The collaborating company is internationally oriented,
and is one of the leading suppliers of automotive components
world-wide. The UK operation is a newly founded
member of this global organisation and has recently established
itself in the UK market due to the competitively ®erce
and global scope of demand placed for their products; inconjunction
to the ever growing automotive investments in
the UK markets.
Aware of the need for change of culture, the company has
recently acquired BS EN ISO 9000 accreditation, and is
currently preparing to gain the newly recognised QS 900
certi®cation.
As part of the company's strategic plan in pursuit of
world-class manufacturing (WCM) status, it is required to
implement a total productive maintenance (TPM) programme
in order to ensure smooth operation under the
constraints of a just-in-time (JIT) production environment.
A feasibility study was conducted on a semi-automated
assembly cell, in order to determine the OEE of the cell as
well as establishing the associated big losses.