analysis and create a solid base for the thesis it has been decided to make a change initiative. In this case the change initiative will be done in a manufacturing industry in the field of Lean Production.

For manufacturing industries, the manufacturing strategy is highly significant, where it is important that the resources are used in the right place (Bennett & Vaidya, 2005). The competition is so wide that the companies has no choice but to improve their organization in many areas, such as price, product quality, product variation and lead-time (Carrizo & Campos, 2011). This puts pressure on the companies where the desire to reduce overall expenses and to achieve better margins becomes more fundamental. The contribution of this has led many organizations to use Lean production (LP) to find tools that can help them become more profitable (Bhamu & Singh, 2014). LP is also becoming more well-known among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) because of the fact that LP can help organizations to reduce the overall cost. For SMEs, implementing LP can cause major problems along the way, where SMEs tend to lack financial resources and leadership (Achanga, et al. 2006).

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& Kodali, 2016). It can be hard to successfully implement lean if the organization and the culture does not approve of it (Atkinson, 2010).

Jasti and Kodali (2016) suggest that more research should be done in this area. In specific they suggested that researchers should discover how the implementation of lean tools are done, determine which obstacles that can occur during the implementation phase and deliver solutions that could reduce these obstacles.

As a summary there are evidence pointing out that sometimes the implementation of lean does not always succeed. The main reasons are the resistance that can occur during and after the execution and the lack of knowledge concerning LP. This goes hand in hand with the information gathered in the introduction part, where Oreg (2003) pointed out that the most common obstacle behind organizational change is resistance from the recipient. The majority of the literature and the traditional way of thinking points to the blue-collars as the root problem behind the resistance and the obstacles that can occur during change initiatives. The combination of the outlay made by Jasti and Kodali (2016) and the work of continuous improvements in organizational change makes this area highly interesting. Therefore, it was decided that a change initiative will be done and instead of conducting a change initiative in an Indian manufacturing company, the change itself will be done in another environment, a Swedish manufacturing company. Overall, the intention is to obtain a better understanding of difficulties in organizational change and change initiatives, why and where obstacles and resistances occurs during a typical change initiative and how to reduce or eliminate them. Moreover, to explore if it is possible to find any new root problems to why resistance occurs. The need of conducting this kind of research, is to help organizations, especially in Sweden, to be more aware of obstacles that may occur. Moreover, to give them a better foundation of making proactive and premeditate decisions that can help reduce or eliminate the obstacles and thereby increase the success rate of the change initiative.

1.2. Purpose

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Moreover, where resistance and obstacles occur in an organization and how to reduce or eliminate them. The research will include one literature study and one case study, where three research questions will be answered:

 RQ1: What positive factors might the organization acquire by

implementing the improvement suggestions obtained from the change?  RQ2: How does the organization react towards organizational change

and what challenges could arise by implementing a certain change initiative?

 RQ3: What can the organization do, to increase the success rate during the implementation phase of the change initiative?

1.3. Case study description

To allow for good analysis and conclusions, data must be obtain from a relevant source. In this case a change initiative will be held at a company called Swegon AB to obtain the data. Down below comes a small introduction of some of the problems the company is experiencing in the daily operations.

To successfully create a solid research it has been decided to gather relevant data from a company. The aim is to find solutions and improvement opportunities, in an area where the company suggests they need to get better in. By doing so empirical data can be retrieved at the same time. The company wants to reduce the changeover time in one of their machines. Therefore, the aim will be to implement and find the right lean tools where the goal is to reduce the changeover time. The case study will be held at a company called Swegon AB located in Arvika, a company that produces ventilation systems for buildings. Lately the company has seen a flourishing growth because of several reasons, such as low steel prices and an increase in real estate demand, especially in the Stockholm region. Now the company wants to expand, by creating the next generation of ventilation systems in their series called Parasol. This means that more items will be running through the whole production plant.

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According to the company the machine is only running in one shift, causing it to be a bottleneck for several production lines. With the expansion the company believes that the excenter-press will cause a higher level of bottleneck effect and at the same time contribute to a higher inventory level in the future. By increasing the efficiency and ensuring that the turnover rate and the tied-up capital is lower, the changeover time will be crucial for the batch-size and the utilization of the machine. The expansion will make the load higher on the machine and with the new generation of ventilation system, four dies will be added to the mix. According to the company the average time for a changeover is approximately two hours today.

1.4. Limitations

The case study will focus on the internal and external activities of the excenter-press. There will be a current situation analysis of the work routine. The physical observation will only be done on the most frequent changeovers. Hopefully, this will generate a general improvement plan, which the company can implement to reduce the changeover time, primary on the observed ones and after that to all the other changeovers that occurs in the machine and other machines.

1.5. Report structure

In order to find information and allow the research questions to fully be answered, it was decided to structure the report. From an abstract perspective, the report will be structured as in figure 1. The figure illustrates that the first step includes of some type of change initiative. In order to allow the change initiative to be implemented, a change implementation phase must be conducted, which is step 2. By narrowing it down to the last step the SMED method was chosen and will be the main lean tool implemented inside the organization to aid the purpose of the master thesis.

16 2. Methodology

The intention of this chapter is to give the reader the understanding of the methodology principles and what path the author used, to collect the necessary data needed, to answer the research questions. The reader will also gain an insight of how the literature- and case data was gathered.

