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- Warehouse operations logistics improvement in a cork stopper factoryPublication . Martins, Rita; Pereira, Maria Teresa; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, F.J.G.In a market that is increasingly competitive, the success depends on the efficiency levels of the implemented processes, highlighting the importance of the operations related to the warehouse management in the logistics flow. This research focuses on the improvement of management and logistic flows within a Portuguese cork stopper production factory. The primary goal is to maximize the warehouse stocking capacity and to improve logistics operations associated to that. By using procedure mapping techniques, data analysis, and direct time monitoring, it was possible to identify non value added times, as well as the associated causes and impacts, inadequate planning, and sizing of the warehouse layouts that were causing significant negative impact in terms of efficiency management. Using lean thinking philosophy, several improvement suggestions were presented to mitigate the problems identified.
- Automating Equipment towards Industry 4.0: A New Concept for a Transfer System of Lengthy and Low-Stiffness Products for AutomobilesPublication . Vieira, Diogo; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Campilho, R.D.S.G.; Sousa, Vitor F. C.; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Sá, José Carlos; Brito, MarleneSeveral products with a high length/section ratio and with a relatively low stiffness are used in the automotive industry, causing several problems because of a lack of stiffness. One of the examples where this occurs is in the production of Bowden cables, where automation has played a very important role in the flexibility of processes and product quality. Within this product family, conduits, one of the components of Bowden cables, have proven to be one of the points of continuous improvement. Currently, the production process for this type of component is done in a fully automated way, which proves the importance of automation. However, the need to manufacture different references means that the equipment used needs to be characterized by its high flexibility. This work aims to develop a new transfer system for conduit preparation machines, which are focused on increasing the range of references possible to manufacture without affecting the quality and productivity of the equipment. Thus, a new concept of conduit transport has been successfully developed, able to deal with lengthy conduits without lacking quality or experiencing breakdowns of the equipment. The concept used to overcome this problem can be extended to other equipment with similar problems, even in the manufacturing of other kind of products.
- Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing: Establishing Bridges for More Sustainable Manufacturing SystemsPublication . Silva, Francisco J. G.; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Sá, José Carlos; Pereira, Maria Teresa Ribeiro; Pinto, Carla M. A.This volume of LectureNotes in Mechanical Engineering (LNME) is one of two volumes including papers selected from the 32nd International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM 2023), held in Porto, Portugal, from June 18 to 22, 2023. The FAIM 2023 conference was organized by the School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, located in Porto, Portugal. Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM) is a renowned international forum for academia and industry to disseminate novel research, theories, and practices relevant to automation and manufacturing. For over 30 years, the FAIM conference has provided a strong and continuous presence in the international manufacturing scene, addressing both technology and management aspects via scientific conference sessions, workshops, tutorials, and industry tours. Since 1991, FAIM has been hosted in prestigious universities on both sides of the Atlantic and, in recent years, in Asia. The conference attracts hundreds of global leaders in automation and manufacturing research whoattend program sessions where rigorously peer-reviewed papers are presented during themultiple-day conference. The conference links researchers and industry practitioners in a continuous effort to bridge the gap between research and implementation. FAIM 2023 received more than 400 contributions from over 40 countries and over 220 institutions around the world. After a two-stage double-blind review, the technical program committee accepted 263 papers. From these, 242 papers have been included in two LNME volumes, and 21 extended papers are published as fast-track articles in Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing and The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. A selection of these LNME articles will be invited to submit substantially extended versions to special issues in ten international indexed journals, such as the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Sustainability journal, Machines journal, Metals journal, Actuators journal, Systems journal, FME Transactions journal, and Technological Sustainability journal. We are grateful to the authors for their contributions and would like to acknowledge the FAIM steering committee, advisory board committee, honorary chairs, the scientific committee members, and manuscript reviewers for their significant efforts, continuous support, sharing their expertise, and conducting manuscript reviews.Manuscript reviewers came from various locations around the world, performing 1339 reviews in total. With such effort and toughness, the high standards of the papers included in the FAIM program have been kept.
