Inventory management of redundant components in a highly automated environment - A case study at a manufacturing company

Abstract

SKF is a leading manufacturer of bearings, seals, lubrication systems, and condition monitoring systems. Since its beginning in 1907, the company has grown steadily, and now it serves clients in over 130 countries worldwide. The paper looks into a part of one factory in Sweden that has taken significant steps in the previous decade to become more data-driven and hence more automated. Following that, new issues within the factory arise. The objective of this research is to examine the management of redundant components in the studied area. The studied area acts, among other things, as a warehouse for these redundant components. Following the identification of common issues and bottlenecks, the goal is to determine what problems could be mitigated and how this could occur in order to improve the efficiency of the currently non-automated flow of redundant components, in the highly automated factory. The study was performed using both primary and secondary data. The primary data was mainly gathered using a qualitative approach, by conducting interviews. The secondary data is primarily displayed in the literature review and case description. The study indicates that there are many issues in the studied area of the factory, where some issues are more consistent among the respondents than others. These issues can in one way or another be connected to each other. Therefore, the suggestion for SKF would be to understand the connections and base their future decisions on them. The main findings imply that limiting the number of items in the studied area is the first countermeasure, which can be done by utilizing a technology or a formula that determines which components that in fact are redundant. In the future, the goal would be to decide whether a component is redundant or not even before it is transported to the studied area.