2.1. Research Approach

The research approach chosen can be seen in figure 2, followed by argumentations to why these techniques and methods are suitable for this master thesis in the chapters to come.

2.2. Research Design

The research design aims to create a structure within a framework where the research is supposed to be conducted. This will lead to an overall perspective, which will generate a plan and method for the research. In the end this will reflect on the path the researcher theoretically is going, meaning how the researcher intend to answer the research questions. Furthermore, the framework helps the researcher all the way from the questions to the final stage of analysis. The plan itself will help the researcher to gather data and analysis method. The choice of which research design to choose from depends on the problem itself and personal experiences (Creswell, 2009; Kothari, 2004; Saunders, et al. 2009).

The framework of this master thesis will include a literature study and a case study, where these studies seemed to be suitable for this type of research. This

Research Design: Literature Study Case Study Research Methods: Qualitative Quantitative Data Collection: Primary Data Secondary Data Analyze Method: Deductive

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generated and helped to create the foundation and the ability to answer the research questions.

2.3. Literature study

The literature study can be time consuming but by developing and using a general plan can help the researcher to save time (Saunders, et al. 2009). The first step in this section is to choose which research topic to investigate further into. The topic will be the core idea of what the study intend to discover (Creswell, 2009). The literature study is a vital phase to get better understanding and knowledge of the intended field of study. Furthermore, it aids to find the theoretical foundation of the study, shed light on the ideas and develop the path of the research method (Kumar, 2011).

The topic of this thesis is: Change initiative: How resistance & obstacles can affect

organizations: From a blue-collar and manager perspective; a case study of a manufacturing company in Sweden.

By implementing the strategy of the research it is essential to take the time to find appropriate and up-to-date literature. According to Saunders et al. (2009) there are some pointers that should be included in the search strategy:

 State all search parameters, such as language, subject and business field.  State the key words and search terms that are supposed to be used.  State the databases and search engines that are supposed to be used. This thesis interacts mostly with organizational change, lean production and the theory underneath it, to obtain the right tools for the research. Another big contributor is the SMED methodology and the changeover aspect of the method. Some of the literature came from journals, articles, reviews, empirical and case studies. To find these documents scientific databases such as Science Direct and Business Source Premier were used. The parameters used in the searching process were:

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 Language used to find literature: English and Swedish.

Key words and search terms that were used during the searching process:

Organizational change, change initiative, organizational culture, sustainable change, organizational resistance, Lean production, SMED, Toyota production system, Changeover, Setup-time, Setup reduction, Spaghetti diagram, and standardized work.

2.4. Case study

In this research it was decided to go with a case study approach. Because this method is ideal to use in events that occur in the present and is a very common practice if the study includes a qualitative approach, especially when an observation or interview of a social unit is being done. Meaning that the unit is a person, institution, group or a community. To use this method it is vital to see the overall study population as one object. If the research questions are developed as “why”, “what” and “how” form, this method is preferable. Furthermore, it suits the research when the goal is to investigate further into unknown areas, which will lead to a better overall understanding of the situation (Kothari, 2004; Yin, 2009)

According to Yin (2009) there are several ways to gather relevant data for the case study:

 Observe the ongoing events, either by being formal or casual.  Gather documents such as notes, agendas and appropriate reports.  Participate by taking on a role in the events itself.

 Interviews in different forms, such as open-ended, focused or surveys.  Archived records such as, budgets, organizational data or service

records.

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All pointers listed above made the decision easy that a case study approach is the right method to us in this research. The structure of the case study and all processes included to make a final conclusion of the whole master thesis, can be seen in figure 3.

2.5. Research methods

Qualitative and quantitative are popular when developing a foundation for a research study. The difference of the design are many where a quantitative approach are usually detailed, well organized and are clearly defined and known, where the foundation is that the research can be quantified. However, the qualitative approach does not usually include these characteristics but if they do, the amount is not massive. Generally they are less detailed and defined, where the depth of the structure is not on the same level. (Kumar, 2011; Kothari, 2004).

Overall the qualitative research is a great tool for defining verbal information from individuals own experience of the addressed research issues. By gathering the data from people’s point of view of the problem, information about their beliefs, behaviors, opinions and feelings can be obtained. In summary, there are

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three strategies to choose from: qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and from here the researcher can select which study within the three categories (Creswell, 2009).

This master thesis is primary built on a qualitative research method because it is believed to suit the cause of the report the best but there will also be traces of some quantitative approaches as well. The reason why is because the combination of quantitative and qualitative research is said to generate a better comprehension of the real situation (Mack, et al. 2005).

2.6. Data collection

Generally there are two types of data categories to collect from and which one to gather, depends on several factors such as, what the research study intends to answer, what the purpose of the research is, what resources are available and the knowledge of the researcher (Kumar, 2009):

Primary data usually consists of data that are gathered explicit for the research

problem itself, by using techniques that will aid the research problem in a good manner. This data can also be seen as fresh data where it has been gathered for the first time. The biggest advantage of retrieving the data on your own, is that the whole construction of the research part can be custom-made to the research question itself. This gives a clearness to the study where the information gathered, probably aids to solve the issue in hand (Hox & Boeije, 2005).