- Improvement in external logistics of an automotive component manufacturing company towards costs reductionPublication . Machado, Ana Beatriz; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Sá, José Carlos; Barreiras, Alcinda; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Pereira, Maria Teresa; Santos, GilbertoThis work was developed in a company that produces components, such as, Bowden cables and comfort systems for the automobile industry. The company's external logistics department was the place where the work was carried out. The constant need of urgent shippings in the company in order to comply with the delivery scheduled with its customers, leads the organization to have an unnecessary cost. This case study is no exception, and this type of costs represents about 33% of total transport costs, revealing a major negative economic impact for the company. For the analysis of urgent transport some quality tools were used to determine the root causes of the identified problem (high cost with urgent transport). The use of these quality tools, namely brainstorming, Ishikawa's diagram and Five Whys, allowed for greater involvement by employees from different areas. Thus, it was possible to share knowledge and, consequently, a more reliable analysis and identification of possible root-causes of the problem, as well as, the implementation of actions to eliminate them. With the implementation of the improvement actions, the urgent shipping costs were reduced by about 68%.
- The Importance of Subcontracting and Its Relationship With Lean Philosophy in Automotive IndustryPublication . Sá, Sara; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Sá, José Carlos; Pereira, Maria Teresa Ribeiro; Santos, GilbertoThe automotive industry represents one of the largest economic sectors in the world and most companies in this industry involve subcontracting in their strategy. However, subcontracting is one of the possible processes that can lead to inefficiencies for companies. Since lean arises as a response to the most varied problems of companies, the main goal of this work is to understand the importance of subcontracting in the automotive sector and to understand how lean and subcontracting are related. For this, an empirical study of papers and books related to these topics was performed, concluding that subcontracting is frequently used in the automotive sector, to obtain strategic advantages, and that it supports the foundations of the lean concept, as well as the lean can help manage subcontracting. The trade-off of the transfer of activities enables organizations to be flexible, lean and agile; they can then focus on their core activities, which generate more value, while the option to subcontract generates a significant reduction in costs by transferring non-core activities. In short, these two concepts are related to each other in the context of the automotive industry.
- A Rapid Improvement Process through “Quick-Win” Lean Tools: A Case StudyPublication . Rodrigues, Jorge; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, Francisco; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Jimenez, Genett; Santos, GilbertoThe main purpose of this paper was to introduce procedural changes based on a type of human resources management tool using Lean Leadership (LL). We sought to determine which Lean Tools (LTs) are able to promote a rapid impact on a company; namely, we aimed to determine which LTs are able to facilitate fast and positive results for companies after their implementation, thus allowing for quick wins. This study was conducted at a medium-sized Portuguese company in the metalworking sector. Results were assessed from two surveys (involving 17 people) regarding perceptions of employee awareness in the machining area for Quality, Maintenance/Equipment, Process/Products, Leadership/Management by Objectives, and Trust and Training. The surveys were conducted at the beginning of the study and at the end of a quarterly period. LTs were used over a period of three months, thus enabling changes to the company’s manufacturing processes which could lead to improved organization, orientation, consistency and viability. Three months were considered an adequate time period to measure whether the tools were effective in the production of quick wins or not. LL allowed for greater awareness of the importance of LTs, the most important feature of which is the aggregation of all of the employees’ energies, which culminates in better operational efficiency and an increase in the employees’ overall positive perceptions of their company’s principles and mindset. The introduction of LL, as well as the implementation of 10 LTs, which are considered to be Quick-Win Tools, enabled employees to improve their perceptions of their company by 6.1%. Lean tools can be implemented quickly and are easily understood by their intended users. These benefits provide additional motivation for their use and for the achievement of highly satisfactory operating results across production areas. This study aims to identify which lean tools allow companies to obtain benefits/gains quickly. This outcome is the main contribution of this study to the scientific community and to companies. A Quick Win means a rapid improvement in a short period of time. As such, lean tools that provide Quick Wins also contribute to economic development. Due to the restricted time period imposed by the main purpose of this study, statistical analysis of the results was unfeasible