Secondary data are data that has been collected before and are stored both as raw

data and published summaries. It is common that companies gathers and store data to help the organization in their daily operations. This could include, payroll information, copies of documents and accounting details. Furthermore, secondary data usually contains quantitative and sometimes qualitative data, meaning that the data is mostly in numbers (Saunders, et al. 2009).

According to Mack et al. (2005) there are three methods that are commonly used when implementing qualitative research and the goal is to gather primary data:

 Participate by observing – works good when the aim is to gather data on naturally ongoing behaviors and activities.

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 Focus groups - takes the cultural norms of all participants into account, this will lead to a broad perspective of the problems of concern. This is an effective approach to gain relevant data.

In this case, the majority of the data gathered is primary data and by following the two first pointers from (Mack, et al. 2005) the primary data was obtained by conducting observations, interviews and the steps included in the SMED methodology. Secondary data was also obtained from the company database, such as information about the company and their efficiency in the daily operations.

2.6.1.Primary Data - Observation & Practice

Normally the observation part is something that is done in the beginning of the data gathering phase. What individuals say they do and what they actually are doing in reality does not always match. The usefulness in observing, is that an overall understanding of people’s behaviors and activities can be obtained. What are they actually doing? How often? Whit whom? Usually, the observation part gives the foundation of collecting data that only can originate from personal experiences. Another advantage is that the researcher can also discover essential factors that were unfamiliar when the study began. To obtain the data, the researcher usually takes notes, which can contain everything from writings to charts (Mack, et al. 2005). The difference between observing and participating is that the observing part should be done as an “outsider” by taking relevant notes as described above. In the participating part the researcher basically takes part in the daily operations, which earlier were observed. Furthermore, it is crucial to document the activities that are considered to be important, at the same time (Mack, et al. 2005).

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unnecessary but by observing many changeovers the true nature and the reason behind the activity could be obtained, where some of them indeed was necessary to complete the changeover.

In an early stage it was decided to combine the observation part by recording the changeovers with a video camera, instead of only relying on the notes and the memory of the author. The reason behind this decision was because, while observing it might be easy to miss out on important factors and information. These factors can be of value, when it comes to accomplishing the goal of reducing the changeover time. Moreover, it is easier to look at the recordings and go deeper into detail, which creates the foundation of good findings and analysis. The author believes that by being present, trust is created, which makes the workers more open to discuss the topic, dissatisfactions and improvement opportunities.

To get an even better and deeper understanding a small practice session was conducted, where the operator allowed the author to try to complete easy activities in a typical changeover process. The idea was to get a perspective of a changeover from a workers point of view and maybe obtain some important information concerning improvement opportunities. Overall the observation & practice sessions was time consuming it took many man hours to complete them.

2.6.2. Primary Data - Interviews

Semi-structured interviews:

excenter-23

press, change- and improvement work that has happened during their time at the company. In this case, only three managers and three blue-collars met the requirements listed above, therefore only six persons were interviewed. Furthermore, it was said that the interviews were anonymous, where the intention was to earn their trust and to set the foundation where the person could feel secure to answer truthfully. In the beginning, the author explained the purpose and the study objectives of the interview.

An interview guide was created beforehand and included three main subjects; SMED, change- and improvement work. The questions included in the interview can be seen in Appendix 1, where the questions were open-ended. However, during the interviews follow-up questions were conducted as well, within the subjects. The intention of the interview was to hear people’s experiences, knowledges, opinions, inputs and feelings, within the borders of the subjects. In the beginning of the interview the author stated the purpose and the study objectives of the interview to the participants. During the interview notes were taken but if the permission was given from the participant the interviews were also recorded. This gave the opportunity to focus more on the interview in hand instead of taking a lot of notes. This opportunity also allowed the author to listen and analyze the interviews after they were conducted. In case the recording equipment malfunctioned, the most relevant notes were taken during the interviews for backup. In the end, the interviews were transcribed and summarized into readable content within the week. The participants received the transcribed interview were they had the opportunity to correct or accept the content

Unstructured interviews:

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contributed to the research by conducting open-ended questions such as, “What are you doing here?”, “Why are you doing this?”, “What do you think about this activity?” and “How can we do this better?”. By being present while a changeover was made and ask these questions in action, a lot of relevant information could be obtained. This information was documented by taking notes and was later compiled into a document. After analyzing the interviews, it was not unusual that follow up questions came up. Instead of going immediately to the worker back and forth when a question popped up, a bunch of questions was gathered for the worker to answer.

2.6.3.Primary Data – Measurements & SMED

To get a better grip of why the changeover took too much time to complete and what type of improvement opportunities that are available, relevant tools were used. In this case the SMED method was used by following Shingo’s (1985) steps, as described in chapter 3. The recordings and notes from the observation sessions were used, to identify all activities needed to complete a changeover. These activities were written down on post-it’s in sequence, with the resources and time needed to complete the activity. Later on the activities were separated into internal and external activities. Here, the focus was to determine if it was possible to transform any internal activities into external activities, by asking the question, “Can this internal activity be done while the machine is running? “. Moreover, it was decided to look at the activities and try to see if it was possible to eliminate or improve any activities. With the activities mapped out the next step included a session where the goal was to see if the wastes described in

chapter 3 could be identified and if some of the activities could be completed in

less time. This was done by evaluating a typical changeover by looking at the activities, notes and to continue to look at the tapes. By asking questions such as “Can this activity be completed faster? Tools, such as the spaghetti diagram was used to get an overall picture on how the operator moves around the plant and to see if motion waste could be identified and reduced.

2.6.4.Secondary Data – Company Data

25 2.7. Data analysis

To make the data collected useful it is important to choose an analyze method that can be helpful in getting a better understanding of the content. The purpose of the analyze method is to summarize and organize the content, in order to answer the research questions (Khotari, 2004). According to Saunders et al. (2009) there are two different approaches to qualitative analysis, deductive and inductive. This master thesis will follow a deductive approach, which seems to be more suitable for this type of research.

By using the theory as an analytical framework, it is possible to compare the collected data, with the theory. This can help to find relations or related operations between the collected data and the theory (Saunders, et al. 2009). Before the comparing session, the data must go through several steps. First the data gathered from the interviews must be transcribed and summarized. Later on, the data should be categorized, which involves two phases, first by creating categories and secondly by structuring the data under the right category. This allows the researcher to compare the data with the theory and sets the foundation of finding similarities and differences (Saunders, et al. 2009)

26 2.8. Trustworthiness

When it is time to asses and analyze whether the content of the research is made with quality, the reliability and validity approach is a very common method to use. However, Bryman & Bell (2011) states that a qualitative research should be evaluated by other principles and standards, compared with what the reliability and validity method can offer. Trustworthiness can be used instead to discuss and evaluate the quality of the research. According to (Bryman & Bell, 2011; Kumar, 2009) this method consists of four parts:

Credibility

This criteria looks at the results obtained from the qualitative research and determines whether the results are believable from the standpoint of the participant. In this case the author thinks the results are arbitrary, where the results themselves are believed to contain a high level of credibility. One of the reasons is the similarities and relations that were conducted between the theories and the findings from the case study. The credibility is one of the strongest contributor to trustworthiness because the participants are basically the only ones who can justify and judge the credibility of the outcome. This creates a foundation where the researcher can ensure similarities between theories and observations.

Transferability

27

Dependability

Dependability can be seen as a parallel to reliability in quantitative research. The research can obtain a higher level of dependability by ensuring that all data are stored and available from the research processes such as, notes, analysis, interviews and decisions. In this case the interview guide, all calculations and data obtained from the case study has been stored in the report but what was exactly said during the interviews are not available. However, there is a reason for why they are not included in the report. The interviews were said to be anonymous and thereby it did not feel morally right to include them in the report. If the researcher is consistent in the work during the research process a higher dependability can be achieved in the results. The idea is to enable an external person to follow the case study accordingly, where the person would obtain a similar result as in the research. Overall, the dependability feels arbitrary in this case, where the research is believed to be thoroughly made.

Confirmability

This criteria involves the factor whether the data gathered is influenced by the researcher’s opinions or not. Meaning that the researcher should not sway the content to a desired direction. In this case it is easy to sway to a desired direction because the report is included with interviews and a case study. However, to eliminate that this happens, the participants had the opportunity to look through the interviews, by accepting or change the content. Overall, the author believes that the research is properly made as a neutral observant and without any predetermined imaginations of what the results should be. In this step the findings and the results can be confirmed by other researchers.

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3. Theory

This episode gives the reader an insight of different theories that is relevant for completing the thesis. The theory can be divided into two groups, where the reader in the first chapter encounters the theory regarding organizational change and how to make a sustainable implementation of the change initiative. The next chapter explains what Lean production is, where the sub-topics mentions different lean tools and methods that are commonly used when it comes to Lean production.

3.1. Organizational change

Park and Kim (2015) identifies organizational change as a transformation that occurs throughout the organization, which takes components or interactions from the organization that corresponds with the complexity of organizational systems. Organizational change can occur due to several factors and according to Strebel (1994), change forces can be found in three different forms. They can occur by following current trends in areas such as economic, technological, competitive, organizational environment and socio-political. The second form is when the organization adapts to a certain implementation such as new innovations, products or lifecycles, where the capacity and resources initially does not meet the requirement. The last form are changes that rise internally from the organization and can occur due to shifting goals from the organization, new managers or change agents.

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to educate and try out their innovative ideas. The financial aspect is highly fundamental for organizations as well and to have the opportunity to grow and improve, capital investments and funds are crucial. The organizational culture is one cornerstone that creates the image of the organization. High-performing organizations tend to have a culture of sustainable and proactive influences, when it comes to improvement work (Achanga, et al. 2006).

One of the reasons behind the resistance of accomplishing a certain change in an organization is fear (Milgrom & Roberts, 1995). Sometimes change initiatives can cause disturbances in the process that is intended to improve. The reason why is because the employees may fear that the improvement will take the job from them and are therefore ready to sabotage the change initiative (Achanga, et al. 2006). Moreover, if the employees respond to the new pace and the higher output level by working harder, the reality might be exposed. This could display that the employees can be more productive, where management might push them harder and raise the output level. This could generate pressure and stress on the employees, which is something they fear (Ford, et al. 2008). Stressful employees tend to make decisions that can harm themselves or the company (Kaster, 2013). According to Mansour (2014) work injuries are a major contributor of the total cost for businesses and globally there are over 270million accidents and two million deaths, which are work related yearly. The resistance to change also happens when the action program does not meet the originally proposed change, which means that the improvement plan did not meet the expectations (Langstrand & Elg, 2012). Expectations can be seen as beliefs and anticipations which occur when there are any uncertainties on how the future and the outcome might look like (Hubbert, et al. 1995). The foundation of the expectations can come from norms or estimates and can be divided into concerns and hopes. People’s expectations can be really hard to get a grip of where some are realistic and others unrealistic. The difference in expectations can have a great impact on future initiatives and activities. To have extraordinary hopes are not always good, where individuals with high level of expectations may experience a low level of beneficial outcomes of the event, compared with people with a low level of expectations (Nilsson, 2010).