- The three pillars of sustainability and agile project management: How do they influence each otherPublication . Silva, Francisco J. G.; Kirytopoulos, Konstantinos; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Sá, José Carlos; Santos, Gilberto; Cancela Nogueira, Maria CarolinaCompanies face new challenges needing to find ways to stand out from the competitors. All companies face new projects, which need to be managed assertively and faster, launching new products on the market ahead of competitors. This strategy requires enormous dexterity and agility within teams, which are increasingly multifaceted, multidisciplinary, and multifunctional. However, teams need to conciliate apparent freedom for creation with the sustainability rules, which are increasingly demanding, such as legislation and image that companies want to pass on to the market in terms of corporate social responsibility, ensuring a sustainable development of the companies. The goal of this work is to investigate and correlate agile project management and sustainability, taking into account that there are strong relationships, as well as to learn how agile project management affects organization's social, environmental, and economical dynamics from the triple bottom line standpoint. The research examines how agile project management ideas are connected to the triple bottom line concepts based on the literature. The framework was based on the theoretical assumptions underpinning the present research. The basic structure of the developed framework is based on the framework of a matrix-based method for ordering and synthesizing data. Thus, network diagrams have been developed reproducing the links existing in the literature, both explicitly and implicitly. However, they were deeply expanded considering links not previously referred in the literature. An explanation about these new links is also provided, justifying their inclusion. Hence, the new diagrams offer a more complete landscape about how the adoption of agile practices in project management can improve sustainability in its different aspects, and vice-versa. The findings reveal that implementing agile project management induces direct effects on an organization's social, economic, and environmental dynamics of the companies, as well as in their teams, with a favorable effect on all of them
- Combining lean and green practices to achieve a superior performance: The contribution for a sustainable development and competitiveness—An empirical study on the Portuguese contextPublication . Teixeira, Pedro; Coelho, Arnaldo; Fontoura, Pedro; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Santos, Gilberto; Pinto Ferreira, LuísThis research assesses the lean and green (LG) practices' impact on the competitive advantage (CA) of organizations, through sustainable performance, considering lean maturity as the moderator. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a cross-sectional sample of 261 companies operating in Portugal. Hypotheses are tested through structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis to examine the lean maturity moderating role. Results demonstrate a positive impact of LG practices on sustainable development and that their three dimensions of CA, with lean maturity boosting most relationships. This research highlights the impact of LG practices on organization's competitiveness and helps them underpin the importance these practices when comes to enhance their sustainable performance and their CA with help of environmental policy and also stakeholder engagement. Future studies should address these relationships upon a specific dimension, namely the correlation between environmental performance and CA, as it was not dealt in this study.
- New conceptual model of Reverse Logistics of a worldwide Fashion CompanyPublication . Pereira, Maria Teresa Ribeiro; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, F.J.G.This paper focuses on the logistics activity of the Outlet Retail industry of accessories and clothing items produced by a Portuguese fashion company, operated by an also Portuguese Third-Party Logistics providers (3PL). The main goal of this study is to address and analyze the current business and process model used by the Portuguese 3PL, to compare it with other existing models within the state-of-art, and to design a new conceptual model for 3PL’s reverse logistics activities in the Clothing and Fashion Industry. The second main goal is to identify improvement opportunities, while observing and mapping logistic activities, in order to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve the quality of the service. The analysis was supported by Lean and Supply Chain methodologies and by appropriate tools like the Value Stream Mapping (VSM). VSM contributed to map the business processes in a structured and systematic way and provided a wide perception of the value chain to identify the waste that could be reduced. The data used to feed the VSM was collected by cycle time measurements and also data analytics. After the analysis, a new Value Stream Proposal was presented for that business model, as well as the gains achieved by the execution of technologic and lean-based improvement actions. Finally, this paper presents a Conceptual Business Model for 3PL’s Reverse Logistics in the Clothing and Fashion Industry.
- Analysis and improvement in the Electrical Discharge Machining process used on the manufacturing of moulds for plastics injection mouldingPublication . Costa, A; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Silva, F. J. G.; Sá, José Carlos; Pereira, Teresa; Ávila, PauloDue to increasing competitiveness in the industry, companies will invariably adopt strategies to ensure that their employees continuously eliminate waste and create more value. This concept was applied at a company that designs, develops, and manufactures steel moulds for the injection of thermoplastics, with the purpose of implementing Lean thinking in the production sector, thus achieving the following objectives: organization of production; preparation of documents to support production, and standardization of graphite stock. Regarding the application of the 5S tool, an improvement in worker safety, and in cleaning was observed, which also led to a reduction in the time wasted when locating tools. Through the implementation of 5S auditing, enabling to verify an overall improvement, from a rating of 35% in the first audit to 85% in the subsequent audit. The tools implemented allowed for improvements in communication between sectors, leading to increased productivity and productive autonomy. Finally, graphite stock was standardized by means of Kanban.