3.1.1.Sustainable Change

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and after the implementation phase, difficulties of sustaining the improvement comes up to light. Meaning that the challenge is to sustain the new way of working (Bateman, 2005). Renewal is an important factor when it comes to sustainable change, where stakeholders around us, such as employees, the society and interest organizations play a role in it (Brännmark & Benn, 2012). When it comes to sustaining any type of lean implementation, it is crucial and highly important to see lean as a system that infuses the organizational culture at the same time as the change initiative occurs. The organization will probably not be successful by only implementing the lean tools in hand (Liker, 2004). When the organization is being transformed during organizational change it is important to use a “bottom-up” approach to obtain a sustainable efficiency in the long-term (Abdul, et al. 2004). The intention of change initiatives are usually to achieve a certain goal or vision and this can be defined as having an implementation phase. During organizational change, it is common that the intention of the implementation is to work towards continuous change and by doing so enabling the goal to be fulfilled (Brännmark & Benn, 2012). However, by working towards continuous change, the discrete change itself does not need to be permanent. Meaning that the change cannot last forever, if the intention is to gain a change process that is sustainable (Buchanan, et al. 2005).

The continuous change process can be seen in figure 4. The implementation phase is to create a discrete change or a continuous change, where the change either can fail or succeed. If the change is successful in its implementation, it can also take a path in becoming durable or sustainable (Brännmark & Benn, 2012).

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(Svensson, et al. 2007 refereed in Brännmark & Benn, 2012) identifies four key components that can help evaluate and create the foundation of achieving a sustainable change process in the long-run.

Active ownership

The commitment and involvement from the management during and after the change initiative is crucial if the goal is to achieve sustainability in the change. It can also be beneficial if there is an active owner that can take responsibility for the change program and the outcome from the change initiative.

Professional steering

If the goal is to maintain the change it can be beneficial to have a steering group, which is responsible in making sure the change initiative meets the requirements of the owners and help to distribute resources when needed.

Continuing and competent leadership

When it comes to organizational change, the leaders should lead by example. It is highly significant if the communication between the leaders and those affected by the change, is in place. Furthermore, the leaders should engage and networking with the stakeholders, during and after the change.

Engagement from the participants

Engagement from the participants are highly important, where they can be a motivational factor and aid the change initiative with a drive force, by being committed to the change. The engagement intends to involve the stakeholders by listening to their opinions and innovative ideas. To make this happen it is important that the participants has access to resources, time and training.

3.2. Lean Production

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opportunities and how to improve them (Holweg, 2007). The primary goal for implementing LP, is its ability to eliminate waste within the organization by decreasing internal activities, customer and supplier variability (Shah & Ward, 2007). Today companies need to improve their activities or develop innovative products to remain competitive. The possibility of achieving this lies powerfully on the capability and willingness of the personnel to complete the tasks properly and efficient. Meaning that the commitment and influences from the employees are very important (Weckenmann, et al. 2015).

When it comes to LP, one important factor is to create the possibility for participation, meaning that every single person in the organization no matter what title you have, should feel involved in the daily operations. When the employee contributes towards success in the business, generally the work from the person will be better as well (Bergman & Klefsjö, 2012). Furthermore, with the globalization and complex process systems the social responsibility and sustainability becomes more fundamental. Where the organization will be judged on many factors such as sustainability, transparency and to meet customer demand. Companies cannot only focus on the product itself, where they need to take the employee policy and the environmental part seriously (Weckenmann, 2015). Some important factors when implementing lean, is the importance of combining lean with the organization culture, customers and suppliers (Holweg, 2007).

According to Liker (2004) LP can be summarized into 14 principles, where these principles gets divided into four categories, which is known as the 4P-model. The categories are, Philosophy, Process, People & Partners and Problem solving:

Philosophy

The organizational culture should have the mindset of a long-term approach as a foundation, even if it may harm the short-term goals.

Process

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People and partners

By developing and challenge the personal and the suppliers in becoming better on what they are doing. Creating leaders that lives by the principles of the organization sets the foundation, where the philosophy will continue to live in the future to come. It is also important to respect one and other, to create harmony throughout the organization.

Problem solving

It is important to look further into root problems and solve them, to set the foundation of learning and development in the organization. This should be done by continuously look for improvement opportunities.

The tools offered by LP that may aid the organization to reduce wastes are many. However, some tools are more important than others, such as Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) and 5s (Chiarini, 2014).

3.2.1.SMED

The SMED methodology is considered to be a lean tool and can be used in all kinds of industries and machines, where the goal is to simplify and improve the overall work routine of the changeovers. The core value lies in minimizing the overall time to complete a changeover by converting internal activities to external ones and to eliminate wastes. The goal is to generate a changeover that takes less than ten minutes to complete (Moxham & Greatbanks, 2001). The SMED method was created by an engineer called Shingo, which implemented the practice in an automotive industry and was able to successfully reduce the time for a certain changeover by of 57 percent. Other researchers found out that a companies had the opportunity to reduce the changeover by 50 respectively 48 percent (Jit Singh & Khaduja, 2009; Mulla, et al. 2014). The founder of the traditional SMED, describes the method in more detail in four steps (Shingo, 1985):

Step 1 – Map all activities

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by observing the operator when the activities are being made. When information is being gathered it is vital to get data over how long each activity takes. By writing the activities and the resources needed to complete respectively process on a list, a better understanding of the situation can be obtained.

Step 2 – Categorize all internal- and external activities

When the overall mapping is finished, the activities gets divided into two different groups. Internal, where the activities only can be completed when the machine is standing still and external, where the activities can be done when the machine is running. To fulfill the categorization the recommendation is to use three different tools:

 Point out all resources needed to complete a changeover, such as tools, labor and procedures.

 Make a function test of all tools by examine its condition and availability.  Prepare the tools and components before it is time to make the

changeover.

Step 3 – Convert internal activities to external activities

In this phase, the changeover itself is being studied, where the goal is to convert as many internal activities into external ones. This is accomplished by using standardized tools and work routines, where it is possible. The improvement happens, either by transforming the equipment or the work routine. It can also be beneficial to prepare parts and tools in advance.

Step 4 – Streamline internal- and external activities

 Improve internal changeover – Try to carry out multiple settings at the same time and avoid manual fasteners and screws, which takes times.  Improve external changeover – Included with activities that can help the

operator to fulfill the adjustments in an efficient way. First and foremost, it is crucial to insure that the tool is working properly. Accordingly, try to eliminate waste, which is included by moving, finding or replacing tools respectively materials.

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use of SMED makes the production capacity higher and more flexible (Van Goubergen & Van Landeghem, 2002). However, lately there are some researchers that claim that the traditional SMED is lacking in some areas. According to Mcintosh, et al. (2000) one of these is the run-up-time for the machine. It is stated that manufacturing tests and adjustments should be included, to assure that the right quality and output speed are acquired, when it comes to improve the changeover. In practical there are two ways to achieve a reduction in the changeover time. The first one is to improve the current system, by establishing improvement projects. The other one is simply to invest, by buying a whole new and modern system. (Mileham, et al. 1999)

3.2.2.Changeover

For manufacturing companies the changeover time becomes more vital to reduce, because it has a direct-link with the cost. This means that a reduction of the changeover time will lead to increase in profits (Freeland, et al. 1990). The definition of a changeover is the elapsed time for the last product in the series to leave the machine, until the first product from the new series comes out in good quality (Van Goubergen & Van Landeghem, 2002). The activities that occurs when a changeover is made are many and according to King (2009) the tasks involved in a changeover can be:

 Fetch the right tools or put them away.  Fetch spare parts, such as gaskets and filters.  Cooling down or heating up.

 Mechanical adjustments.  Removal of used parts.

 Acquire right temperature, pressure and viscosity so the machine can run.

Reducing the time for a typical changeover in a certain machine or production system, can lead to many beneficial factors (Jit Singh & Khaduja, 2009):

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 Reduction in work labor.

 Shorter lead-time for the products.

 The productivity and the utilization of resources are improved.  The production system becomes more flexible.

 Reduction of manufacturing cost.

The literature on how to reduce the changeover is out there but unfortunately the majority of the companies does not take advantage of all data available, when they are making an effort in implementing reduction programs. Research shows that companies has a genuine interest in accomplishing reduction in the changeover time but lack of structure and focus, which makes the result less effective (Gest, et al. 1995).

3.2.3. 5S

If the goal is to work with continuous improvements, then 5S is a great tool to use to achieve this. It helps organizations to increase their productivity and becoming more efficient. The methodology was created in Japan, to aid and engage the employees to work with improvements on a daily basis (Edwards, 2015). 5S is a collection of five words that comes from the Japanese language – Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shutsuke, - and these words equivalents in English are - Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and sustain (Jaca, et al. 2014). Down below is an explanation of all steps included in the 5s methodology (Edwards, 2015):

Sort

In this step the idea is to put things in order by removing unnecessary items from the workplace. These objects can be tools that are rarely being used and are kept “in case they come in handy”.

Set in order

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Shine

This step is included with activities that makes the workplace and tools look clean. To maintain a clean workshop, it is important to make frequent inspections and to use checklists to ensure that the cleaning process is being made.

Standardize

When the three first steps are being implemented it is time to standardize them, to obtain an efficient way of completing the tasks in hand. By using different kinds of aiding tools such as, work instructions, process maps, kanban cards and by creating a flawless shadow board with each and every tool marked on it. These actions can eliminate non-value-added tasks during a typical process that occurs in the production line.

Sustain

The final step is to sustain and maintain all four steps over time. These steps should be a habit for the operators, where these practices should be embedded in the daily work and the company culture. This will set the foundation of continuous improvements, efficiency and productivity, which all results in better profit.

3.2.4.Standardized work

38 3.2.5.Waste Management

When it comes to creating products, it is common that different kinds of wastes can occur throughout the whole production system. According to (Ohno, 1988; Womack and Jones 1996) there are all together eight wastes, companies should try to reduce or eliminate.

Overproduction

This happens when the process continues to produce a product when in fact it should have stopped. This action contributes to products that are made to early and creates a surplus of products, which contributes to higher inventory level.

Inventory

Inventory includes everything from, raw materials, work in progress (WIP) and completed products. The inventory which does not directly help to fulfill the customer demand is seen as waste. The excessive inventory contributes to an increase in handling, processing and storage space.

Defects

Defects are basically completed products that does not meet the customer requirements, which directly results in dissatisfaction.

Transport

This includes unnecessary movement or motion of materials, which is transported from one activity to another. The excessive transportation route contributes to additional time spent on a certain process, which does not add any value.

Waiting

Waiting can be seen as a period of inactivity and happens when a process does not deliver on time and when the upstream process have to wait. The waiting time does not add any value and can also result in overproduction.

Extra processing

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Motion

Motion can be described as, when the workers are taking steps by moving, which are unnecessary due to inefficient layouts, rework, and defects. The excess in motion does not add any value to the product itself.

Non-utilized talents

This pointer was added to the 7 wastes by Womack and Jones (1996) and occurs when the employees are not effectively involved in a given process or activity. This means that the creativity and the ideas that the employees might have for improvements, should be heard and taken seriously.

3.2.6.Spaghetti diagram

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4. Findings from the Case Study

This section presents the data collected from the case study to the reader.

4.1. Company Description

Swegon AB is a merger of several companies, which manufactures components and well thought-out ventilation systems. Their indoor climate solutions creates value for the customers, in majority to commercial real estates but also to homes, by substantially save energy consumption. The company is owned and is a part of the Latour investment corporation. With the help of Swegon and their products, all houses can obtain the perfect indoor climate. At the moment the company has around 1800 employees and 11 production sites in different areas around the globe, such as, Sweden, India and North America.

4.1. Financial reports

The diagram in figure 5, indicates that the growth of the company is in an up going trend and has increased each year from 2011-2015. However, by looking at the two latest years it can be seen that the operating profit of the company is in a decreasing trend.

41 4.2. Layout around the press

The company is producing a lot of different parts inside the plant, which directly goes to the assembly line afterwards. In figure 6 a part of the plant layout has been cut out, which shows the layout around the excenter-press. Furthermore, the square in the figure indicates the area that the case study mainly was focusing on. This area is where the machine is located and is called Sangiakomo 130T. All the dies that are being used by the machine are stored on the shelves and are located near the press. The arrows marked in the figure indicates where these shelves are located.

4.3. Excenter-press Sangiakomo 130T

The company has used the excenter-press for many years and is a key machine that supplies many production groups, especially the assembly department with a lot of different parts. The machine itself can be seen in figure 7 and some of the parameters of the machine is listed down below:

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 Press model: T130R CE.  Year: 2000.  Press force: 130kN.  Stroke length: 76-200 mm.  Stroke counts/min: 28-70.  Working table: 650x1100mm.  Cutting capacity 600x200mm.  Maximum coil width: 500mm.

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With the press distributing a press force of 130kN, makes it possible to create metal sheets into finished parts. An example of which type of part the machine can create look at figure 8.

4.4. Efficiency of the Excenter-press

The company has a list of the time planned for the machine for each and single week. This means that the operator has a certain amount of time to finish the scheduled production batches. If the operator uses exactly the same time as the planned time, the efficiency will be 100%. In this case, by looking at figure 9, the average efficiency during the weeks of 1-11 in 2016 was 105 %. In first glimpse it seems to be a good result but by looking at the efficiency target which is 135% the average efficiency is lower than the efficiency target.

Figure 8 - Example of a part produced in the excenter-press

44 4.1. The Implementation of SMED

The documented changeovers gave an indication that a changeover does not follow a standardized setup. This means that the activities are not made in a pre-determined sequence, where the operator basically follows their instinct to complete them. This also means that the changeover sequence varies depending on decisions made by the operator. The observation part revealed that the time concerning the changeover process varies a lot. In total seven changeovers were observed, where these changeovers took approximately 50 minutes up to 135 minutes to complete. The variation depends on several factors such as which type of die is being used, if the raw-material is near the press and if there are any obstacles or problems during the changeover. The standard deviation counted for 26.2, which can be seen in table 1 and how this was calculated can be seen in

appendix 2.

The average changeover takes 93.7 minutes to complete. Therefore, it was decided to look further and more deeply into one changeover that was in the mid-range. In this case the changeover that was closest to the average value was a changeover that took 84.2 minutes to complete. All activities in this changeover counted for 72 activities. With the data gathered from the observations, the work with the SMED methodology and all its steps were established. The resources and the time used to complete the activities and if they were internal or external can be seen in appendix 3. All activities from

appendix 3, can also be seen in figure 10 in sequence. The separation of the

activities, between internal and external activities can be seen in figure 11.

Changover (number) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Changeover Time (min) 49.8 78.6 82.9 84.2 107.4 118.3 134.4

Deviation (min) 43.9 15.1 10.8 9.5 -13.7 -24.6 -40.7

Average (min) 93.7

Variance 687.3

Standard Deviation 26.2

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Some of the external activities that were made while the machine stood still could easily be done while the machine is running. These activities can be seen in table 2.

During the changeover it was noted that some activities are unnecessary to do if they were made properly from the beginning. In this changeover there was three activities that caught the eye, which can be seen in table 3.

Number Activity Internal External Time (s) Resources

20 Move a forklift which stands in the way X 20 Truck

21 Jump in the right forlikft and move a box that stands in the way X 16 Truck

32 Move ladder nr.1 again X 21

Total (s) 57.0

Figure 10 - Shows all 72 activities Figure 11 - Shows the internal and external activities

Table 2 - External activities that could be completed while the machine is running

Table 3 - Unnecessary activities

Number Activity Internal External Time (s) Resources

4 Leave the box with finished goods to its shelf space X 125 Truck

6 Clean the waste transport module X 59 Cloth

7 Determine which product-plan to run X 15

35 Determine which fastener to use for the waste transport module X 43

37 Measure if the right raw-material is near the machine X 24 Rule

38 Retrieve raw-material from the warehouse X 352 Truck

69 Create boxes where the parts will be X 95

70 Fetch the boxes X 92 Truck

46 4.2. Waste Management

During the observation sessions it was determined to look for any type of wastes that could occur during a changeover. The author identified three out of eight wastes, which were found during the observation sessions and the interviews and can be seen in table 4. In this case the author decided whether the activities could be considered as waste or not. However, these wastes were not sought out actively, where the wastes only were noted if they appeared during the case study.

4.2.1.Waiting waste

Sometimes waiting time happens when the forklift is being used by another worker.

4.2.2.Non-utilized talent waste

The unstructured interviews gave an indication that non-utilized talent is in fact going to waste, where the creativity and ideas from the operator is not heard. The operator have pitched some ideas to the managers but it happens that they do not receive any response.

4.2.3.Motion waste

Motion is one of the biggest waste that occurs during a changeover. For example, when there is a need of throwing away metal sheets, the operator needs to go around and throw it in the bin, at the back of the machine. Furthermore, to use the nibbler at the straightener, the motion to get the tool is excessive. These are just some examples but by looking at the spaghetti diagram, figure 12 a better understanding of the situation can be obtained. The diagram is quite unstructured and some of the activities can also be eliminated, by doing them

Waste Type Yes No

Overproduction X Inventory X Defects X Transport X Waiting X Extra processing X Motion X Non-utilized talents X

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while the excenter-press is running. The unnecessary motion can contribute to large amount of time needed to complete a certain changeover and gives an overall picture that there might be room for improvements.

Spaghetti Diagram

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5. Result & Analysis

In this section the reader will encounter several improvement suggestions and other results, which derives from analysis and the data gathered from the case study.

5.1. List of Improvement Opportunities & Improvement Suggestions

When it comes to transforming or improving some of the activities, by reducing time spent on them and to make them more efficient, it was decided that it is crucial to understand the activities and hear, what suggestions the operator of the machine might have. This means that the improvement suggestions are based on ideas from the author and the operator, where the author had the final word of which improvement suggestions to go further with. Some of the activities has room for improvement, which can be seen in table 5. These activities happens to be both external and internal. Down below follows an explanation of the problem for each activity and improvement suggestions that can be made, to reduce the overall time and to gain more efficiency in the activities.

Table 5 - List of improvement opportunities

Number Activity Internal External Time (s) Resources 1 Remove fasteners from the die X 210 Tools

16 Fetch & Measure so the right transport module is being used X 42 Rule

18 Set the height for the press X 28 Rule

24 Remove the old fasteners & attach the new ones X 88 Tools

30 Fasten the outer fasteners X 135 Tools

39 Remove the fasteners from the reel X 58 Tools

42 Lift up the coil & push it in the reel X 120 Truck

46 Fasten the outer fastener for the reel X 39 Tools

50 Obtain the nibbler & fasten it in the air hose X 41

54 Throw away sheet wastes X 33

60 Unscrew all brackets from the die X 112 Tools

62 Fasten all brackets X 170 Tools

67 Throw away test parts X 15

49 Activity: 1, 24, 30, 60, 62

During a typical changeover, basic tools are used frequently, especially when it comes to fasten or unfasten the fasteners, screws or brackets. These activities are being made very often and to reduce the time needed can have a great impact on the changeover. Today, the operator needs to find the right tools before being able to fasten the screws. During the fastening process it is common that a screw jams and the operator must use a lot of force to fasten them. This happens easily when the screw threads are worn out. This process is very time consuming and inefficient. Therefore, the idea is to find a solution where the operator can fasten the brackets such as, in figure 13 with little effort as possible.

Improvement suggestions:

The suggestions are simple and can reduce the time consumption a lot. The idea is to use fasteners that does not need a tool to be fastened. In this case there are some fasteners that could be feasible for the cause and it should be possible to use them without making too many changes inside the excenter-press

1. Quickloc – from Boelhoff (2016), which is a quick release fastener, meaning that the user can open and close the fastener quickly. By putting light axial pressure and afterwards rotating the joint locks and this will make the object fixed, figure 14 and 15. If the user wants to release the fastener, simply make the motion backwards and the object will be unfixed.

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2. Clamps, by finding the one with the right pressure this can also be a solution that is feasible for locking the die in the machine. No tools are needed, see figure 16.

3. Magnetic fasteners, is another solution that might work to hold the dies firm in the right place.

Figure 15 - Light axial pressure (Boellhoff, 2016) Figure 14 - Rotation locks the joint (Boellhoff, 2016)